Marriage, Natural Family Planning

Spring, summer, winter, fall. Marriages are perpetually in a state of transition, continually moving from one season to another--perhaps not annually, as in nature, but just as certainly and consistently. Sometimes we find ourselves in winter--discouraged, detached, and dissatisfied; other times, we experience springtime with its openness, hope, and anticipation. On other occasions, we bask in the warmth of summer--comfortable, relaxed, enjoying life. And then comes fall with its uncertainty, negligence, and apprehension. The cycle repeats itself many times throughout the life of a marriage, just as the seasons repeat themselves in nature.

The seasons of marriage come and go. Each one holds the potential for emotional health and happiness, and each one has its challenges. The purpose of this book is to describe these recurring seasons of marriage, help you and your spouse identify which season your marriage is in, and show you how to enhance your marriage in all four seasons.

Here is the perfect resource for encouraging married couples to engage in the spiritual discipline of daily prayer as a means of affirming the blessings and intimacy of their relationship.

The seven sections of the wedding vows serve as the framework upon which hang the enduring values that need to be renewed through the decades with scripture, reflections, and questions.

This inspiring book provides an aid to couples for continuing to find praying together a natural act for a lifetime of love. It will make a thoughtful gift, whether for newlyweds, couples celebrating their anniversaries, or Marriage Encounter participants.

Providing a comprehensive understanding of the Catholic Church's teaching on contraception, Angela Franks, PhD, an experienced pro-life speaker and educator, explores how to live in accordance with Catholic sexual teaching and equips readers with the knowledge to explain the teaching to others. This understanding addresses Church history and the prevailing ideologies of today's mainstream society. Sociological data, vignettes of real life couples, a brief summary of natural family planning (NFP) and NaPRO Technology, and allusions to Theology of the Body are included.

Can a wife single-handedly bring a boring or broken marriage back to life? This improved and expanded edition of Laura Doyle's acclaimed First, Kill All the Marriage Counselors features real-life success stories from empowered wives who have done just that--and provides a step-by-step guide to revitalizing your own marriage.

Laura Doyle's marriage was in trouble, and couples counseling wasn't helping. On the brink of divorce, she decided to talk to women who'd been happily married for over a decade, and their advice stunned her. From it, she distilled Six Intimacy Skills--woman-centric practices that ended her overwhelm and resentment, restoring the playfulness and passion in her marriage.

Now an internationally-recognized relationship coach, Doyle has shared her secrets with women around the globe, saving thousands of marriages with her fresh, revolutionary approach.

Practical and counter-intuitive, the Six Intimacy Skills are about focusing on your own desires and transforming your own life--not bending over backwards to transform your husband.

Incorporating these skills will empower you to:
Attract his attention like a magnet when you relax more and do less
Receive affection not because you told him to make more of an effort, but because he naturally seeks you out
Feel more like yourself--and like yourself more

If you've been trying to "fix" your relationship and it's not working, maybe the problem was never you, or your husband, or even the two of you as a couple. Maybe the problem is that nobody ever taught you the skills you need to foster respect, tenderness, and consideration.

With humor and heart, The Empowered Wife shows you how to improve your relationship in ways you hadn't thought possible. You'll join a worldwide community of over 150,000 empowered wives who finally have the marriages they dreamed of when they said "I do."

Over 20 million copies sold!

A perennial New York Times bestseller for over a decade!

Falling in love is easy. Staying in love--that's the challenge. How can you keep your relationship fresh and growing amid the demands, conflicts, and just plain boredom of everyday life?

In the #1 New York Times international bestseller The 5 Love Languages(R), you'll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman's proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner--starting today.

The 5 Love Languages(R) is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work.

Includes the Love Language assessment so you can discover your love language and that of your loved one.

The transition from "married" to "married with children" can be tough. Before they know it, a once youthful and energetic married couple finds themselves in a minivan loaded with noisy kids and littered with Cheerios, crusty Sippy cups, banana peels, and missing library books. As much as you love your children and work hard to nurture and train them for the future, the challenges that come with parenthood can make the "for better or for worse" promise a hard one to honor.

For Better or For Kids will enable couples to:

Build a God-centered marriage instead of a Child-centered or Me-centered marriage

Avoid the dangers of spouse-neglect and self-neglect

Effectively communicate in the chaos

Explore ways to parent together as one team

Find balance in the busyness

For Better or For Kids is about remembering that even when you feel worn out, over-extended, and neglected, you promised to be a team. Marriage with kids may not always be what we expected, but it is good. We need to make a vow to love our spouse with kids in the house.

This life is preparation for eternity, and from the beginning, God created marriage to help married couples become saints. Indeed, God has given to married couples the profound gift of being able to fulfill the purpose of their creation through, with, and in each other. Marriage is a foreshadowing of Heaven, and each married couple must work with God if their marriage is to be a foretaste of eternity.

In this thought-provoking and uplifting book, Fr. Robert Altier unpacks the theological significance of the Sacrament of Marriage and brilliantly explains how it has been a part of Godï1/2ï1/2ï1/2s plan from the beginning - and will eventually be fulfilled at the Marriage Banquet of the Lamb in Heaven. Teeming with practical wisdom and clear examples, these pages delve into the surpassing dignity of marriage as a covenant and a sacrament - and a call to holiness.

You will learn how the graces and virtues that are conferred in the Sacrament of Marriage transform the unity of the couple - not just in the flesh but in the heart and soul. Youï1/2ï1/2ï1/2ll learn how to predispose yourself to receive this divine power and, best of all, how to love your spouse more deeply. You will also explore the significance of marriage vows and how men are called to be the spiritual leaders and women are called to be the heart of their families.

Fr. Altier tackles contemporary questions and concerns, such as the real meaning of "being subject to one another in marriage" and those sensitive and controversial issues regarding sexual morality. Arguably one of the most theologically eye-opening books on marriage ever written, this book also explains:

The definitive reasons why marriage can exist only between a man and a woman

How the married couple embodies the life-giving love of the Most Blessed Trinity

Why the Sacrament of Marriage makes the couple a new creation

The characteristics of true love and how to love with heroic charity

How to avoid settling for mediocrity in love and service to others

The vital connection between Baptism, Marriage, and the Holy Eucharist

Why you must become vulnerable in love in order to become receptive to love

How marriage leads to overcoming sinful tendencies and makes saints

The necessity of prayer in marriage for the individual, the couple, and the family

How a deeper theological understanding of the Holy Eucharist and Marriage deepens marital intimacy

Why "the two becoming one" in marriage is foremost a spiritual union

Dan and Danielle Bean, married for 25 years and veteran parents of 8 children, offer a modern take on an ancient idea: in marriage, we are called to something greater than ourselves. What can that mean in a modern world that abhors sacrifice, rejects the concept of permanence, and devalues the sacrament of marriage?

Pulling from the wisdom of the Church and lessons learned from their own real-life experience, Dan and Danielle reflect on the ideas of:

Vocation,

Sacrament,

Sacrifice,

Mutual Love,

And Home and Family Life.

With personal stories, humor, touching insight, and practical suggestions, they offer complementary reflections, as husband and wife, on the value and meaning of marriage for Christians today.

This book also features a rich collection of Catholic marriage resources, including:

Prayers for Marriage,

Teachings of the Church,

Scripture for Marriage and Family,

Wisdom from the Saints,

And Hymns.

A thoughtful gift for engaged couples and newlyweds, this book is also a practical resource that can inspire and rejuvenate long-married and even struggling couples.

From New York Times bestselling authors Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller comes a gorgeously packaged daily devotional that takes us on year-long journey into discovering the meaning of marriage

Marriage is the most profound human relationship there is. Coming to know and love your spouse is one of the most rewarding and wondrous things we can experience in life. But it is also one of the most difficult and painful. In this 365-day devotional, Timothy Keller and his wife of forty-three years, Kathy Keller, share powerful instructions on how to have a successful marriage. The Kellers draw from and expand upon lessons they first introduced in their book The Meaning of Marriage, offering stories, daily scriptures, and prayer prompts that will inspire anyone who wants to know God and love more deeply in this life.

Few concepts in Christianity are more misunderstood than obedience. Words like submissive, subject, and obedient can appear utterly incompatible with the fundamental equality that Jesus offers to us in baptism. Yet headship and obedience within marriage has been preached authoritatively throughout the Church's history.

When properly understood and lived out, obedience is, in fact, liberating. The Obedience Paradox illuminates the subject by examining the relationship between husband and wife in marriage as an image of Christ's relationship to the Church. Presenting the sexual complementarity of husband and wife as an expression of gift, this book probes the meaning and power of receptivity in a relationship.

While a marriage certainly involves mutual giving and receiving, a husband most authentically lives headship when he acts as a generous giver towards his wife. Correspondingly, a wife practices authentic obedience when she graciously receives of her husband's self-gift. Understanding obedience as the free reception of a gift unveils its unique potential to make us more free and to bring about deeper spiritual union between persons, both human and divine.

"Modern Catholics often have difficulty identifying with traditional concepts of masculinity, femininity, and marriage. Rather than gloss over these seemingly troublesome categories, Mary Stanford offers a new path forward. In her novel exploration of the true meaning of obedience, Mary reveals the freedom God offers to men and women in their vocations as loving wives and husbands." - Fr. Patrick Mary Briscoe, OP, editor of Aleteia

"Mary's book is fresh and delightful, provocative and persuasive. She blends biblical and theological knowledge with wisdom derived from attentiveness to the practicalities of married life and with impressive insight into the male and female psyches. She writes so beautifully that one wants to pause regularly just to appreciate her phrasing as well as her illuminating concepts. This book makes a true contribution to the ever-vexing question of right relationships between spouses. It explains well the importance of freedom and trust involved in women lovingly submitting to their husbands in marriages dedicated to following Christ in all things." - Janet E. Smith, Ph.D., Father McGivney Chair of Life Ethics (retired), Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit, MI, author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later and A Right to Privacy

"For our culture, perhaps the greatest stumbling block in the Catholic faith is its emphasis on obedience. Not only the faithful's obedience to God and his Church but also (and primarily) the Son's obedience to the Father. Drawing from the Church's Tradition and Pope Saint John Paul II's writings in particular, Mary Stanford brings out both the beauty and the challenge of obedience in God's highest natural creation, the family. Her work will benefit engaged and married couples in particular and all who desire to deepen their appreciation of this great paradox, the obedience that frees and ennobles." -- The Very Rev. Paul D. Scalia, Episcopal Vicar for Clergy, Diocese of Arlington, author of That Nothing May Be Lost

"Any couple--new to marriage or old--would do well to consider the exposition of Scripture and Tradition set forth by Mary Stanford, as well as her enlivening exposition of theological ideas in a contemporary setting. The volatile aspects of marriage are given ballast from Stanford's pondering that most weighty matter: How to bring concord between two hearts bound in the Sacrament to mutual service and devotion and yet part of a human world of passion and weariness. In effect, Mary Stanford dares to ask the question of how marriage can work. Bolder still, she attempts an answer." - William Fahey, Ph.D., President, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

"This book opens a new way to understand obedience in marriage and in the Faith. As such, Mary Stanford rescues the subject from much of its contemporary bad psychology. Very important and highly recommended." - Paul C. Vitz, Senior Scholar/Professor, Divine Mercy University, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, New York University

"There was a time when the words, 'love, honor, and obey' were standard fare for marriage vows. No longer. Over the years, the word 'obey' mistakenly became synonymous with the word 'slavery, ' thus offending our modern sensibilities. Consequently, it has been replaced with more generic words, such as 'cherish' or 'respect.' In The Obedience Paradox: Finding True Freedom in Marriage, Mary Stanford breathes new life into the word 'obedience, ' arguing that obedience, correctly understood, is the ticket to authentic freedom." -- Terry Polakovic, author of Life and Love: Opening Your Heart to God's Design and Women of Hope: Doctors of the Church

"That true freedom is the fruit of obedience is paradoxical indeed. But if obedience featured squarely in the saving action of Jesus (and now the Church), then it must also occupy the heart of the believer. Mary Stanford shows -- for those with ears to hear -- how obedience leads to a life of freedom, joy, and holiness for all -- wives, husbands, clergy, religious." -- Christopher Carstens, Office for Sacred Worship, Diocese of La Crosse

"A work that combines courage and wisdom, Mary Stanford's The Obedience Paradox successfully negotiates one of modern Catholicism's 'Third Rails.' This work is deep yet approachable, an incarnational outworking of learned theology and lived praxis valuable for both clergy and laity, but particularly for those preparing for marriage. In it, obedience and belief are recast in robust, optimistic ways that mirror our bodily and spiritual realities. This is a sensitive counter-cultural affirmation of human dignity in light of modern efforts at dehumanization and depersonalization." - Donald Prudlo, Warren Professor of Catholic Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tulsa

"Few today have the courage publicly to defend the hierarchical primacy of the husband and father. Stanford does, and she offers compelling and attractive arguments in defense of the beauty and wisdom of this teaching." -- Christopher J. Malloy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Theology, University of Dallas, author of False Mercy: Recent Heresies Distorting Catholic Truth

About the Author

Mary Stanford is a speaker, teacher, and writer on Catholic marriage and family life. She is an adjunct professor at Christendom College and has a master's degree in theological studies from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. She and her husband, Trey, have seven children.

It's a miracle!
God created the miracle of marriage
so we might realize and cherish
God's love for each other
even more....
The ultimate love story.
--From Prayers and Reflections for Newlyweds

Inside are reflective meditations, Scripture, prayer, discussion questions, and activities for the two of you, all designed to help you create new memories together as husband and wife.

Newlyweds, use this book to help you celebrate falling in love, getting engaged, the joy of the wedding day, and a long future together as a married couple--all surrounded by God's grace.

God wants to fill your marriage with the love that comes from his very own heart. Praying for (and with) Your Spouse will show you how to let God take every part of your relationship to the next level-from living each day with your joys and struggles to working out your decisions and disagreements to setting aside time for love and romance. Prayer, in marriage, is more than checking off a box. It is time spent in the presence of the Author of love himself. Every time we pray for and with our spouse, God gives us greater insight into what it takes to love each other better-more deeply, more honestly, more authentically, and more passionately. Every time we pray for and with our spouse, we open our hearts to a love that can satisfy our deepest longings and allow our marriage to be a light to the world.

This book will help you discover the simple steps you can take to invite God to renew and refresh your love for one another. As you pray together and for one another, you'll find out how much joy God has in store for you and your spouse-in this life and in the next!