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Mary Immaculate Church
2800 Valwood
Farmers Branch, TX 75234
Phone: 972-243-7104
Fax: 972-406-1254
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Family Life Ministry
Priscilla Mahaffey
972-243-7104 ext. 26
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“Living Your Marriage As A Sacrament”
Convalidation Workshop
What does the “convalidation of marriage” mean?
For various reasons, Catholics find themselves in civil marriages or married in another faith without proper dispensation. In time, some seek to have their marriages approved or “blessed” by the Catholic Church. When this can be done, the ceremony that constitutes the marriage as a true sacramental marriage in the church is called convalidation.
What is “Living Your Marriage As A Sacrament Workshop”?
It is a unique and challenging way for you, the couple seeking sacramental marriage, to discover even more about yourself and your spouse – to discuss hopes, expectations and dreams for your married life.
Topics covered include
Marriage as a Sacrament
Couple Prayer & Spirituality
Sexuality
Communication
Finances
Family of Origin
Intimacy
Compatibility
What happens during the workshop?
Concepts and skills proven useful in creating lasting, fulfilling marriages are presented. The couple is given time to examine these concepts in light of their relationship. Along with brief presentations, the emphasis is on private sharing time for each couple.
Date: Wednesday, October 13th and Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Place: Mary Immaculate Church
2800 Valwood Parkway
Farmers Branch,TX 75234
Parish Conference Room
Time: 6:30PM to 9:00PM
Fee: $50.00 per couple
To register, please fill out this FORM and return it to:
Priscilla Mahaffey
Mary Immaculate Church
2800 Valwood Parkway, Farmers Branch, TX 75234
If you have any questions, please call: 972-243-7104 Ext. 26
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PRAY N’ PLAY
A Mary Immaculate
“playgroup”for Moms with young children
Meet other Catholic moms and their children for a play- date
as well as praying the Rosary
for our families, our friends, and for our faith.
Pray and Play meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month.
The location alternates at different homes each time.
(It is not necessary to host a pray and play to be a part of the group).
For more information please call:
Joanna Chabot @ 214-505-8450
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Couple Enrichment:
WHO ME, PRAY? … WITH HER?
Down to earth questions and answers about praying as a couple
Why bother?
As you probably know, 46-48% of marriages end in divorce (even among Catholics)
But did you also know that:
- For couples who worship together each Sunday only about 20% divorce
- For couples who also regularly pray together at home marital stability is even greater.
OK, so praying together can be divorce insurance but it sounds kind of awkward to me. Sure it’s fine for priests and nuns or really holy people, but we’re just a normal married couple.
But we go to Mass on Sunday and say grace before meals. Isn’t that enough?
That’s great! Of course these prayer times are important and valuable, but they are different from couple prayer. There is a certain intimacy and vulnerability that comes from opening your heart to God in the presence of your spouse.
OK, we might give it a try, but where do we start?
There is no wrong way to pray and the desire to try is prayer in itself. First some preliminary decisions:
- Decide a time
Presumably both of you are very busy. Isn’t everyone these days? So finding an agreeable, semi-reliable time is essential. After experimenting with several times of day my husband and I agreed on first thing in the morning (about 15-20 min. before the first child is expected to awake). Since Jim is a morning person and I’m not, his job is to wake me and say it’s time.
- Decide a place
Anywhere will do, but it’s nice to have a bible or whatever reading you plan to use handy. If clutter is endemic to your home at least find a place where you can cover it or turn your back on it. Personally, I like to have a window that I can look out of and see the sky. If it’s dark, lighting a candle can be inspiring.
- Decide how often
Ideally, daily is the way to go since there is a rhythm and regularity to it. In our own marriage, however, we have made peace with a less than ideal but workable goal. We commit to weekdays since that’s more predictable than the weekends. We figure Mass takes care of Sunday. We also make exceptions for illness, being out of town, pregnancy (when almost any time felt nauseous), or unexpected interruptions like crying babies. It’s not perfect, but we feel we’re doing OK if we meet our bottom line of “doing it more often than not.” God wants our attention not our guilt.
So what do we do once we’re sitting together?
There are many ways to pray depending on your style and preferences. Here are a few:
___Memorized prayers
___Reflection on today or tomorrow
___Reading scripture
___Guided meditation (from a book)
___Writing in a journal
___Reading an inspirational book
___Rosary or devotions
___Meditation on a spiritual theme
___Liturgy of the Hours
___Your own creation _____________________
Rank the above styles from 1 to 10 and find the ways that appeal to both of you.
Hey, we’re not theologians. What do we do with the information above?
Keep it simple
After trying to be creative and experimenting with a variety of styles my husband and I found that for regular couple prayer to work for us it had to be very simple. Eventually we settled on the following format:
One Model – 5 Easy Steps
- Jim finds the scripture reading of the day (since he’s more awake than I am).
- One of us opens the prayer with a phrase like “Lord, we come before you at the start of our day.”
- One of us reads the scripture out loud.
- We sit in silence for awhile. (We may think about the scripture, the upcoming day and how we will live it out, or perhaps put some thoughts in a journal). Inevitably for me, some time is spent daydreaming. I’m not proud of this, but I would do you no favor to suggest that you fail when not fully concentrating. Sometimes I just offer up the distraction and figure I’m honoring God by the effort I made just to show up.
- At the appointed ending time, each of us makes a petition flowing from our silent prayer.
Can you simplify “simple”?
How about after the alarm goes off (before you get out of bed) hold hands and offer a prayer for a good day, help with a particular problem, or thanksgiving. Likewise, at night, after turning off the light, hold hands and offer a prayer of thanks for any thing that day.
What if my spouse just isn’t into couple prayer? (S)he is a good person and we pray individually but we just aren’t going to be able to do it together.
Don’t beat yourself up over this. Sure couple prayer is good and can bring you closer together, but God’s love is bigger than any prayer form. Pray for each other in your own way. I know two women whose husbands did not want to join them in prayer so they called each other daily at an appointed time and prayed over the phone. Strange I suppose, but do what feeds you.
How do we find the scripture of the day or other books, after all we don’t live in a church?
- To find the scriptures of the day, check the Missalette at church
- Meditation books:
- Daily Meditations (with Scripture) for Busy Couples by Dave Fortier and Patricia Robertson. ACTA Publications, 1-800-397-2282 $8.95
- Vision (or Action or Mission) 2000, Praying Scripture in a Contemporary Way by Mark Link, S.J., Tabor Publishing, Allen, TX $8.95
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The Sponsor Couple Marriage Preparation Ministry is open to couples who have been married at least 5 years and would like to share their Sacrament of Marriage with an engaged couple preparing for their vocation of Marriage. The meetings are held in the home of the sponsor couple at a time convenient for their family schedule. If you are interested in joining this Ministry, please call Priscilla, 972-243-7104, ext. 26.
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“It’s all about the Journey”
"Divorced. Catholic. Now What?”
For Women: Navigating Your Life After Divorce
Click here for Registration Form
Mary Immaculate Parish
Group Starting Date: November 1, 2009
9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Place: Church Conference Room
Facilitator: Adrienne Wlodarczyk
Return registration form to:
Priscilla Mahaffey
Mary Immaculate Parish
2800 Valwood Parkway
Farmers Branch, Tx 75234
972-243-7104 Ext. 26
pricim@maryimmaculatechurch.org
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Marriage Care is about rediscovering, revitalizing and enriching your love for each other. Whether you are married 1 year or 50 years the websites listed below gives a wealth of information on workshops, seminars and conferences.
World Wide Marriage Encounter (WWME)
A very special weekend together...
www.wwme.org
(972)-758-9600
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“FIREPROOF” is a movie about a firefighter, his wife, and a marriage worth rescuing. In reality, every marriage matters, because marriage comes from the hand of God. God brings a man and a woman together to love and support each other.
The Catholic community believes marriage happens with the help of the Lord and is a relationship that parallels the love of Christ for his people. It is a lifelong commitment to one person and a dwelling place of God’s spirit. As Caleb Holt learns in FIREPROOF, marriage is a lasting covenant.
The movie also reminds us that Christian marriage is a demanding vocation that needs the support and encouragement of the entire community. We believe that the well being of all society is closely tied to the healthy state of marriage and family life.
Visit these websites: www.foryourmarriage.org or www.fireproofmymarriage.com
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Texas Advocacy Day
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On Tuesday, March 31st over 400 Catholics from around our Lone Star State gathered in Austin to participate in the Texas Catholic Conference second Advocacy Day for Life and Families. Catholic Charities collaborated with the Diocese of Dallas and the Catholic Pro-Life Committee to send over 90 Dallas Catholics to meet with over 45 legislators and advocate for life and family issues. We had High School students, families, and members from 15 parishes among our Dallas team. Some of the issues and bills that were addressed were the Ultrasound Bills (HB 36, SB 182), Funding for Abortion Alternatives (SB 73, HB 1695), Twogether in Texas promoting fee marriage education classes (HB 480), Choose Life License Plates (HB 109, SB1098), Abolition of the Death Penalty (HB 297, 682), and Abstinence Education.
For more on this story click here or visit the Texas Catholic Conference website: www.txcatholic.org for further details and information on these bills and how you can help support not only life and family issues, but also immigration, criminal justice, and healthcare reform.
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