Nurturing Your Marriage

 

Christian marriage is a promise of faithfulness in body and spirit. The promise of faithfulness does not mean a complacent "settling in," a resigned sense that now you are stuck with each other whatever you become. Rather, it’s a commitment to grow as a couple in mutual support and affection.

 

Mutual growth does not automatically happen. Of its many demands are efforts to develop the skills needed for marriage and times of renewal. For instance, good communication is neither a matter of luck nor a natural endowment. It is a skill that can be learned. When partners share goodwill, mutual trust and the desire for mutual growth, they develop the needed skills by practicing them in their life together.

 

Mutual growth demands renewal. Marriage is an open-ended commitment. No one knows where faithfulness to another will lead. The one certainty is that both partners will change as time passes. All married couples need support in order to continue to develop strong and healthy relationships. Marriage enrichment programs recognize a couple's need to get away together, to examine and renew their love.

 

We know that the grace of the sacrament of matrimony, which is the presence of Christ himself, will remain with each married couple and lead their faithful love to greater and greater fullness. The Diocesan Office of Family Outreach wants to help couples build on that grace by offering opportunities to enrich and nurture your marriages. The first of what I hope will be a number of opportunities around the diocese took place on Saturday, April 2nd. A group of 15 Juneau couples married from 5 to 41 years gathered for a day of retreat, Promises to Keep, at St. Paul’s Parish Hall. This same retreat will be repeated at Holy Name, Ketchikan, on Sunday afternoon, April 24th. Another opportunity, Partners for the Journey, is being offered in Juneau for couples married 5 years or less on Saturday, May 7th. 

 

Workshops or retreats for couples can be offered anywhere in the diocese!! The time of day and number of hours set aside can also vary according to your needs.  You may have a specific topic, such as communication, intimacy, or couple spirituality, that you would like addressed. On the other hand, you may want some retreat time with your spouse where in the context of prayer, you have time to talk about various aspects of your relationship.  

 

Again, mutual growth is essential to a faithful marital relationship. How can your Church support your marriage?  I invite you to contact your pastor or me if you would like a couple workshop or retreat in your parish. I want to hear from you what you need and when and how that need can be best met.s I’m available by phone at 907-586-2227, ext 29 or by e-mail at srmaryann@gci.net.

 

 

 

 

MARK  YOUR CALENAR NOW!!!

 

Natural Family Planning Course

 

2 Session Course:

Saturdays, September 10 and October 29, 2005

at St. Ann’s Hall, Juneau

 

These sessions will be devoted to

teaching engaged and married couples

the daily practice of the symptom-thermal method of family planning

either to avoid or achieve pregnancy.

 

Cost:  $75 per couple

includes all the materials for class and the daily practice of NFP, including textbook, thermometer, blank charts, various literature, a CD of Contraception:  Why Not?,

along with a one year membership in Couple to Couple League and

their bi-monthly continuing education newsletter.

 

Presented by

Edison and Michelle Kim from Anchorage,

a certified Teaching Couple of Natural Family Planning

through the Couple to Couple League

 

Mark your calendars now and

look for further information in the coming months.