Marriage Preparation 

Marriage Preparation Course

                             Read some comments on the course by clicking here  

Spring 2012 Schedule 

Venues

The course will take place in St Mary’s Rectory, Draycott Place. There will be plenty of signs to direct you to the right place.  For directions, please click here.

The Programme

Please arrive at least 5 minutes before 8:00pm as we will start on time. We generally have around 10 couples on each course, an informal atmosphere and a format on each ‘themed’ evening which includes short talks (mainly from priests and married parishioners of St. Mary’s), reflection, discussion, and coffee/tea etc. There will be a chance to meet other couples on the course and to ask questions you have not yet had a chance to address. The programme is modular, so if you miss one evening you can make it up on a subsequent course.

The Cost

The cost of the Course is £60.00 per couple. To secure a place, payment should be made when registering for the course.    Cheques should be made payable to St. Mary’s RC Church.

To Book

To book a place on either the Sacramental and/or the Communication Course, and for all enquiries please contact us either by:

Email on: chelsea1@rcdow.org.uk
Telephone on: 020 7589 5487 - the office is open
9:00am to 1:00pm Mon-Thu and 12:00 to 1:00 Fri

You will need to complete a Registration Form, this can be downloaded by clicking here.
Please complete it and send it in with your payment in full and we will confirm your booking upon receipt.

We look forward to hearing from you

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Some Comments on the Course

" The marriage preparation course is listed as a catechetical activity. The word catechetical is roughly translated as teaching. So the course is a teaching course. Indeed it is. The aim of the priest who makes the first talk is to inform the couple about the details – both practical and spiritual - behind a catholic marriage.

Part of the evening is given over to another well received activity. We invite couples who have been on the marriage course, as well as experts in other fields, to address the couples from their own experience - commitment in marriage, sacrifice in marriage, the gift of love in marriage, the place of prayer in marriage and finally the place of God in marriage. These talks are always well received and, when we ask for feedback, get high praise. The course that ended on Tuesday gave much to think about: One person wrote “I liked best having different speakers every week who live what they preach and not just read books on the subject!” These speakers are from our community; Carlos, Paolo, Shannon. Francesca, Valeria, Colin.  We also have the expertise of Joanna Bogle and Jeff Steel.

It is also clear that the secret to a good marriage is communication. We run a session on a Saturday which takes couples through a process of learning how to listen and how to communicate well. They are always fascinated when they discover how much they still DON’T know about their partner. James McKenzie runs this day for us and he is always mentioned in the feed back for his professional contributions.

You might think that the description of the Marriage Course is complete but it is not. What is wonderfully amazing are the comments that come at the end of the feedback: “keep this going, it brings people closer to each other and more importantly to God; The marriage course has helped us reconnect with God and to rethink how our religion must play a bigger part in our lives; it has help me discover how to share my prayer life with my partner, it has affirmed our wish to get married and helped us talk about the future. ”

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