Pre-Cana
Catholic, General April 17th, 2005
On Saturday, Carmel and I had the pleasure of doing pre-Cana , the Catholic marriage preparation program, together. I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’m a new Catholic, but as with most things, I was not only pleasantly surprised, but incredibly blown away. First, it was great to see so many young and mostly Catholic couples in one place. Second, the Diocese really took care of us, providing Panera coffee and bread products the whole day. This certainly made us feel at home. The main blessings, however, came from the actual programs themselves.
There were five talks, all but one of them done by successfully married couples. They included such topics as communications, decision making, family of origin, and the sacramentality of marriage. The family of origin talk, I regarded as perhaps the most useful since in many ways we do bring our family traits and habits (for better or for worse) with us to the marriage. What could seem like trivial issues to outsiders can be big in the context of our original family. My second favorite was the talk on the sacred side to marriage, especially the emphasis on praying and attending mass together. The speakers truly emphasized that God has to be an equal partner in the marriage as well as the pre-eminence of the Domestic Church.
Each talk was woven throughout with the Faith and teachings of the Church, which was extremely important to Carmel and me. I was happy that every presenter taught according to the Church, even presenting potentially unpopular positions with boldness and charity. Sadly, this may be the first time many of these engaged couples have ever heard of the Catholic positions on artificial birth control and the purposes of sexual activity. The presenters offered free books for all engaged couples. These included not only traditional wedding books, but also Humanae Vitae and NFP resources.
The day ended with a service of the blessing of engagement. It was a wonderful day and I felt that we grew as a couple and our faith grew as a couple. I often wondered how this material was impacting others at the gathering. I can’t speak for them, but it sure impacted us in a big way.
Afterwards, we ate dinner at Buca Di Beppo, a lovely Italian restaurant. It was a perfect way to cap a wonderful day.
Image from Wedding Clipart Page
April 25th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
Jonathan,
I think the Catholic church’s teachings on artificial birth control are ignored by many Catholics, but we know that those couples who follow the church’s teachings in this area are greatly blessed. In the Catholic church I see a church that remains a ‘rock’ through the ages, not changing with the tides of public opinion. Many people want an easy faith, but we know the path to heaven is not an easy one.
April 26th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Les,
You’re exactly right. I think the divorce rate for couples using Natural Family Planning is 3%. It surprises many Protestants to know that their churches used to oppose birth control too, until that is, it became socially acceptable. In this arena, like others, the Anglican Church led the way. However, we’ve seen the results of birth control like more unwanted children, not less, more abortions, not less, etc. Paul VI made some astute predictions about the acceptance of artifical birth control that were incredibly accurate. I’ll post them on the blog when I have more time.