Pre Cana Recap

One thing’s checked off the September to do list: Pre Cana! The diocese was kind enough to squeeze us in, and we got to participate at my home parish, in a Pre Cana led by the deacon who will be marrying us. All Pre Canas seem to be different, so I'll recap ours in case anyone is wondering about what happens. 

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Mr. B and I were not exactly looking forward to it, as there was a Michigan game on and we were hoping to watch it at a local bar. I didn’t expect Pre Cana to be horrible or anything, just thought I’d need to hold my eyelids open to keep from falling asleep.

Luckily, I was wrong. The day started with a decently entertaining version of the Newylwed Game, and then was divided into two parts. The first focused on marital communication and the second on sexuality and spirituality (actually less cringeworthy than it sounds). Both followed the same format, where a panel of facilitator couples (married from 15-40 years), discussed their experiences on topics like communication or newlywed adjustments. After the panel discussion, we broke into smaller groups, each led by a facilitator couple. They asked us questions about our relationships, like whether we’d discussed sharing holidays or how we expected our relationship to change over the years. It was actually pretty interesting to listen to the couples’ stories, and I definitely appreciated their candor. Personally, I love to hear about people’s experiences, and since my own parents tend to be a little reserved/closed off on these types of discussions, it was really nice to hear from the church couples.

I also really enjoyed the discussion on how the couples’ relationships with God changed over the years. Most of the women had been practicing Catholics their whole lives, but had husbands who were basically atheists or lapsed Catholics at the time of the wedding.  As part of an interfaith couple, it was very comforting to me to hear how these role model couples did, over time, find ways to God together.

In the interest of honesty I will admit there were some squirmy points (Natural Family Planning) and a few snooze worthy moments, but for the most part I found us surrounded by a very nice group of engaged couples, and a great group of married couples working with us. It was really a very positive experience, and definitely not the worst part of wedding planning so far!