Pre-Cana

liz92782

what exactly do these classes consist of, thanks?

Calypso1977

it all depends....

ours was just 3 meetings with the priest, and it was very faith based and sacrament focused.

others have done weekends with lay persons and they talk about things like balancing your checkbook, finances, how to argue, etc.

[Deleted User]

It definitely depends on your dioceses and the parish priest.

For us, we got married in Ohio, but live in Georgia. Well, we most of our meetings (there were only a few) with the priest at the church were we currently live and attend. He was in constant communication with our priest back home to make sure we met the requirements for the Columbus dioceses as well as anything additional he thought was necessary to help our marriage.

We did the FOCCUS test and met with him to discuss the results as well as another time or two. Basically, he just asked us if we had any other questions or things he could help us with.

We were also required to do the Engaged Encounter weekend, which we did about 6 months before we got married. We got there on Friday night and left Sunday after mass.

akg0053

Ours was a pre-set program that consisted of going through this pre-cana workbook and talking to a sponsor couple for several meetings.

If I could go back and re-do it, I would have done the quick weekend engaged encounter retreat because neither one of us got ANYTHING out of our meetings. 

The book was written like it was for a couple that had only known each other for about 4 months before deciding to get married, and FI and I have been together for 5 years and engaged for 2 so it didn't work well for us. 

DFWIndian

I answered on the Month Board...

bibliophile2010

Our diocese mandates Marriage Prep that is more extensive than most. It consists of the FOCCUS (the inventory that assesses and encourages communication about things like finances, raising kids, etc.) and meetings with a Sponsor Couple to discuss the results; a one-day "married life skills" retreat (arguing, finances, etc.); a one-day sacrament/theology of the body/intro to NFP retreat; and a complete course in NFP.

The only way you can know for sure about what will be required is to talk to your priest. Good luck!

Beachy730

It definitely depends on your church since mine was different than all those mentioned.  We met with our priest once to schedule our date, do the basic questions, and he gave us a list of program dates to choose from.  That meeting was about 20 minutes long. 

The marriage program we went to involved about 50 couples, and it was about 8 hours long.  We had several guest speakers, and there were several work sheets that H and I had to fill out.  They would seperate partners to fill out the sheets then you would get back together and discuss your answers privately.  The topics were things like, family planning, finanaces, drugs and alcohol, relationships, etc.  We were dreading spending the whole day there but we actually really enjoyed it and found out some new things about eachother.

We met with our priest again after the class to plan out our ceremony.  And that was it for our Pre-cana.

Blueyed228

Ours was a big waste of time.

30 couples in a room getting lectured about what its like to be married.  We had to go 4 times for 2 hours.

Riss91

Ours was really helpful and informative. We did 2 full days (over one weekend) and we learned about different communicating styles, how to deal with conflicts, a little bit on how to discuss finances. It was taught very much from a psycology standpoint on relating to each other. We didn't have NFP as part of ours, but we could opt to attend a class on that.

mica178

Ours was a weekend event.  It was very basic and focused mainly on communication, but it reaffirmed that we felt ready for marriage, so in that sense, it was a great experience.

The format of ours was a 20-30 minute talk from the married couples about a specific topic, then 20 minutes for individual reflection and writing in our notebooks, then 20 minutes to review answers 1:1 with your fiance.  There wasn't a ton of stuff that they discussed that H and I hadn't already covered, but I thought that everything was relevant for a successful marriage, and I know that many of the other couples at the retreat didn't know each other as well as H and I did/do.

Luckily, my priest also met with H and me for pre-cana also.  We talked about the sacrament and faith and focused heavily on the fact that H is not Catholic and the implications of a mixed marriage.  That was definitely more intense, and it was welcomed.

catarntina

We had to go 4 times for 3 hours each time listening to people discuss what it is like to be married.  They went over finances  and spend a lot of time discussing interfaith marriages which was completely unapplicable to me.

And we also had to go 3 times for 2 hours to learn about NFP.

DanielleZZ

At our church it consists of 5-6 meetings total.
First we met with out priest to set the date and to catch up with the priest about ourselves(we grew up at this church but hadnt been there since before college)
Second we meet to take the "test". (we do this monday and im a little nervous)!
Then we do 2-3 meetings with a marriage psychologist to discuss the results of the test.
Then we meet with the priest again to discuss the results from the psychologist.

LouWho19

Thanks for everyone's input...we're going on our Engaged Encounter weekend Friday and I'm anxious and was wondering what to expect