Quotes from Gregory K. Popcak

The truth is that the Catholic Church celebrates and esteems sex more than any other faith. By exploring what authentic Catholic tradition holds about human sexuality, any husband and wife can experience sex as God intended it to be experienced — an eye-popping, toe-curling, life-giving, profoundly sacred, and deeply spiritual union of one divinized human person with another.

but for now, it is important to know that any time a husband and wife contracept, they are saying to each other, "I just want the parts of you that make me feel good; I don't want the parts of you that make me commit to you for life and enable us to celebrate a love so powerful it could become its own life." That

there is no greater inheritance that we can give to our children than siblings.

It is by making a sincere gift of ourselves that we discover the nature of our goodness.

Lord, Jesus. Please come into my heart and make me Your little child. Teach me to love You more than anything, and help me always live my life for You.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of this day. Thank you for making Mommy to be a woman and Daddy to be a man. Thank you for calling us to the sacrament of marriage. And thank you for bringing [insert the names of your children here] into the world through Mommy and Daddy's love. Please help them to grow into strong men and women, and teach them how to love as you love.

Each night, we bless our children by placing our hands on their heads and saying, "Lord Jesus, please bless this child. Send Your Holy Spirit into his/her heart, and help him/her to love You more than anything. Give him/her Your grace so that he/she can grow up to be the man/woman You want him/her to be. Amen.

The important thing to remember is you cannot give what you don't have. If you want to be an effective relationship model for your kids, you definitely don't have to have a perfect marriage (phew, right?) but you do have to show your kids that you take your relationship seriously and work hard at it. Regardless, if you want to achieve a true Catholic sexuality, then the only answer is to love. Love

Most people spend a good deal of energy denying that one day they will die. The common perception is that time flows forward from birth and ends with a huge question mark at death—a view that makes life meaningless and absurd. But this is a mistake. I believe it was the philosopher Martin Heidegger who asserted that time flows backward from death giving life its meaning. Death clarifies.

In order for your marriage to become that great love story there are certain things you need to establish in your early years together because relationships tend to build and grow on precedent.

1. individual and couple prayer 2. nurture your love 3. each other, but an even stronger commitment to your vows 4. learn new skills when new challenges come instead of giving into a tendency to blame your marriage or spouse for being "broken