Marriage Resources
Theology of Marriage
The Obedience Paradox: Finding True Freedom in Marriage
By: Mary Stanford
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Few concepts in Christianity are more misunderstood than obedience. Words like submissive, subject, and obedient can appear utterly incompatible with the fundamental equality that Jesus offers to us in baptism. Yet headship and obedience within marriage has been preached authoritatively throughout the Church’s history.
When properly understood and lived out, obedience is, in fact, liberating. The Obedience Paradox illuminates the subject by examining the relationship between husband and wife in marriage as an image of Christ’s relationship to the Church. Presenting the sexual complementarity of husband and wife as an expression of gift, this book probes the meaning and power of receptivity in a relationship.
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While a marriage certainly involves mutual giving and receiving, a husband most authentically lives headship when he acts as a generous giver towards his wife. Correspondingly, a wife practices authentic obedience when she graciously receives of her husband’s self-gift. Understanding obedience as the free reception of a gift unveils its unique potential to make us more free and to bring about deeper spiritual union between persons, both human and divine.
By: Archbishop Fulton Sheen
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One of the greatest and best-loved spokesmen for the Faith here sets out the Church’s beautiful understanding of marriage in his trademark clear and entertaining style. Frankly and charitably, Sheen presents the causes of and solutions to common marital crises, and tells touching real-life stories of people whose lives were transformed through marriage. He emphasizes that our Blessed Lord is at the center of every successful and loving marriage. This is a perfect gift for engaged couples, or for married people as a fruitful occasion for self-examination.
The Temperament God Gave Your Spouse
By: Art & Laraine Bennett
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So often we wish we could make our spouses different (because they’re not just like us); yet the Bennetts show that true marital contentment lies not in changing the way God made our loved ones, but in appreciating it -- and helping them to perfect it. Read The Temperament God Gave Your Spouse and discover a new world of understanding and respect for the person you married.
By Love Refined: Letters to a Young Bride
By: Alice von Hildebrand
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Because of human imperfections, difficulties crop up in marriage, even between people who love each other deeply. You'll soon find that for this reason, although love is a gift, it must also be learned.
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So begins this remarkable book of letters to Julie, a young bride letters that reveal the beauty and importance of high ideals in marriage while teaching you practical tips to help you live up to those ideals daily.
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This remarkable book will show you how to start weaving love into the tapestry of your marriage today, as it leads you more deeply into the joys of love.
Practical Help
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For more than 50 years, Worldwide Marriage Encounter has helped over 3.5 million couples in almost 100 countries unlock the power of their relationships with new ways to do the “I do.” The Marriage Encounter experience helps you listen, share, and connect more deeply. There’s no group discussion. It’s just about the two of you learning to be the best, most loving and thriving couple you can be.
Nine in ten couples who attend a Marriage Encounter recognize a long-lasting positive effect on their lives.
By: David Clayton, Deirdre Folley, Leila Lawler
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With simplicity and holy wisdom, authors David Clayton and Leila Marie Lawler show you how to bring peace to your home by integrating your family into the calm, truly joyful way of Mother Church. Her feasts and seasons, prayers and devotions are gifts that draw us closer to God and unfold before us His marvelous plan of salvation.
To help you live the liturgical life of the Church more fully, David and Leila reclaim here an almost lost tradition that families used for centuries to build a beautiful bridge between home and church: the little oratory.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
By: John Gottman
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Straightforward in its approach, yet profound in its effect, the principles outlined in this book teach partners new and startling strategies for making their marriage work. Dr. Gottman has scientifically analyzed the habits of married couples and established a method of correcting the behavior that puts thousands of marriages on the rocks. He helps couples focus on each other, on paying attention to the small day-to-day moments that, strung together, make up the heart and soul of any relationship.
A Short Guide to Praying as a Family
By: The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia
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Praying together not only enriches family life but also leads the Catholic family toward its primary goal: the holiness and salvation of each member. This wonderful book provides a simple and easy-to-implement plan for family prayer. Arranged successively according to the basic stages of prayer, A Short Guide to Praying as a Family allows each family to progress step by step from one level of prayer to the next. Beautiful stained-glass images invite you to enter the mystery of each prayer and give glory to God as a family.
Natural Family Planning
Creighton Model Fertility Care
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The Sinner’s Guide to Natural Family Planning
By: Simcha Fisher
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The Sinner’s Guide to NFP helps you with:
NFP and Your Spiritual Life
NFP and the Rest of the World
NFP in the Trenches
The next time you ask yourself, “If NFP is wonderful, why am I so miserable?” - don’t panic. The Sinner’s Guide to Natural Family Planning is here to help.
Helps in Difficult Times
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Catholic Therapists maintains a list of counselors who understand Catholic teaching on the permanence of marriage and can help couples work toward saving their marriage.
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Retrouvaille offers tools needed to rediscover a loving marriage. Couples with slight problems, to those in dire need have found this to be the solution to their marriage issues. The program begins with a Weekend Experience that is followed by a series of follow-up sessions to help keep marriages on track and further develop the tools learned during the weekend program.
Salt and Light: The Spiritual Journey of Élisabeth and Félix Leseur
By: Bernadette Chovelon
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Élisabeth and Félix Leseur began their life together in France as a carefree young couple with a bright future ahead of them. They were beautifully and compatibly matched, except for one major difference—Élisabeth was a devout Catholic, and Félix was a firmly decided atheist. As they faced the seasons of life together, their relationship was tested, and both were called to deep spiritual transformation.
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Out of love for her husband, Élisabeth spent her life offering her many sufferings for the sake of his conversion. After her death, and in response to the profound love he encountered in her writings, Félix converted and offered the rest of his life to God as a Dominican priest.
After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman’s Companion to Healing and Hope
By: Louise Perrota Karen Edmisten
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After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope is a book about grief, healing, and hope after miscarriage. Not afraid to examine the raw emotions that accompany such an experience, the author tells women that they are not alone in reacting strongly, even frighteningly, to their loss and reassures them that hope and healing will come. Having experienced multiple miscarriages herself, Karen shares excerpts from her personal journals, as well as other women's stories, rich quotes about grieving and the healing process, and practical advice. A helpful resource section includes a wide variety of information from both Catholic and secular sources.
The Infertility Companion for Catholics
By: Carmen Santamaria and Angelique Ruhi-Lopez
One in every six United States couples experiences infertility but Catholic couples face additional confusion, worry, and frustration as they explore the medical options available to them. Filling a major void in Catholic resources, The Infertility Companion for Catholics is the first book to address not only the medical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of infertility, but also the particular needs of Catholic couples who desire to understand and follow Church teaching on the use of assisted reproductive technology.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Relics
Ministry founded by mothers of children on earth, and of little saints in Heaven; married women longing for children, and single women with hearts that long to serve others. All bonded together by their beautiful patron, St. Gianna Beretta Molla. You can enroll yourself or others to receive a third class relic of St. Gianna Molla along with a prayer card.