Some interesting comments

My husband and I are a marriage preparation couple, and help both with Pre-Cana classes and serve as a sponsor couple. We do this for the most selfish reason I can think of - it's good for our marriage! We also really enjoy meeting with all the couples. It's very energizing to be around people who are at such a happy, exciting time in their lives!

This past weekend was our week to do our presentation at Pre-Cana. I have to say that all of the couples were really very nice, quite polite during the presentations, and they all seemed to participate in the excercises and discussions. Several even came up during breaks to thank us or to chat. It was very nice. Looking through the comments they gave on the various sections though, I found some surprises.

A parish deacon and his wife usually do the talk on spirituality, but as his wife was suddenly ill, we team-taught this section this time, and I think we did a really very good job. Brian and I spent our time talking about the role of faith in our marriage and how we began praying together. One of the comments read:

"The purpose of prayer is not to ask God for things but to thank GOD!"

Hmm. Interesting. I guess Jesus got that all wrong then when he asked, "Let this cup pass from me?" Anyway.

We were aware that there were many interfaith couples, but I was still taken aback by this suggestion:

"Could you throw in some references for the Catholics who don't know what they believe?"

Oh my. Perhaps instead of references, I'll throw in a few catechisms next time.

This last one was my favorite. It's a paraphrase because it was long-ish and awkwardly worded, but I think I've captured it pretty well:

"This forces us into uncomfortable areas and made us discuss things that we were not prepared for. To my knowledge, all other religions do not require you to believe every fact of that religion to be married in that church and I do not think the catholic church should do this either. It is against my understanding of free will."

Hmm. My understanding of free will is that no one is 1) required to marry or 2) require to marry in the Catholic Church. In addition, it seems a bit strange to imagine that some volunteer marriage prep couples had any power to change church law. Still, if we forced them to discuss uncomfortable issues, then I guess we did our job!