Engaged Couples need more than just Videos to Watch
Joe and Brenda:
“We were surprised with the amount of required work! I’m almost 30 and my wife to be is in her late 20’s. After working all day, and planning our wedding, I would say in total we have spent at least 30 hours working on this. Come on! This is 2013! This just seems a bit old school! Like us, most people already live together. Other religions just sit down with the couple getting married and have a chat. This took up a lot of our time!”
At the same time, this is what a general ad for magazines claims:
Media continues to proliferate. Attention span continues to shrink.
Why then are 93% of Americans adults still so attached to magazines?
Why do so many people, young and old, spend so much time with a medium that’s paper and ink, a medium you actually have to pay for in order to read?
In a word, engagement (emphasis added).
Among all media – digital or analog – magazine readers are least likely to engage in another activity while reading.
Joe and Brenda:
They continue: “Still, there are many positives to this course too. We appreciated learning more about one another and the faith we share.
It provided us with a stronger background in regards to information about us as a couple and we really got to know each other on a deeper level.”
This is what happens at CatholicMarriagePrep.com!
Engaged couples have to ENGAGE and bring their full attention to their work, their partner, their future marriage.
Yes, it would be much easier to let them watch videos that do not ‘engage’ them.
We used to say that “an image is worth a thousand words.” I believe this was true before we got bombarded all day long by millions of images, TV, the Internet, smart phones, tablets, billboards, and so on. But now our brains are overcrowded with images that don’t stick anymore.
Also, if knowledge was enough to prepare for a life-long marriage, we could just give the couples the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read, and then quiz them.
But this is not the goal! Our job is to give these couples deep foundations for a truly happy and holy life-long marriage. We want to offer them an opportunity to have deep discussions to know each other in depth, to start building a great intimacy. We also want to give them the opportunity to encounter Christ who will be committing with them in the Sacrament! We want them to participate in the building of the culture of life.
What are they going to transmit to their children? They are the future of the Church, the future of the world! We cannot cheat them with videos that do not engage them and leave them in our culture’s passiveness. The goal is not to “please” them! The goal is to wake them up, to make of them “the salt of the earth and the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:13-16)
With marriage prep, they are offered a window for conversion, and that may never happen again.
We cannot waste the chance that’s offered to them.
I believe we’ll have to report to God on how we did with these engaged couples.
Click here for more: New Strategies for Preparing Couples to Live Happy and Holy Marriages.
Visit Agapè Catholic Ministries‘ to register for the Catholic Marriage Prep course. To learn more about the course, please visit https://www.catholicmarriageprep.com/course-info/courses-info
