On love and marriage (Part 6)

In a true God-moment, Fr. Charlie's homily on today's Gospel truly captures the essence of today's topic for At Home Marriage Retreat 2023, "Day 6 - Resolving to Change Our Ways". Fr. Charlie said that forgiveness is very important in marriage. He jokingly said that the spouse (most likely the husband) should always to ready to offer a "sin offering", or ask for forgiveness and work toward reconciliation who he/she make a mistake that hurt the other. Moreover, with Ash Wednesday and Lent only a week and a half away, as part of our preparation, we should discern what sin or vice we need to work on the most this Lenten season - be it pride, wrath, sloth, resentment, unforgiveness, etc. Then, once we have identify the sin or vice that we to "cut off" then, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can use the pillars of Lent - pray, fast, and give alms - at our spiritual weapons to help us change our ways for the sake of our marital relationship specifically and our relationship with others in general.

Let's take a closer look at that this might look like. For example, for me, one of my shortcomings is taking the time to stay in touch with my parents, who are both in their mid-70s. For Lent, I would like to reach out to them more, to see how they are doing, and to be more attuned with how they are. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, I plan to pray more intently for my parents. After Mass each morning, I would stand before the statue of the Blessed Virgin and pray for my goddaughter niece, and nephews, asking Mother Mary to protect them and help them to know that they are loved so much by their heavenly Father. I plan to pray for my parents in a similar this Lent.

For fasting, I plan to abstain from slothful excuses as to why I do not call my parents more often than I should. At one point, my wife set a weekly alarm to remind me to call my parents. This Lent, I plan to be more attentive to those alarms and follow through. Finally, almsgiving, I plan to set aside time to connect with my parents more, particularly calling them more since they do not text, check emails, or use social media. These are the ways that I plan to use the pillars of Lent - pray, fast, and give alms - to attack the sin against the 4th Commandment and overcome the vice of not calling my parents. This is but one example of how we can change our ways to better the important relationships in our lives, particularly our relationships with God, our spouse, and our families.

Here are links to my previous blogs "On love and marriage":

- Part 1: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-love-and-marriage-part-1.html

- Part 2: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-love-and-marriage-part-2.html

- Part 3: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-love-and-marriage-part-3.html

- Part 4: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-love-and-marriage-part-4.html

- Part 5: https://dcnphuc2019.blogspot.com/2023/02/on-love-and-marriage-part-5.html

UPDATED: Here is the link to the At Home Marriage Retreat and other resources from the USCCB: https://www.usccb.org/resources/national-marriage-week-2024-home-marriage-retreat