Father Ignatius said that he had some papers to do for his seminar, he's busy and needed to reschedule.
Or maybe he was thinking that we're about to celebrate the romance of Valentine's day.
After the opening prayer, Father Ignatius said something we didn't expected. "I think today will be our last meeting for the preparation for your wedding", he said. Let's see, I told myself. Maybe after this meeting, Father would find out that we are lacking in some aspects.. and suddenly we would need to do even more meetings :p
We brought and used the bible this time.
"In our previous meeting, we talked about marriage in many aspects. Today we are going to talk about becoming a family, being parents, and how you want to educate your children", he started.
Instead of having a total serious dictation about this and that from the bible, the "counseling" felt more like an open discussion and biblical story-telling with some history aspects as our sidebar conversation :) It was fun!
Marriage is a relationship. a love relationship as well as sexual relationship.
Before, the aim of marriage is for procreation, creating a new life.
Post-modern families choose not to have children.
To be able to educate your children, first you will need to know it yourself.
Children will copy.
So he gave us some important excerpts from the bible: (I'm gonna use the excerpts from New American Standard Bible here)
1. Genesis
Galatian
Ephesian
Important question: "So, in this modern life, do you think we still need to apply such method?"
The answer is NO. Equality, in every aspects of your marriage and family life.
Luke 10:38-42
Martha and Mary
38 Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with [a]all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42 but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
"Seated at the feet" was how the boys are used to do when they were learning about the Torah with their rabbi teacher.
Matthew 19:1-9
Concerning Divorce
1 When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
I (we both) must said that we really enjoyed our meetings with Father Ignatius. That he is such an open-minded person, filled with knowledge, willing to adapt to the changes happens in this modern world, and still without hesitation proclaiming his love and devotion to God.
For your curious side, here's a glimpse of our first premarital counseling.
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