His Love is Made Perfect in Us
I want to marry you, but what if we fall out of love in future?
What should I do to fall in love all over again?
Less than 1% of couples who practise this ever get divorced.
What is it that they do?How deeply do I know my partner or myself?
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Part 1 – Let’s Look at Marriage
- A yearning for great marriages
- What influences our personal view of marriage
- Ways of looking at love
Sometimes I ponder on the things I would hold dear at the end of the day, the end of our lives together.
Part 2 – Ways to Communicate Love
- The intimate art of communication
- Listening for love
- Challenges in communication
The aim of communication is to grow in understanding of each other and ourselves, enabling us to grow in intimacy together. We cannot love deeply what we do not know.
Learning about each other never stops…
Part 3 – God’s Plan for Marriage
- Scriptural blueprint & introduction to Sacraments
- Sacrament of Matrimony
- The covenant of marriage
- Marriage as a vocation
What is the purpose of marriage?
We witness unhappy broken marriages, and yet there is a light at the other end of the spectrum- Beautiful, happy fulfilled marriages. We can make a choice.
- The gift of intimacy
- Sexual honesty in marriage
- Be fruitful, multiply
Is it possible to experience complete joy on earth?
Major areas of conflict
- Religious belief
- In-laws
- Finance and Money matters
- Career and family
- Sex
What is the measure of a person?
Money, a good job? Wealth, popularity, influence or intellect? Our possessions, status, being right, our pride or not losing face?
To experience Joy, ultimately it is simply our capacity to love.
Whilst the programme adopts universal lessons and principles concerning marriage and family life, it is anchored by Catholic values that ultimately manifest God’s plan for marriage and how the two spouses, in living out this blessed vocation, can have a lasting and fulfilling relationship.
Like the generic aspects of this programme, the richness of the Catholic Christian theology of marriage can only be proposed, not coerced, for adoption.
Course Outcome:
You will be able to understand and apply the principles of good marriage for the purpose of growing and sustaining a happy and fruitful marriage and family life.
Course Outline:
Marriage and its Influences
Dynamics of Love and Communication
Relationship management
Marriage: God’s plan and Sacrament
Sexuality and Intimacy
Practical Realities of Married Life
The 7 Key Pedagogical Pillars:
1) Comprehensive
Engaged Couples (ECs) attend 6 sessions that cover a wide range of relevant topics from communication to sexuality to family life. These half-day sessions are progressively structured and paced over 6 weeks to facilitate better assimilation and application.
2) Realistic
Of the 6 sessions, 3 are conducted in small groups at the home of assigned Presenting Couples (PCs), where the lessons are delivered and discussed in a familial setting. Again, the purpose is to facilitate a more effective learning outcome (for the same reason that a medical student learns better in a hospital ward than in a classroom).
3) Authentic
Presenting Couples share their real, personal experiences to illustrate and underscore important points. Real stories make memorable and lifelong lessons.
4) Deep
Workbook contents are also designed to challenge Engaged Couples to ask difficult but necessary questions of themselves and their future spouse. This process of self and couple discovery through a powerful, collaborative journey of honesty often reinforces the relationship, establishes a strong foundation and minimises potential flashpoints.
5) Dynamic
No textbook or course can offer all the answers for a good marriage, simply because life itself is dynamic. That’s where peer learning kicks in. A key feature in MPC is a structured process where couples share their learning points with each other (without going into personal details). The most common marital challenges often draw out the most unique solutions; and the most complex issues can have the simplest answers. The scope that couples actually learn from each other is as dynamic as the diversity of the group.
6) Current
To ensure that it remains relevant, the course contents and discussion points are updated periodically to evolve with the times. But the core values that make MPC a highly effective and realistic programme for more than 30 years remain unchanged.
7) Catholic
The theology that Marriage is God’s plan for humankind, together with Catholic Christian values that help to engender a happy and lasting relationship, will be unpacked and explained. Whilst the programme adopts universal lessons and principles concerning marriage and family life, it is anchored on Catholic values that ultimately manifest God’s plan for marriage and how the two spouses, in living out this blessed vocation, can rejoice and bear fruit. Where there are non-Catholic partners, there is no obligation to believe in the Church’s teachings. However, by understanding its principles and supporting your Catholic partner, it can help to advance the purpose of a Catholic marriage, with its joys and fruits.
“…the tools MPC has equipped us with has been priceless in helping us communicate with each other better and deal with problems much more efficiently.”
Nick
How does the program work
- Intimate groups sharings facilitate learning
- 4 – 5 hour sessions over 6 weeks
- Learn from other engaged couples who are discerning/preparing for marriage
- Learn from a trained and experienced presenting couple facilitating and leading each group
- Get support
- Bond with new Engaged Couples and establish new friendships
- Now in a personal face-to-face format, with about 4-7 engaged couples in each group.