Witness to Love , livre ebook

TAN Books - Rose Verret Mary

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

79 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Extraordinary marriages don't just happen. They flow from grace-filled, faithful, and fruitful covenants of love. Every marriage, and even preparation for marriage, has its ups and downs. In a world and culture that seems to isolate and criticize, authors Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret proclaim: you are not alone! In these pages the Verrets offer the married and soon-to-be married a program for profound and transformative discipleship. Witness to Love gives married couples the tools and encouragement to share the grace, struggles, joys, and blessings of their marriage with young couples in desperate need of mentors. In Witness to Love, the Verrets issue a challenge to us all. Share your lives, share your heart, share your love. Make disciples!

Sujets

Dating

Catholic Church

Informations

Publié par	TAN Books
Date de parution	01 août 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781618907240
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0400€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Witness to Love
Praise for Witness to Love
There is a gaping hole at the heart of marriage and family today. Mary-Rose and Ryan Verret offer not just a soothing and healing balm but a transformational one.
—K ATHRYN J EAN L OPEZ, E DITOR-AT- L ARGE, N ATIONAL R EVIEW O NLINE
Marriage mentors are needed today more than ever. Nobody likes to hear the staggering percentages of failed marriages. You can make a difference. You can help save marriages. If you don’t believe me, read Witness to Love.
—F ATHER J OHN P AUL M ARY Z ELLER, MFVA , F RANCISCAN M ISSIONARIES OF THE E TERNAL W ORD, I RONDALE, A LABAMA
Witness to Love by Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret takes a huge step forward in personalizing marriage mentorship for young couples. . . . I am grateful to the Verrets for providing a much-needed framework for a critically important area in today’s Church.
—L ISA M . H ENDELY, F OUNDER OF CatholicMom.com AND AUTHOR OF T HE G RACE OF Y ES ( A VE M ARIA P RESS, 2014)
In this groundbreaking book, the Verrets share hard-won insights with those who . . . are willing to consider becoming a source of light and comfort to couples considering marriage . . . This book will help you get started as a mentor couple, as a couple who is willing to share as Saint Peter tells us, the “reason for our hope.”
—A RT AND L ARAINE B ENNETT, A UTHORS OF T HE T EMPERAMENT G OD G AVE Y OU ( S OPHIA I NSTITUTE P RESS, 2005), A Y EAR OF G RACE ( O UR S UNDAY V ISITOR, 2014), AND T HE EMOTIONS G OD G AVE Y OU ( W ORD A MONG U S P RESS, 2011)
Witness to Love
How to Help the Next Generation Build Marriages That Survive and Thrive
Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret

Charlotte, North Carolina
Copyright © 2015 Ryan and Mary-Rose Verret.
All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts used in articles and critical review, no part of this work may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in any form whatsoever, printed or electronic, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Excerpts from the English translation of the Roman Missal © 2010, International Committee on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.
All items in bulleted list format throughout this book are from the Witness to Love Training Manual unless stated otherwise. All resources used from the Witness to Love: Marriage Prep Renewal Ministry Training Manual are under copyright by the authors. Any questions regarding the referencing of this material must be directed to the authors and must be referred to as “Witness to Love Training Materials.” All discussion questions, reflections, and suggestions in bulleted list format must receive written permission from the authors to be reproduced.
Excerpts from the English translation of Rite of Marriage are copyright © 1969, International Commission on English in the Liturgy. All rights reserved. Individuals who wish to reproduce text from Rite of Marriage for their own use (including reproduction in wedding programs) must follow the ICEL copyright permission procedures, which may be found at www.icelweb.org .—See more at: http://catholicweddinghelp.com/topics/text-nuptial-blessing.htm#sthash.xdsvmsYO.dpuf .
Cover design by Caroline Kiser
Cover image: Gold wedding rings . Jalcaraz/Shutterstock
eBook Edition: 978-1-61890-724-0
ISBN: 978-1-618-90698-4
Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress.
Published in the United States by Saint Benedict Press, LLC
PO Box 410487
Charlotte, NC 28241
www.saintbenedictpress.com Printed and bound in the United States of America. -->
This book is lovingly dedicated to all the dear friends who have shared their witness and marriages with us. We will also treasure and hold dear the stories of your lives that produced so many moments of laughter and redeeming tears!
To Saint Pope John Paul II, thank you for your love, wisdom, and pastoral guidance during the most formative years of our lives. Even beyond your passing, you continue to remind us that we are loved unconditionally by our Father. We love you!
To Saint Joseph, you have always been a dear friend of our family. Thank you.
To Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, we thank you for the sacrificial witness to love that you lived out every day of your married lives. You are an enduring model of the marital charity!
To all the priests and consecrated men and women whom we call friends. We have learned so much from you through your generosity, joy, and commitment to Christ and His Church. Your personal witness to love is an essential nuptial sign in the world, directing us all to the ultimate wedding feast of the Lamb!
Contents
Foreword
Introduction: If Love Is Not Revealed to Them
1. A State of Disunion: The Divorce Effect
2. Do You Have What It Takes?
3. Who Has Time for Mentoring?
4. The Mentorless Generation’s Need for Solidarity
5. Saying “I Do” Each Day: The Heart of Our Marriage
6. Inside a Mentor Couple’s Heart: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Marriage
7. Mentoring the “Unmarried”
8. After “I Do”: Continuing the Mentorship
9. True Tales of Happily Ever After
10. The Shared Fruits of the Mentor Model
11. A Special Vocation: Saving Troubled Marriages
12. Marriage: A Glimpse of Heaven
A Note to Clergy
Notes
Bibliography
Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Foreword
W ALT Disney once said: “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible!” Imagine if we could convince you that you had an essential role in fighting the divorce statistics. Imagine if you could help reverse the divorce statistics by preparing young couples for marriages that will stand the test of time. We know this may sound as “long ago” and “far, far away” as the fairy tales filled with beautiful impossibilities and romantic dreams that our five-year-old daughter loves to hear. Who today really believes that they can live happily ever after, especially with a member of the opposite sex? We do!
This book will help you prepare young engaged couples for marriage by providing them with a firm foundation to begin their marriage and offering enduring support as they walk forward those crucial first years. Despite our overconnected world, young couples are increasingly unaware of how to discern commitment and how to strengthen and protect their future marriages.
How do you encourage cohabitating couples to discern marriage? How can you help break the cycle of divorce? You can do this simply by sharing the good in your marriage with young couples. Let them learn from your mistakes, struggles, discoveries, and triumphs. Share with them your real life, and show them the love you have for one another.
You may be thinking, “Our marriage isn’t perfect. How can we do this?” Well, our marriage isn’t perfect, and that is the point.
It is through sharing imperfections that our love grows and our appreciation for God’s original plan for marriage deepens. If you wait until you are perfect to share your lives, you will miss out, and so will the young couples whom God has put in your lives. This book is dedicated to the couples who have touched our marriage with insights from their own. Our hearts are full of awe and appreciation for them.
It is with gratitude for their candor, humility, determination, and self-sacrifice that we, too, would like to share stories of those who are true witnesses to love. We hope to inspire you to share your marriage, imperfect though it may be, with those who do not understand how to live out the Sacrament of Marriage. If God found you worthy enough to be married, then you are qualified to be a witness! A lamp is not meant to be put under a bushel basket, so let your marriage shine before all so that they can see the good works that God is doing in our world today (see Matthew 5:15)!
Married couples who share their witness are on the front lines battling the critical problem in the world today: splintered and broken families. You do not need perfect couples to change the world. Rather, the world needs married couples who are committed to each other, to their families, and to God. Through your example, young couples will learn about God, His love for them, and His desire for their future.
In our experience, couples are not attracted to the appearance of perfection but are drawn to making their marriage more stable in an ever-changing world. A stable marriage is one that has the luster of a sacrament, the uplifting example of self-sacrifice, the joy of mutual dedication, and the ability to forgive. Perfection is not required to be a witness to the love of God and to the beauty of His sacraments. Simply strive to live and to love in conformity with God’s desire for your marriage, and you will change the world.
Introduction: If Love Is Not Revealed to Them

Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. 1
—St. Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis
I cannot remember why I (Mary-Rose) first asked this question of an engaged couple back in 2008. I do not remember the couple’s name or even what they looked like, but I do remember their response, which shocked me and is the reason for this book.
Each week, I would have a one-time meeting with an engaged couple to discuss their “premarital inventory” (the results of a long list of questions that couples often need to answer and discuss prior to their wedding). It was often a challenging meeting, and to keep things moving, I would use a few ice-breaker questions if a couple was simply giving yes-or-no answers.
One day, when meeting with a newly engaged couple, I was struck by their unhealthy isolation from friends and family. They lived in their own world, preventing them from welcoming input from others. In their isolated world, there were no markers against which they could measure the impossible height o