The Sacrament of Marriage

“Christian Marriage is a sign of the love of Jesus for his Church, a sign of that absolute and superabundant love which alone can heal our wounded and limited love. The sacrament of marriage is a sacrament which accompanies married couples as a source of strength and of healing and of encouragement in their calling to love each other, to love their children and indeed their call to build a society where love, rather than selfishness, dominates.” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, All Hallows College, 6 December 2014

The Course

This Course is a series of modules designed to facilitate you and your fiancé(e) to deepen your dialogue with one another, to enhance your ability to communicate with each other in good times and in tough times and  to build the kind of intimacy that leads to a lifetime’s relationship fulfilment. It is not a series of instructions about how to live your lives together.

Every individual is unique and autonomous and so every relationship is unique. For this reason your experience of your journey on the Course will be personal to you. Like many thousands of couples before you we are confident you will find it very worthwhile.

Course Format

The Course is led by two facilitators.  A priest also  facilitates the Sacramental Module.  There are  presentations, exercises in a workbook and some group activities. Nobody will be asked to say anything in the group if they are not comfortable doing so. Couples do a lot of the work together sitting knee-to-knee having conversations stimulated by the workbook exercises.

What couples say after attending one of our Courses:

• “We got the chance to have conversations with one another that we hadn’t had before” Linda
• “Very worthwhile, really happy to have participated”. Robert
• “The course opened my mind – better than I thought it would be.” Tony
• “Excellent presentation and content!” James
• “Excellent – very well run, lovely relaxed atmosphere!!  Jenny

Why prepare for marriage?

You are madly in love and want to spend the rest of your lives together! What we would like to do is to help you to prepare for your lives together beyond the wedding day and into the future. Our Courses will help you build strong foundations to enable your relationship grow and flourish, giving you the best chance of a committed and fulfilling life together.

Look at your marriage preparation process as an opportunity to look forward towards your new life together, to  make sure that  you are on the same page as a couple, and that you are  ready to face this exciting journey together as one.

When you think of the amount of time and planning, let alone the expense, that goes into preparing for your wedding day, doesn’t it make sense to devote some calm, reflective time out to prepare for life together?

ACCORD  Dublin’s Sacramental Marriage Preparation Course will help you to

• Deepen your understanding of the sacramental, divine nature of marriage and of the commitment that you are making to one another by choosing to get married in the Catholic Church
• Explore many practical aspects about marriage including self-awareness, communication, parenthood, how to resolve conflict and how to deepen intimacy.