Couples Training to be EverMore in Love facilitators April 20th & 21st 2024, please keep checking back to for more information.
Salina Diocese Register Article –
Salina Diocese is adding EverMore in Love program to its existing Marriage Prep Tools for Couples.
The Diocese of Salina is excited to announce that we are adding another tool to our marriage preparation toolbox. The new program is called EverMore in Love. It is a program that offers engaged couples the opportunity for regular engagement with a mentor couple throughout their preparation. Many dioceses are seeing great results from this program, and we are excited to be able to begin offering it to our engaged couples.
It is important that, as a Church, we can help couples prepare for the sacrament of matrimony and ensure they have the tools they need to deal with a marriage’s inevitable ups and downs. Pope Francis has written about the need to extend the engagement period and take time to prepare for the Sacrament of Matrimony thoroughly. He sees what is happening in families and knows that it takes time to develop a solid foundation for these future families to build upon. Engaged couples need time to learn how to communicate effectively with each other, forgive each other, put their future spouse first, and trust God.
Pope Francis has also spoken about the need to accompany couples preparing for marriage. Accompanying means we are willing and excited to journey with them as they prepare and will always be there for them. We want them to know they are loved and that the couple and their future family are important to us. The beauty of the EverMore in Love program is it offers that essential accompanying piece to the couples during their engagement. The program matches each couple with a mentor couple who will accompany them throughout their engagement and marriage preparation. The couples and their mentors will share meals, go to Mass together, discuss things they have experienced, and answer the engaged couples’ questions. The engaged and mentor couples will have regular meetings to discuss different topics as they journey together toward their wedding. It is a chance for these young couples to gain valuable insights and perspectives from a couple that has experienced the good times together and some difficult times. Hopefully, the two couples’ relationship will continue long after the wedding.
The program begins this spring by training mentor couples and asking them to return to their parishes and to work with engaged couples. The training is a two-day retreat that also serves as a great retreat for married couples looking to strengthen their own marriage. Bishop Vincke has asked all the Pastors in our Diocese to suggest some couples from their parishes that they felt would be good mentor couples. He will be reaching out to these couples at the end of January to see if they would be willing to serve as mentor couples in their parishes and communities. We will begin by training thirty to fifty couples this year and then plan on training that same number every year after that. Our goal is to have multiple mentor couples in every parish.
Many of us want to change the world and improve what is going on in our current culture. Helping young couples prepare for marriage and giving them the tools to build a strong family is one of the most important ways we can do that. Healthy families are strong. They help us get through the most challenging times, and they help us celebrate the good times. They teach us to love others more than ourselves and how to sacrifice and serve. They teach us about unconditional love and how to forgive.
The best time to help families is in the beginning, as they prepare to enter into the Sacrament of Matrimony and become a family. Adding EverMore in Love and its accompaniment piece to the other excellent marriage prep programs tools we currently have in our marriage prep toolbox will help us better assist couples in preparing for the sacrament of marriage.
Bill Meagher-Salina Diocese Family Life Office
