Preparing for Marriage
Some couples are put off by the idea of marriage preparation. A few think that the Church is interfering. In fact, the aim is to help you plan your own marriage and grow closer as a couple. Marriage preparation can help clarify your reasons for marrying and help you realise what kind of a commitment you are making in Christian marriage. It can provide you with an opportunity to sit together and discuss important aspects of your future, which you may not have a chance to consider in the hustle and bustle of preparing for the wedding ceremony, organising your honeymoon, and setting up your home.
By following marriage preparation carefully you can face difficult questions and work out how you are going to cope once you enter married life. This can stop problems becoming serious later on.
Discuss marriage preparation with your priest. Share with him any fears or reservations you have about marriage preparation.
Accord is the reputable agency which offers marriage preparation for engaged couples seeking marriage in the Catholic Church. It offers them the opportunity to come to a deeper understanding of Christian marriage. Details of Marriage Preparation courses running near St Joseph, St Benildus, & St Mary’s parish can be found by contacting Accord in Waterford.
Accord Waterford Office:
St. John’s Pastoral Centre, John’s Hill, Waterford.
Director/Contact: Ms Mary Hackett / Ms Mary O’Sullivan
Telephone: 051-878333
Fax: 051-843107
Email: accordwaterford@oceanfree.net
Service hours:
Monday & Tuesday 9.30 am-12.30 pm
Wednesday & Thursday 2.15-5.15 pm
Friday 9.30 am-5.30 pm
Ideally you should plan to attend a course 9 months before your wedding. This means making your booking a year before the wedding so that you will have as much choice as possible with regard to venues and dates. Courses get booked up very quickly.
Question Corner
Question: ‘My partner and I have been living together for the past two years. Surely this is the best way to get to know each other. Do we still need marriage preparation?’
Answer: Couples who live and sleep together discover a lot about each other, but it’s different from Christian marriage in one big way. The situation of living together is only temporary. If things go wrong couples can often split up; whereas, in Christian marriage, the couple make a life-long commitment to each other before their family and friends, and before God. When things go wrong the Christian married couple have made a commitment to stick together and work things out.
As you live your married life, the knowledge that you have made a permanent commitment will change your thinking on many things. You can be truly open and honest with each other, revealing your untidy and vulnerable sides, without fear that this truth will end your relationship. Facing good and bad times, you will find out new details about each other and adopt new values as you make decisions together.
This is why marriage preparation is important. It will give you a chance to think about exactly how your lives will change once you are married.