Marriage Prep

Last night we had our first meeting with Deacon Ernie at Immaculate Conception Church in Dardenne. After some brief introductions where we told Deacon Ernie a little about our backgrounds, he began with a prayer and then asked us several questions. The first was "What does Catholic marriage mean to you?" After I answered, he went on to explain the theology of the church in regards to marriage, how it's a lifetime commitment, how our children should be raised with the faith, etc. The next question was "Are you living together?" to which we answered in the affirmative, and so he asked us why. Nate answered "For the rent money," which was obviously a joke, but this poor guy had no sense of humor! So I had to quickly recover that one and say that Nate was kidding...and we gave him a "serious" answer. And the final question was then "What made you decide to take the next step from living together to marriage?" I was looking at Nate expecting him to answer this one, since he ultimately made the decision, but there were no words forming, so I answered with my thoughts. And that was it, we survived the initial questioning!

The next order of business was filling out the paperwork that will be sent through the archdiocese. The form consisted of our names and address, our parents names, names of those who will be witnesses at the ceremony (best man & maid/matron of honor), religious background, baptism /confirmation dates, etc. I also had to consent to raising our children Catholic and making the church part of our family life by signing a special section of the form. The most ironic part of the form was it asked for our marriage date - and we can't get an official marriage date in the LC church until my hometown priest sees the form?! Interesting...

Our final task for the night was completing our FOCCUS evaluation. This was a test of approximately 150 questions, surrounding issues like our relationship, family, children, finances, habits and interests, etc. This isn't a computability test, but more an evaluation of the way we each feel about certain issues, and talking through our differences the evaluation points out. I felt like I was in grade school again, because we provided our answers on those sheets with the bubbles you have to fill in with #2 pencils. Everybody remember those? Our results will be scored today, and at our next meeting with Deacon Ernie we will begin communicating about those items where Nate and I answered differently. Nate and I had fun discussing our answers on the way home.

Next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 28th!