Marriage Prep Class Pre Cana

03/09/2018

Council: 114 - BANGOR

Project Description:

On Mar 2, St. Paul the Apostle Parish launched the second Marriage Preparation Retreat in our new format, Transformed in Love. This is a combined effort of our World Wide Marriage Encounter Bangor team, Pine Cone Council 114 and other examples of great married couples in our parish. The program was 17 hours for the engaged couples covering topics around self-awareness, communication, true love, sacramental marriage
and marital sexuality. Brother Knight EJ and Jen Hikel facilitated two topics, Brother Father Anthony Cipolle facilitated one topic, Brother Deacon Mike Whalen facilitated one topic and Brother Father Frank Murray facilitated one topic. The other topics were facilitated by the Marriage Encounter team.

On day one, March 2, Brother Mike Soucy and his wife Mary, along with Brother Jeff Schaller and his wife Dawn, helped to serve the couples a meatless spaghetti dinner. They welcomed the couples with a smile and then when the meal was over, they took charge to clean up so the presentations could begin.

On day two, March 3, Brother Tim Malikowski and his wife Kim, helped with lunch to serve and clean up around for the retreat. The retreat ended with a sitdown meal for the engaged participants and the team. Brother Paul Larrabee produced a gourmet meal. It was spiral ham, with mashed potato, mixed vegetables, and rolls. Brother Pat Donovan was also there to help with clean up. Paul made a great punch as well as a mixed berry cobbler with whipped cream for dessert. The meal was prepared with an economical cost at around $3 per person, for which the parish covered the cost. Part of the
surprise for the engaged couples was that parish couples were praying for them. The engaged couples and the prayer couples went to 4 p.m. Mass together prior to the meal. To measure the success of the program, engaged participants were given an anonymous pre-program survey at registration (28) and again filled out a post program survey after the final dinner (26).

A summary of changes in views included:
Pre-program survey results
18% Neutral or irritated that have to attend
61% Had medium expectation for this program
54% Attended because required, not for interest or enrichment
54% Do not attend Mass regularly
82% Catholic participants that cannot remember their last confession or it was at their confirmation
71% Have no plans to use NFP in marriage
79% Are sexually active
79% Live together
100% Are happy living together

Post Program survey results
92% Glad they attended
42% Program exceeded expectations
96% Thanks to the program, hope to pray more regularly
100% Thanks to the program, hope to attend Mass more regularly
76% Plan to go to Confession before they get married
100% Have a better sense of NFP and why the Church supports it
71% Were not considering NFP prior to the program but are now considering it
2 couples are considering not having sex again until they are married

Marriage prep retreat will take place once to twice a year at St. Paul the Apostle.

Respectfully submitted by EJ Hikel