The Catholic Engaged Encounter

The Catholic Church (in this and surrounding areas) requires couples to attend a "Catholic Engaged Encounter" prior to being married in the Catholic Church. This is essentially a weekend you spend with other couples preparing for a lifelong union together. You will learn about the institution of marriage, the way the Catholic Church views a marriage, and the Catholic values of matrimony. This typically is a few hours Friday night, all day Saturday, and much of the day on Sunday.

Your first notion about this may be that it is a weekend full of praying, reading the Bible, learning about religion, and so on. Having just completed one of these with my fiancé, here’s my overview of the experience:

Opinion ---------------

Our first thought was “Oh great, we have to spend 2½ days learning to pray and reading the bible, Sunday School revisited.”

This is not a weekend you spend learning about or studying religion. Important points and traditions of a Catholic Marriage are covered, but the real focus is on experiencing, dealing-with, and improving your marriage in this day and age. There is no push towards being more religious, going to Church more often, or anything of that nature. You can pretty much discuss religion as much or as little as you want to. There is also no stereotyping going on, every person, and every couple is different and unique, and that's emphasized quite well. The weekends are facilitated by married couples who share experiences, both good and bad, about being married in general. There is also a Priest present who gives the Church’s point of view and answers questions you may have about the religious aspects of wedlock. It is a very informal and comfortable environment. Although it follows a planned schedule, there’s plenty of time for the ladies to talk about “where’d you get your dress?” and “how much is xxx charging you per-plate to cater the reception?” and the guys can talk about whatever interests they have. We all have married friends, but no one ever really stands up and tells you about something very personal that was really bad (or really good) that happened to them and how they dealt with it. You’ll hear a lot of these at your weekend. It can be a real eye-opener, and you will learn much about a Catholic Marriage, relevant to today’s time. Like anything else, you'll probably dismiss or forget portions of the weekend, but you'll also go away with certain points that you can look back on and use in your [hopefully] long relationship together.

Joseph & Deborah Chicago

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"LOVE WASN'T PUT IN OUR HEARTS TO STAY, LOVE ISN'T LOVE TIL YOU GIVE IT AWAY."

If you’d like more information you can call 775-358-5977 or (( 775-324-LOVE (775-324-5683) ))

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