Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing: Couples and Communities Called to Conversion Together

by Diana Macalintal, Nick Wagner

Overview

Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing does more than help parish leaders plan excellent wedding liturgies and prepare engaged couples well. It enables parish leaders to address the challenges of increased divorce, fewer Catholic weddings, empty pews on Sundays, and the increasing number of people who choose no faith. This is the one book that will give you a comprehensive plan to address these concerns with confidence, creativity, and clarity.            With over fifty years of combined hands-on experience in parish and diocesan liturgy preparation and catechumenate formation, Diana Macalintal and Nick Wagner give you more than just another marriage preparation resource. They give you a parish transformation tool. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814637906
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	09/22/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	856 KB

About the Author

Diana Macalintal has served as a liturgist, musician, author, speaker, and composer for the last twenty-five years, and her work can be found in Give Us This Day and many other publications. She is the author of The Work of Your Hands: Prayers for Ordinary and Extraordinary Moments of Grace, Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing: Couples and Communities Called to Conversion Together,and Your Parish Is the Curriculum: RCIA in the Midst of the Community (Liturgical Press). Macalintal is a cofounder of TeamRCIA.com with her husband, Nick Wagner.

Nick Wagner is the cofounder of TeamRCIA.com, a training center for conversion and formation for lifelong discipleship. Through TeamRCIA.com, Nick and his wife and partner, Diana Macalintal, provide accessible, comprehensive training for RCIA teams in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Nick has been teaching and writing about the catechumenate, liturgy, and catechesis for more than 30 years. He is the author of Seek the Living God: Five RCIA Inquiry Questions for Making Disciples published by Liturgical Press.

Table of Contents

1 Stop Preparing for Marriage; Start Preparing for Discipleship 1

2 Why Is Conversion Important? 11

3 How Do We Bring Couples to Deeper Conversion? 24

4 The Four Indispensable Tools of a Successful Marriage Preparation Process 39

5 Inquiry: How to Start Off on the Right Foot 69

6 Apprenticeship in Married Life 93

7 Spiritual Preparation for the Rite 110

8 Postsacramental Reflection 122

9 Three Steps to Know If a Couple Is Ready for Marriage 137

10 Rituals for Marking Stages 148

11 The Wedding Preparation Team-It's Bigger Than You Think 169

12 Difficult Situations 185

13 What If We Did This? What Would Happen? 192

Notes 203

Editorial Reviews

“Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing is a must have resource for parishes who desire to revitalize sacramental ministry with couples who are preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage. Aware of today’s cultural challenges and inspired by the baptismal catechumenate, the authors present a new approach to marriage ministry focused on conversion and lifelong discipleship. The book outlines a formation process that engages the couple in a deeper life of faith and calls the entire community of faith to accompany them on the journey. Like the RCIA, this new approach to marriage sacramental ministry has the possibility of transforming the entire parish community through marriage preparation, celebration, and ongoing pastoral ministry with couples. If you are hoping to inspire young couples and your parish community to a deeper, living faith, you will find great inspiration in this book!”
Karen Kane
Director of Worship
Archdiocese of Cincinnati

EBOOK COMMENTARY

Till you are blue in the face, you’ve told couples to prepare for married life, not just the wedding day. Diana Macalintal and Nick Wagner say that’s not enough. Prepare couples for discipleship. Applying the theory of the catechumenate to engagement, this book bursts with so many practical ideas that you won’t be able to hold them all in your hands. It will improve marriages and parishes alike.”
Rev. Paul Turner
Pastor, St. Anthony Catholic Church, Kansas City MO
Author, The Catholic Wedding Answer Book


“A wedding that celebrates the conversion process of a man and woman like the Easter vigil does for the catechumenate? Could that be? In Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing, Macalintal and Wagner propose a fresh vision for marriage preparation that parallels the RCIA process: a call to discipleship formed within a parish community that nurtures neophyte families. Pastors and parish leaders—if your marriage prep isn’t ‘working’ to create committed Christian couples, this book offers practical pathways to rethink, restructure, and breathe new life into your process.”
Karla J. Bellinger, DMin, author of Connecting Pulpit and Pew, director of the Center for Preaching, Evangelization, and Prayer


“Joined by the Church, Sealed by a Blessing is a must have resource for parishes who desire to revitalize sacramental ministry with couples who are preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage. Aware of today’s cultural challenges and inspired by the baptismal catechumenate, the authors present a new approach to marriage ministry focused on conversion and lifelong discipleship. The book outlines a formation process that engages the couple in a deeper life of faith and calls the entire community of faith to accompany them on the journey. Like the RCIA, this new approach to marriage sacramental ministry has the possibility of transforming the entire parish community through marriage preparation, celebration, and ongoing pastoral ministry with couples. If you are hoping to inspire young couples and your parish community to a deeper, living faith, you will find great inspiration in this book!”
Karen Kane
Director of Worship
Archdiocese of Cincinnati

From the Publisher