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"We are called to love. Marriage gives you an other to love deeply, to practice all the Christian virtues on: patience, kindness... if nothing else, your spouse will almost certainly be the only person you actually get to forgive seventy time seven." Mark delivers some version of this line every year when he delivers the talk on the sacrament of marriage to catechumens prepare to enter the Church during the Office of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) sessions. It gets a l

How do you love your spouse when they aren't present? It's a question that Jesus raises with his disciples before his ascension. There is a moment in this Sunday's Gospel where Jesus, facing his own death, turns his attention not inward but outward, toward the people he loves. "I pray for them," he says. Jesus intercedes. Jesus holds those who love him in mind before the Father. And when he leaves, he tells them he will send the Holy Spirit to be their advocate. John's Gospel

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15) We all have physical and emotional needs we want our spouse to meet. One of Dawna's emotional needs is to be heard. The third child of four, she grew up the unheard daughter, the third child no one listened to. In our marriage, she doesn't want Mark to try to solve her problem, she doesn't want him to tell her that everything is okay, and she definitely does not want him to defend or excuse himself if his actions a