Four years ago, my future seemed clear to me. I thought I’d spend my days living in small-town Minnesota and ministering to country parishes as their priest. I love my home state, and I love the people there very much, but God had other plans. After...
marriage prep
Five Things Children Of Divorce Want The Church To Know
Every year over a million children experience the divorce of their parents, and at least one-quarter of all young adults are children of divorce. And those numbers grow when you include people whose parents never married but later split up, or those whose parents...
5 Ways To Strengthen Your Marriage During Quarantine
This time of quarantine has been a relationship accelerator for so many couples. For Better or For Worse. Starting today, what are five things you can do to make the most of this time together? There is a five-step process that we have seen work miracles in hundreds...
10 Ways To Improve Your Relationship With Your In-Laws
A young woman who is about to enter into Holy Matrimony is often tense about establishing a good relationship with her in-laws and with her mother-in-law in particular. In some parts of the world, you live with your in-laws after marriage. But even if you don't, as is...
Why Can’t I Have A Catholic Outdoor Wedding? The 3 Requirements For Catholic Wedding Venues
What is the problem with a Catholic outdoor wedding? Believe it or not, the Catholic Church actually has some beautiful reasons as to why getting married outside the Church building is discouraged. The Church is not trying to ruin the plans for the day you have...
10 Essential Things You Need To Talk About Before Getting Married
When I read that Pope Francis said “most marriages today are invalid” I almost fell over backward. I’ve had the same hypothesis for so long! Working in family counseling, when we interview marriages in crisis and we evaluate how and why they got married, we discover...
Why You Should You Get Married In The Catholic Church?
With so many options nowadays, the humble church building can be the last place that is considered for a wedding. We asked 7 couples why they chose to get married in a Catholic Church. These answers, ranging from the comprehensive to the short-and-sweet, are honest,...
9 Things I Would Like To Have Known Before Getting Married
This past November 7th, the Solemnity of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, my wife and I celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary. Seventeen blissful years that I would not trade with any other stage in my life. Today, I can say these have been years of conjugal...
Engaged Couple’s Spiritual Checklist
When a couple gets engaged, most brides-to-be are busy creating Pinterest boards and checklists of things that need to get done before the big day. Details such as flowers, colors, napkins, and centerpieces are painstakingly agonized over. Grooms often get...