Category Archives: Marriage

Lord, Heal Our Land

06 Saturday Jul 2019

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United we stand

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

As we just celebrated the 243rd birthday of our nation, our country is fraught with division and strife. We are in a cultural battle between good and evil. Our only hope is to turn to God to heal our land.

On January 22, 1999, when St. John Paul II named Our Lady of Guadalupe patron of the Americas, he asked her to intercede for peace, justice and respect:

Holy Virgin of Guadalupe, Queen of Peace! Save the nations and peoples of this continent. Teach everyone, political leaders and citizens, to live in true freedom and to act according to the requirements of justice and respect for human rights, so that peace may thus be established once and for all.[1]

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Christian Families can Change the World

30 Sunday Jun 2019

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Gomez Address_190618

On June 18, 2019, the Most Reverend José H. Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles delivered the keynote address at the annual liturgy conference hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s McGrath Institute for Church Life, speaking on the pastoral state of the family.

“Today we are looking at a future generation in which there may be far fewer children,” said Archbishop Gomez, “many young people are debating whether it is ‘ethical’ to have kids in an age of global warming. There is an even larger conversation going on among millennials about the ‘value’ of starting a family.”

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Corpus Christi: Eucharist and Marriage Intimately Linked

23 Sunday Jun 2019

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Bride Groom at Consecration_crop

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist – His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

Marshall Fightlin, seminary professor and licensed marriage and family psychologist, compares the conjugal intimacy of Christ in the Eucharist to the conjugal intimacy of the spouses in marriage.

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Faith of Our Fathers

16 Sunday Jun 2019

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shutterstock_father leading son climbing wall

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Fathers, never doubt your importance of your example in the lives of your children, especially when it comes to instilling the faith.

A significant study conducted by the Swiss government in 1994 and published in 2000 revealed some astounding facts regarding the importance of a father’s faith in the generational transmission of faith and religious values.[1]

The study concluded that “It is the religious practice of the father of the family that, above all, determines the future attendance at or absence from church of the children.”

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From Trial by Fire to Baptism by Fire

08 Saturday Jun 2019

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Holy Spirit and Fire_Lk 3 16_flipped

I (Dennis) did not come to know the love of the heavenly Father until I experienced a powerful movement of the Holy Spirit in my heart. Unfortunately, brokenness from a failed marriage was the catalyst that drove me to my knees, crying out to God for help. Like Abraham Lincoln in the midst of division in our nation, I was driven “upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” [1]

I was raised a Lutheran. Growing up, we did not pray as a family. God was a “Sunday Only” thing. I married in the Catholic Church in 1979. My wife and I attended mass irregularly during the early years of our marriage. But I lacked knowledge of the grace that God pours into a sacramental marriage. The seeds of dissension were planted in our marriage by unchaste behavior during our courtship. Mortal sin had blocked the grace that God wished to dispense into our marriage. We had opened the door to Satan in our marriage which had destructive consequences.

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The Fruits of the Holy Spirit in Marriage

01 Saturday Jun 2019

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Veni Creator Spiritus

Do you wish for more patience, gentleness and self-control in your interactions with your spouse? How about kindness, joy, or peace? All of these are fruits of the Holy Spirit and they are yours for the asking!

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, there are 12 fruits that the Holy Spirit wants to grow within us:

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: “charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self- control, chastity.” 1832

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Faith: A Force for Good in Marriage

25 Saturday May 2019

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Couple Praying Rosary Holding Hands

On May 20, 2019, the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institution issued the report The Ties That Bind: Is Faith a Global Force for Good or Ill in the Family? The goal of the study was to understand how religion is linked, on average, to four key family outcomes in 11 countries: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Canada, Colombia, France, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Drawing on data from the World Values Survey (WVS) and the Global Family and Gender Survey (GFGS), the report found that:

  • Both women and men in “highly religious” couples (i.e. regular church attendees) reported significantly greater satisfaction in their relationship compared to less religious and secular couples.
  • Women in “highly religious” relationships were about 50% more likely to report that they are “strongly satisfied” with their sexual relationship than their secular and less religious counterparts.

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The Rosary: A Prayer for Peace in the Family and the World

18 Saturday May 2019

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Rosary and Bible_01

In the Catholic Church, May is a month devoted to honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary. There are many Marian devotions, the most popular and well-known is the recitation of the Most Holy Rosary, a prayer that St. John Paul II called “a compendium of the Gospel.”

At the beginning of the third millennium, “which witnesses every day in numerous parts of the world fresh scenes of bloodshed and violence,” St. John Paul II issued Rosarium Virginis Mariae, an Apostolic Letter on the Rosary.

In this letter, he urged the faithful to pray the Rosary for peace. He said the Rosary is a “means to immerse oneself in contemplation of the mystery of Christ who ‘is our peace’, since he made ‘the two of us one, and broke down the dividing wall of hostility’ (Eph 2:14).” The Pope stressed that “one cannot recite the Rosary without feeling caught up in a clear commitment to advancing peace.”[1]

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A Word of Thanks to Women

10 Friday May 2019

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Thank You Women JPII

On this Mother’s Day weekend, we want to salute all women using the beautiful words of St. John Paul II in his letter to women.

I would now like to speak directly to every woman, to reflect with her on the problems and the prospects of what it means to be a woman in our time. In particular I wish to consider the essential issue of the dignity and rights of women, as seen in the light of the word of God.

This “dialogue” really needs to begin with a word of thanks. As I wrote in my Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, the Church “desires to give thanks to the Most Holy Trinity for the ‘mystery of woman’ and for every woman-for all that constitutes the eternal measure of her feminine dignity, for the ‘great works of God’, which throughout human history have been accomplished in and through her” (No. 31).

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Husbands and Fathers: Your Task is to Image the Heavenly Father

04 Saturday May 2019

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Childhood of Christ, Gerrit van Honthorst, c. 1620

This past week, the Church celebrated the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1). Scripture says that Joseph was a “just man” (Mt 1:19). Although Scripture records no words of Joseph, from his actions we can discern that he was a compassionate, caring man. We know Joseph loved Jesus and Mary. When the angel came to tell him that his family was in danger, he immediately left everything and fled to a strange country with his young wife and baby. He waited in Egypt without question until the angel told him it was safe to go back (Mt 2:13-15).

Upon returning from Egypt, Joseph settled his family in the obscure town of Nazareth out of fear for his life. When Jesus stayed in the Temple, we are told Joseph and Mary searched with great anxiety for three days for him (Lk 2:48). We also know that Joseph treated Jesus as his own son because over and over the people of Nazareth say of Jesus, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” (Lk 4:22).

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