Catholic Chicago Blog

Hosted by the Archdiocese of Chicago

Frank Hannigan

About the Blogger

Frank Hannigan is the Director of the Family Ministries Office. He and his wife Marilyn have been married thirty seven years and have five sons, a daughter in law, two grandchildren and a greyhound.

Monday, June 29, 2009

After the Wedding

Many of you will be attending weddings this summer and some of you may even be attending a PreCana to prepare for your wedding. The Family Ministries Office, which I direct, is in charge of Archdiocesan marriage preparation classes, both PreCanas and Discovery Weekend. We prepare about 5,000 couples a year for marriage.

After the wedding, when the excitement of the big day, the gifts, and the attention dies down, many couples ask, “What next?” How do you keep your marriage alive, exciting, and strong through the years so that one day you can attend another of our programs, the Golden Wedding Anniversary Mass and celebration?

One way is through marriage enrichment. We offer two First Years and Forever newly married workshops for couples in their first year of marriage (free; they were included in the PreCana fee!) as well as a monthly ENewsletter with an article written by a marriage educator or expert about topics of interest in the first years of marriage.

Another way to keep your marriage revitalized is by doing different things together. I’m looking forward to taking my wife Marilyn to the Archdiocesan Celebration of Marriage on Saturday, October 17 at the Festival of Faith, an evening of inspiration, entertainment, food, music, and dancing. Married couples of all ages are invited to join us in strengthening our marriages while having fun at the same time.

Email Print RSS

Comments

Monday, June 29, 2009 4:42 PM

Thank you Frank for your timely and edifying remarks. Speaking as a Catholic currently living the single life, I would like to offer much praise to those faithful couples in my Catholic faith who witness to Jesus every day by the examples they are of the married state in life. I really believe by observation and by personal account that those couples whose reach the wonderful milestones of many years together, have 1 thing in common, namely, that God was and still is the center of their lives; that there is a force greater than themselves... I do believe that couples who pray together tend to stay together (or at least have a much greater shot at doing so) and that couples who don't pray at all, might very well fall... is conversely true. The one thing that really sticks out is that those faithful and faith-filled husbands and wives might actually believe in "supernatural grace," a theological virtue which would fill our churches and confessionals to the brim if everyone knew what it really meant. It's a supernatural gift from God to us intellectual creatures for our earthly sanctification and eternal salvation. These Catholic couples who simply avail themselves of the Sacraments of our faith and attempt to live out an authentic married life together in charity, love and familial togetherness; sprinkled with compassion,humility,patience,forgiveness,physical intimacy and understanding of their spouse's needs--make the kind of wonderful examples and witness to the married state in life.. I thank each and every married couple at the beginning of their married life, those who have been faithful spouses to each other for years, to those widows and widowers; that their beautiful memories may console them, and for those divorced men and women; of which I am a daughter and who might have shared some good years together or maybe none at all--that we pray for their healing and wholeness! God bless everyone!!!

— Carol B.

Monday, June 29, 2009 12:08 PM

Dear Frank...
God Bless you, and all that you do for God's people... Have you by any chance seen this from the Roman Catholic Vocations site... in North Carolina...

http://romancatholicvocations.blogspot.com/2009/02/other-vocation-crisis-marriage.html

Amen

— Be P.

Recent Posts
Monday, June 10, 2013 To Teach Who Christ Is By Sr. Mary Paul McCaughey, OP
Monday, June 03, 2013 Being Loved, Sharing Love By Thomas & Christina Yep
Monday, May 27, 2013 “What Does God Require of Us?” (Micah 6:8) By Sr. Joan McGuire