Evenings for the Engaged

Tonight was the last night for our required counseling from the Catholic Church. The counseling is in preparation for our upcoming nuptials. Initially, we had planned on doing the weekend bootcamp seminar. But, with a pricetag of $350, the bootcamp idea was expensive. You have to save some money when you are about to feed 300 people.

I had wanted to take the class with a Filipino couple as moderators, but that session was scheduled for Wednesdays at 7PM. Much as I want to, there is simply no way to get back to the East Bay on time. So we went to the Sunday evening couple A and N. They were immigrants from the Middle East. That suprised me because I had never met a Catholic from Lebanon before. But, Catholicism is a worldwide thing so I guess I should stop being surprised.

The whole experience was a very positive one. I thought that there would be a couple preaching the words of God and try to convert us even more to become more religious. However, that is not what I found. Instead, I saw how a couple used religion to the advantage of their lives. Religion was a source of faith and marriage. I can't say that I had ever seen that one before. At least, I had never seen it as an open book before.

I asked about the practical aspect of not going to bed mad at each other. A's suggestion was that one should not. Even if the other person is ignoring you, you should make the effort of going and saying goodnight. I like that. There is no problem that is going to be bigger than a marriage or will split the marriage.

Father R spoke to us tonight about the marriage. He played this country song whose title escapes me. But the story is about this guy's father and how he lives his life like he was dying. The music was very powerful. The song had struck me while I was in the car a few months ago. The melody was great, but the story was even better. The father ends up skydiving, rocky mountain climbing. He went 2.4 seconds on a bull named Fu Manchu. He loved deeper. Became the father he was expected to be. The moral of the lesson is to live life as if you were dying.

Now, I see that the Catholic Church is not as uptight as I thought it was. I figured that with the Pope so aged and so conservative that I was going to get into trouble. In truth, it was quite fun.