As you shared your thoughts, feelings, images and reflections on Christian tradition was there a theme or aspect that jumped out at you as being particularly important for you?
Is there a question that emerged that you wish to pursue more?
Do your reflections confirm your beliefs about marriage?
Did they challenge your beliefs in any way?
Do your reflections make you think of a particular new way of acting and/or thinking about your own marriage?
What concrete change or action will you take from these four weeks of reflection (name at least one). In your comments, feel free to share any other insights, thoughts, feelings that you had.
Just as your vows transformed you from two to one, so too did the sacrament transform your individual daily lives to a united "domestic church." Your home life has become a means of grace and holiness for both of you (and any children you may have). Your home becomes a miniature church (domestic church) where all your activities (even the mundane ones of changing the oil in the car, changing a diaper, getting your spouse coffee in the morning, etc.) are opportunities for grace.
How is your home a domestic church?
Please share your reflections with your spouse as well so that you can grow in your marriage with one another.
We Belong to Each Other
3 years ago
One thing that these last 4 weeks have done for me is to make me take time to reflect on our past. So often we get caught up in our busy lives today, and the memories and wondeful feelings that we have shared with each other begin to fade away.
ReplyDeleteWe need to cherish all of the time that we have shared with each other. Sometimes it's the memories of the past that get us through the tough times in the present.
I sincerely believe that Teresa and I have become a "Domestic Church". We are united in so many ways, and we are daily ambassadors for the sacrament of Matrimony.
One thing that I will be more conscious of as a result of these past 4 weeks is to remind myself of why I fell in love with Teresa. In addition to this I will add to my "why" list with new reasons that I fall in love with her again every day!
Peter, thank you for this opportunity to partiicipate and for being such a strong advocate for the Sarament of Marriage!
I agree with Joe - this has made us reflect on things that we may not normally take the time to do. We really enjoyed remembering some of the sentimental and funny moments in our marriage.
ReplyDeleteWe are also happy to report that we really do feel that we have a strong marriage and this has helped make it stronger.
As far as concrete actions as a result of the class, I can think of a few. To start we are going to try to attend Church more as a family and not worry about our disruptive children. :) We also talked about maybe renewing our vows around our anniversary - this time with our children present. We think it would be neat for them to see mommy and daddy "get married again" - although they are too young to understand right now. :)
Thank you for allowing us to participate and for inspiring us to look a little deeper into our marriage and relationship with God.
Joe and Christi, thanks for your comments. It has been a blessing recalling the memories of our wedding day and the vows we committed to that day.
ReplyDeleteChristi, your concrete actions are great. Renewing your vows is a wonderful opportunity to show your children your love and commitment to each other. We have an annual Jubilarian Mass in the Archdiocese of Washington for couples 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 and 50 years of marriage and we have discussed having a Mass for 5, 10, 15, 20 since these are the times (especially the 0-10 years) when divorce is most prevelant. We need to celebrate our married lives together so others can see our joy (even at Mass with kids :) and come to know that it is Christ in our lives and marriages that makes the difference.
This blog caused me to look deeper into my self and my marriage. It made me ask, what makes for a a really great married life? And the kind of love you all described showed me what a wonderful marriage looks like for others.
I resolve from this blog to not take Katie for granted. Too often I have realized that I am happy with our marriage and don't work as hard at it as I should. I need to keep working to be a better husband and father. I need to continually improve my love for Katie. How I love Katie sets the tone within our domestic church...it is our love for God and for each other that makes our family a domestic church in so many ways. It began with the wedding day and our vows, but it has only grown since that day and will continue to grow as our love grows.
I think that this has been a helpful exercise, and I have enjoyed this opportunity to reflect on our wedding and our marriage. It's been wonderful to read others' comments as well, and I feel that's been very beneficial. I think I've mentioned it before, but reflecting about how we got here takes a back seat to the demands of the moment, especially as presented by our kids!
ReplyDeleteI resolve to make more positive comments - to let Casey know that I do notice the little things he does, to demonstrate for the kids how to be kind and loving every day, and to practice love (as an action) every day, not just as a feeling.
Thanks to all of you for giving me an inside peek, as it were, of other successful and spiritual marriages!
I too have appreciated the opportunity to stop and reflect on the beginning of our marriage. The weekly questions have brought up surprisingly emotional thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThese thoughts remind me that our marriage started with just the two of us and someday our home will just be the two of us again. Life passes all too fast sometimes. I resolve to spend more time on "active" activities with my wife (get out Boggle!) and spend more time together praying as a family.
It's great to hear from others who are living their Catholic marriages.
This has been a blessed opportunity to have some built-in structure for contemplating, individually and together, this sacrament of our marriage. Through this, we have realized concretely how although we both are wanting to strengthen our marriage, it doesn't happen automatically! We have agreed to have regular "marriage meetings" with the express purpose of focusing on our love relationship.
ReplyDeleteToday, our 5 year old gathered dandelion after dandelion exclaiming, "What a lovely bouquet this will be, mamma!" She then found a few bright purple little weeds. She created an arrangement that now sits on our windowsill. This speaks to me of how ordinary and mundane events can be transformed through God's grace to be instruments of love and tenderness as we go forth on this journey together!!
Thanks to Peter and to all the couples for your insights and for the witness of your marriages to the world.
Sincerely,
Laura & Mike
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteAs we reflect on the various topics from this blog, we both agree that this experience has confirmed our beliefs about marriage. We also feel the main thing it has done for us is help us remember the connection between the promises we made and our daily lives. It was good to look at the concrete ways we are living out our promises. We were both encouraged to see how much the other strives daily to fulfill these with love.
Thank you especially to Peter and to everyone who shared their comments.
Sincerely, Maureen & Patrick
I think doing this blog was a good exercise, because it made me actively ponder some aspect of my marriage a couple times a week. That's a good habit to get into. There are exercises in "The 7 habits of highly effective marriages" by John Gottman that are also useful (though from a secular standpoint).
ReplyDeleteThe other thing I learned is that it's good to live with a sense of history about my marriage. I have found that some of the most successful people I have met (in their careers usually, but other areas too) are those who frequently draw on history to put the present in context and draw deep insights from. I think the idea of living with the memory of our "love story" could only have a beneficial effect on our current relationship.
Julie