Dozen Peterborough couples start marriage course

A dozen engaged couples have started a preparation for marriage in the Catholic Church course in the Peterborough Deanery. Oliver Wessex reports.

Pope St John Paul II elegantly and beautifully described the sacrament of Holy Matrimony as an: “inexhaustible mystery of marriage and the family.”

In Peterborough, three Polish La Salette Priests, one English deacon and one Italian deacon are continuing the wonderful example of the late great Pope.

With support from the Family Life Commission, an updated and renewed marriage booklet has been published to help guide Catholic young people to their vocation in marriage. At the Parish of Saint Peter’s and All Souls, 12 engaged Catholic couples have started using this booklet in preparation for their respective big days. The hosts of the course are married deacons of the parish – Rev John Bedford with his wife Patricia and Rev Claudio Chiapinelli with his wife Joanna.

During the first session, Fr Adam Sowa MS used a new introductory for marriage preparation, enrichment, and formation. A definitive DVD on the beauty and the power of marriage, in which married Catholic couples spoke about their married life. This allowed the present engaged couples to reflect upon their lives and go on to speak about their dreams, hopes and aspirations for their coming vocations in marriage. Several more of these sessions are to follow.

A highlight of the course, will be the Saturday Smart Loving Programme. On this programme, which includes lunch, a wide range of detailed exercises will take place. All aimed at helping couples prepare for a wide range of marital responsibilities, such as: communication, household management, expectations, ways of loving, addressing the past, sacramentality, prayer, sexuality and much more.

The Smart Loving programme is an education syllabus which has grown over two decades and been refined with knowledge and understanding from relationship psychology, Catholic doctrine and The Theology of the Body, the ground-breaking work authored by one of the Church’s greatest authorities on marriage, celibacy and virginity, Pope Saint John Paul II.

The Smart Loving Saturday sessions are being used all over the Diocese of East Anglia, and Peterborough’s next session will be held on April 30 at The Sacred Heart & Saint Oswald’s Parish.

Pictured above are the couples on the Peterborough preparation for marriage course with Fr Adam Sowa.

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