Healthy Marriage Habit #4: Positive Intention Frame

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 10:30 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Each day, in celebration of the release of my latest book, When Divorce Is Not An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love, I’ll look at one of the 8 habits that separates “marriage masters” from “marriage disasters.” Last week, I summarized all 8 habits and we’ve looked at the first three habits in greater detail already. Today, I’ll describe the four habit, Creating a Positive Intention Frame. After a brief explanation, you’ll have a chance to take a quiz that can help... Read more

Time Magazine, “The Hell You Say?”

Last updated on: October 29, 2014 at 10:05 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Time Magazine recently reprinted an article from Patheos Progressive Christian Channel blogger, John Shore, titled What Christianity without Hell Looks Like. Here’s the money quote from the article, “A Christianity without Hell would have nothing to recommend it but the constant and unending love of God.” I don’t know what the author of the quote thinks Hell is, but unwittingly, in that one line, Shore actually describes the classic Christian vision of Hell. St Augustine was once asked, “What does God do... Read more

Healthy Marriage Habit #3: Emotional Regulation

Last updated on: October 28, 2014 at 8:16 pm By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Each day, in celebration of the release of my latest book, When Divorce Is Not An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love, I’ll look at one of the 8 habits that separates “marriage masters” from “marriage disasters.” Last week, I summarized all 8 habits and we’ve looked at the first two habits in greater detail already. Today, I’ll describe the third habit, Emotional Regulation. After a brief explanation, you’ll have a chance to take a quiz that can help you evaluate how... Read more

Want Faithful Kids? These 4 Secrets Will Make It Happen

Last updated on: October 22, 2014 at 7:24 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Commonweal, has some bad news for Catholic parents. (But hang on, I’ve got the good news for you after this brief interlude.) Here’s the bad news for Commonweal readers, and we may as well get right to it: Just over half the young people raised by parents who describe themselves as “liberal” Catholics stop going to Mass entirely once they become “emerging adults”—a new demographic category that means either prolonged adolescence or delayed adulthood, defined here in Young Catholic America as ages eighteen to twenty three.... Read more

Healthy Marriage Habit #2: Emotional Rapport & Benevolence. Take the Quiz!

Last updated on: October 15, 2014 at 7:37 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Each day, in celebration of the release of my latest book, When Divorce Is Not An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love, I’ll look at one of the 8 habits that separates “marriage masters” from “marriage disasters.” Monday, I summarized all 8 habits and yesterday we looked at Rituals of Connection. Today, I’ll describe the second habit, Cultivating Emotional Rapport & Benevolence. After a brief explanation, you’ll have a chance to take a quiz that can help you evaluate how healthy this habit... Read more

The Extraordinary Synod on the Family–Processing the Explosion

Last updated on: October 14, 2014 at 5:43 pm By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

The Catholic world exploded the other day with the release of the Relatio, the summary document intended to highlight the progress of the Synod Fathers so far. There is another week ahead of course, and then the Synod will adjourn until next October when the conversation will pick back up up again with the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family. But the first week was, depending upon whom you ask, either the absolute end of the... Read more

Healthy Marriage Habit #1: Rituals of Connection. Take the Quiz!

Last updated on: October 14, 2014 at 10:42 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Each day, in celebration of the release of my latest book, When Divorce Is Not An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love, I’ll look at one of the 8 habits that separates “marriage masters” from “marriage disasters.” Yesterday, I listed all 8 habits. Today, I’ll describe the first habit, Rituals of Connection. After a brief explanation, you’ll have a chance to take a quiz that can help you evaluate how healthy this habit is in your... Read more

8 Habits of Healthy Couples

Last updated on: October 10, 2014 at 9:14 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

My newest book, When Divorce Is Not An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love looks at the eight habits that healthy couples cultivate in their relationship and describes, step-by-step how couples who are struggling can develop those habits in their relationship. There’s a lot of confusion about what separates happy couples from unhappy couples. The book explodes some of those myths. For instance, you might be surprised to know that happy couples argue about as often... Read more

When a Father Leads: Marian Consecration P. 2 –Guest Blog by Dave McClow

Last updated on: October 10, 2014 at 7:43 am By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

Dave McClow is a pastoral counseling associate with the Pastoral Solutions Institute. How did Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades lead at least 12,000 Catholics in the diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, in the Marian consecration as part of the New Evangelization effort? In Part 1 I covered the “what” of the consecration and its rich insights from four saints. If you remember, the consecration started with one woman in the diocese named Ida List. Ida had made the consecration several... Read more

Australian Couple Releases Full Text of Synod Speech

Last updated on: October 9, 2014 at 7:40 pm By Rachael Popcak and Dr. Gregory Popcak

I’m friends with Byron and Francine Pirola, the son and DIL of Ron and Mavis Pirola, the Australian couple who presented to the Extraordinary Synod. Byron and Francine run the Australian Marriage Resource Center which was founded by Ron and Mavis. They have been getting a lot of comments about the speech and they wanted to release the full text of Ron and Mavis’ talk to help clarify any confusion. They asked if I would help spread the word. We’ve... Read more