Marriage Prep - what a great blessing
Last night, my wonderful fiancee and I had our first class with the Meerts who are teaching our marriage prep class, and my goodness, what an awesome joy. I can't sing their praises loud enough, and this is why.
Now, if you're reading this, you probably know that I spent a bunch of time in the seminary studying theology. I'm not nearly as well trained as your average parish priest, but I can hold my own in a lot of situations where the topic of conversation is Theology. So, walking into marriage prep, which is often targeted for couples who aren't even necessarily well catechized, I was afraid that I was going to be in for an abbreviated, watered down version of what I learned in the seminary, as I had a whole three hour graduate level course on the sacrament of Matrimony. Also, I am well aware that my posture and fear is an extremely prideful one - one that Lisa has been kind to put up with and to gently nudge me away from. Anyway, prideful as that might be, past experiences of some classes has shown me that when a presenter presents nothing but content, I get bored and check out. ...but I digress.
The Meerts are awesome, because their end purpose wasn't to present theology or doctrine (though, that they did and wonderfully). Their end goal was to help us enter into prayerful contemplation of Scripture! After a brief period of getting acquainted with the other couples in the room, we started in on Genesis 1-3, the stories of creation and the fall of man. Furthermore, we read it aloud (the ONLY way to come to know scripture, through the hearing, ask the ethiopian eunuch) and mulled over its contents.
This is a winning formula, in no small part because the Meerts don't make it about themselves. It isn't an exercise in learning their system of thinking, nor is it them getting up and telling us what to think and how to think it and to copy their example. It is a window into seeing how God has put humanity together, and their witness of to the Joy that is possible when we cooperate with God's Word. I sing their praises because they help me sing God's praises, and just one class in, I can't wait for what further classes might hold.
Now, if you're reading this, you probably know that I spent a bunch of time in the seminary studying theology. I'm not nearly as well trained as your average parish priest, but I can hold my own in a lot of situations where the topic of conversation is Theology. So, walking into marriage prep, which is often targeted for couples who aren't even necessarily well catechized, I was afraid that I was going to be in for an abbreviated, watered down version of what I learned in the seminary, as I had a whole three hour graduate level course on the sacrament of Matrimony. Also, I am well aware that my posture and fear is an extremely prideful one - one that Lisa has been kind to put up with and to gently nudge me away from. Anyway, prideful as that might be, past experiences of some classes has shown me that when a presenter presents nothing but content, I get bored and check out. ...but I digress.
The Meerts are awesome, because their end purpose wasn't to present theology or doctrine (though, that they did and wonderfully). Their end goal was to help us enter into prayerful contemplation of Scripture! After a brief period of getting acquainted with the other couples in the room, we started in on Genesis 1-3, the stories of creation and the fall of man. Furthermore, we read it aloud (the ONLY way to come to know scripture, through the hearing, ask the ethiopian eunuch) and mulled over its contents.
This is a winning formula, in no small part because the Meerts don't make it about themselves. It isn't an exercise in learning their system of thinking, nor is it them getting up and telling us what to think and how to think it and to copy their example. It is a window into seeing how God has put humanity together, and their witness of to the Joy that is possible when we cooperate with God's Word. I sing their praises because they help me sing God's praises, and just one class in, I can't wait for what further classes might hold.