Weddingbee boards

If you're one of the rare lucky ones who gets an engaging, funny, helpful, hip couple (under, say, 60 years old) to lead their Pre-Cana group, you probably don't need to read further.

But for the rest of us, Pre Cana sessions can be deadly boring. (Maybe I'm biased and the combination of the "small group" setting and talking about "relational" things hits the snooze button in my male brain...)

Anyhow, this won't necessarily save you from the unavoidable effort of paying attention, but there's a couple of short videos just out that ease the pain. One of them sums up the essentials of what you need to know about Catholic marriage in general, and the other covers the notorious but mandatory issue of "natural family planning". Here's the thing: these videos actually keep your attention, are well-made, entertaining, pack in the necessary info, and style-wise are much more like something on The History Channel than a home movie from the early 1980s.

The one on Catholic marriage, "When Two Become One", has this hilarious and extremely articulate priest. Msgr. Jim Lisante, very "New York", who explains all the essential things about a Catholic marriage in a realistic and honest way, and shows what makes the church wedding so special. And there are four couples as well at different stages - engaged, newly weds, married with children, and a couple married over 60 years (they're really great - talk about hard-won wisdom), who talk about what it's like to actually live day to day what Lisante is talking about. It's around 25 minutes long. They have an online trailer and info: https://www.drvc-faith.org/marriageDvdOffering.html

The NFP video, "Plan Your Family Naturally", is a tougher topic that almost no one wants to talk about, but it's presented in an upbeat, non-judgmental way by this doctor and her husband, and two other real-life couples that makes even the most skeptical of us at least want to try it out. The main thing is that it explains the basics and lays everything out on the table in a way that's not preachy or naive and let's you make your own decision. Turns out there's all kinds of side-benefits, as opposed to the possible nasty side-effects of artificial hormonal contraception. And it includes all the scientific advances that make it 99% effective and have left the old "rhthym method" way behind. The info and trailer are here: https://www.drvc-faith.org/nfpDvdOffering.html

Anyhow, just wanted to pass this along. Happy marriage prepping.