A - Selecting a marriage preparation program.

Meeting with the Pastor.  (Or Associate Pastor/Deacon/Trained Lay Person)

The first contact between you and your fiance and the Pastor is likely to be on the phone.  This gives the Pastor an opportunity to clarify a number of issues (e.g., whether either of you has been married before, your age, your faith tradition, etc.).  If there is a major issue, such as, the need for a declaration of nullity of a previous marriage, the pastor can set up a face to face meeting.

If there are no major issues that need to be addressed, the pastor will set up a meeting to go over necessary paper work and your options for one or more marriage preparation programs and usually information about Natural Family Planning.  During this conversation about options for marriage preparation, you should be free to ask if you could make use of For Better & For Ever ® because you heard it is a highly recommended marriage preparation program that includes meetings with a trained Sponsor Couple and follow-up with them into the early years of your marraige.  If the Pastor is not already familiar with For Better & For Ever ®, he may be impressed that you took the initiative to learn about For Better & For Ever ® and may be willing to talk with us about how we could Train married couples of the parish to serve as Sponsor Couples.  There is likely time to get this done soon enough that one of those couples could serve as YOUR Sponsor Couple.  Call Fr. Rob Ruhnke at 210-557-3660.    Show this 5 minute video to the Pastor!