When an engaged couple comes to us for marriage prep classes, one of the first things we do is ask them to do is to tell us their love story:
   How did you meet?
   What attracted you to one another?

We also ask them what motivates them:
   What is most important to you?
   Why do you want a Catholic wedding?

These questions might seem easy at first glance, but I think all Catholic couples could benefit from answering them. Let’s examine each one.

Picture by Joseph Ambuul 2018

Below is the incredibly touching testimonial of a young French lady who, with her fiancé, chose abstinence until their wedding.

It didn't come naturally to her, though. After high-school, she had fallen into prostitution to make ends meet. She had been raped several times and was living with her boyfriend, soon to be fiancé.
She now writes to her priest:

“Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:6.
Archbishop Chaput asked three things from the Community: do something for families, share the beauty of the liturgy and teach on the Jewish roots of our faith.

Christian and I took the first one to heart: do something for families.

When I was in high school, my family took a long weekend in Colonial Williamsburg Virginia one September. After seeing the historic sites, we spent a Monday at Bush Gardens amusement park. Since school had already started, the park was empty even though the weather was sunny and warm.  I was excited to go thrill-seeking on the roller coasters, and it was Apollo’s Chariot that was the biggest rush for me.

On your wedding day, you are asked, “Have you come here to enter into marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?” If you have, you can proceed to the exchange of consent, which is when the marriage actually takes place. This consent must be free, because as I wrote last week, no one can force you to love another person, just like God can’t force you to love him.

Nathan and I met shortly after he moved to Denver from his hometown in Idaho. I was heading up our parish’s Young Adult Softball team and we needed more guys before tournament weekend, so he and his brother-in-law signed up for our fledgling little team. Maybe it was an answer to prayer? Nathan really hit it off with some of my friends who were also on my core team for the youth group I ran, and they asked him to join our core group of Young Adults. Join he did, which was the answer to prayer #2, because we really needed some male core members for our youth group.

“Silent Night” has never been one of my favorite Christmas carols, but this year I think I’ve changed my tune. I’ve been meditating on silence this Advent, ever since I started reading “The Power of Silence” by Robert Cardinal Sarah.