1. Meet with your pastor or parish coordinator
Your first step is to make an appointment with your parish for the initial meeting. If you don’t know your parish’s contact information, you can find it here.
Your first meeting is a time to go over the entire marriage preparation experience and to begin the process of completing the necessary forms.
You’ll want to bring a copy of your baptismal records for both of you.
2. Complete the FOCCUS pre-marital inventory
You’ll probably meet with a married couple from the parish who will guide you through a premarital inventory called FOCCUS. This is not a test or an instrument
designed to measure your readiness for marriage. It is a means for allowing you, with the assistance of the mentoring couple or marriage preparation minister(s), to explore and strengthen your relationship with each other before marriage.
You will meet at least twice – once to take the inventory and once to go over the results and discuss them with each other.
3. Register for Natural Family Planning
An important part of entering into a sacramental marriage is embracing God’s complete plan for conjugal love. While there are many myths in culture and even in the medical world about Natural Family Planning, the science of NFP has improved tremendously. It is just the better moral and healthy choice. Realizing that accepting this truth can be difficult, your parish may ask that you take a course in Natural Family Planning so you can discover the full truth about the method and how following God’s plan for marriage can increase your martial joy.
Click here to learn more about Natural Family Planning.
4. Register for ML2B1
The Married Love, Two Becoming One program enables you to concentrate more intensely on the many facets of married life so you may be more aware of all the dimensions of marriage. The program helps you explore and determine the strengths and weaknesses of your relationship in terms of your future life together.
Click here to find the Married Love, Two Becoming One retreats in your area.