The Object of My Affection, 2013 Remake

This might be on your mind already because Valentine’s Day is this week, but here’s an action item: Invite a married couple to drop their kids off for the night some night, invite some single men and women from work or church to dinner with some others for dinner. Do something to support marriage, to make it plausible.

There’s no magic pill to building a marriage culture. But a piece (see more on this on NRO) in the New York Times Sunday is a reminder that it is a rough, tough, wild world out there where old assumptions are no longer assumed, where people are feeling the need to reinvent the wheel, when all they really need is to know they really can drive the most reliable car in the world.
We need to teach marriage. We need to live marriage. We need to support marriage. We need to help clear roads to marriage. Each one of us plays a role in rebuilding a marriage culture.
And for the Catholics reading: While I was attending a conference on the Church in the Americas at the Vatican in December sponsored by Pontifical Commission for Latin American and the Knights of Columbus, person after person shared that in their parish or other groups involving marriage and family and young people, at the core of their gatherings is Eucharistic Adoration. Get married people together for a pot-luck dinner at the parish hall or a local restaurant and include a half hour or an hour of prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament and good things will happen, they testified. Get young people together and include prayer time in front of our Lord and you will see the Holy Spirit at work, they shared.
We talk to our friends. We go to therapy. We listen to songs and have a few drinks and hope to numb the pain and fear. We feel so overwhelmed, we avoid the issues. How about going to our Father? We are a people of prayer, aren’t we? We’re called to be. Let’s get praying. And together.
If we give ourselves to God, let Him reach out to others through our words and deeds, everyday, He will do the rest. He will help the prayer. He will heal the wounds. We just have to be His vessels, living in His love.