Saint Anthony of Padua R.C. Church
Beautiful Rocky Point, NY
Love one another as I have loved you.
Saint Anthony's Pre-Cana Program
A Wedding is a Day...
but a Marriage is a Lifetime!
Some of Saint Anthony's
Pre-Cana Couples
at a recent get-together!
Why is our Marriage Preparation Program
called "Pre-Cana?"
In John 2: 1-12, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee with the mother of Jesus present. Jesus and his disciples had likewise been invited to join in the celebration. His presence and participation at the wedding not only sanctified the marriage but also festive celebrations and togetherness. Jesus recognized the Holy Spirit through Mary, and granted this first miraculous sign--changing the blessed water into wine! What was Jesus trying to do? He was preparing for weddings-- of God with humanity! Jesus comes into our home to sanctify our daily life.
Schedule for Pre-Cana Weekends
2011 Weekends
February 4 & 5
October 7 & 8
2012 Weekends
February 3 & 4
October 12 & 13
For more information about Saint Anthony's Pre-Cana Program,
please call the Rectory @ 631.744.2609.
A counselor guarantees successful marriages to engaged couples,
if they spend ten minutes every day of their married lives
listening with love to each other.
A Prayer for Engaged Couples:
Thank You Lord, for this wonderful gift of our love, which already has brought us so much joy. Grant that we may continue to love; reverently, patiently, generously --- seeing you in each other.
Guide us to continue to discover each other, that our understanding and compassion may deepen and mature. Teach us to forget ourselves and live for and in each other, that we may truly become one.
In the hurried days of final preparation, grant us the calmness to reflect upon the sacramental moment when you will seal and sanctify our promises, binding us together in profound intimacy forever.
Grant us the insight to realize that soon our unique love will be caught up and transformed into your boundless love. Then we will no longer be merely a man or woman in love---but husband and wife, an image of Christ and His Church, with a special right to supernatural help, and special commission to create love in each other, in our children, and in the family of God. In joy or sorrow, in richness or poverty, in sickness and in health---may our love grow into your Divine Love until death do us part. Amen.
February 2011
Pre-Cana
On February 4 & 5, four engaged couples made their Pre-Cana Weekend at Saint Anthony's.
That’s the question the Catholic Church asks in a series of TV and radio spots launched June 27 by the U.S. bishops’ Committees on Marriage and Family Life and Communications.
The answers, which come from people interviewed on the street, range from getting up early with the baby to carrying a spouse’s purse. They show that short-term kindnesses cement a lifelong relationship. With humorous bits of life, the spots prompt people to think of and do more for their own commitments. The messages end with an invitation to visit www.foryourmarriage.org for its practical resources for couples of all faiths and in all phases of marriage, including those preparing for marriage.
State of the Catholic Union
Catholics and Marriage
53% of adult Catholics are currently married.
66% of currently married Catholics were married in the Church.
72% of married Catholics have a Catholic spouse.
23% of adult Catholics have gone through a divorce.
33% agree that it is important for spouses to share in the same faith.
75% agree that a spouse should first and foremost be a soulmate.
87% say marriage is a lifelong commitment.
54% say marriage is a calling from God.
Source: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate,
June 2007 survey of 1,008 adult Catholics.
FYI
