The Catholic Church requires that you prepare ahead for your wedding, preferably starting six months before the wedding. During that time you will participate in a Marriage Preparation Program, meet with a priest at least once, and fulfill all the paperwork required for your wedding and plan for the ceremony.

Holy Trinity Parish offers a 6 week Marriage Preparation Program that is designed to support engaged couples as they prepare for their wedding and their lives of commitment.

For registration and additional information, contact the Marriage Preparation Assistant at (202) 337-2840, ext. 121.

The Holy Trinity Marriage Preparation Program offers an opportunity to join with other couples (up to 12) for open and frank discussions of questions that are important in preparation for making a lifetime commitment to one another in the Sacrament of Marriage.  Couples will engage in a process of discussion and reflection that is intended to be participative and inclusive.  Couples will be encouraged to share their relationship and experiences of one another in an atmosphere of respect and confidentiality.  It will be an opportunity to grow together in preparation for marriage.

This program cannot possibly address all relevant issues for couples preparing for marriage, so we have chosen to focus the conversations on the following topics:

• Understanding Self and Partner
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Communication & Dialogue
• Theology and Spirituality
• Family Traditions & Values/Shared Decision Making and Money Management
• Sexuality in Marriage

We hope that these discussions will provide couples with material for further discussion.

The Marriage Preparation Team can be composed of two married couples, a widowed or divorced person and a priest.  They are the facilitators of discussion and serve as resources who can share their experiences, but they do not have "the answers."  The design of the program is intended to have couples talk to one another about the issues before the group, with the team members offering guidance and encouragement.

Each evening after completing assigned exercises, couples will share their responses and work toward mutual understanding of these responses.  This technique requires openness to one another and does not happen automatically.  There will also be opportunities for the large group to reflect on the issues, allowing for sharing on a broader scale.  We hope that the program will offer couples an opportunity to move more deeply into the wonder that is marriage.  We encourage full participation in all discussions, as this is a time to be supported by the Church and your local faith community.

Understanding Self and Partner
This session will focus on knowing yourself and your partner.  You will be invited to participate in mock exercises and will discuss the experience at the conclusion of each exercise.

During the session you will receive the Myers-Briggs personality-profile questionnaire.  It is to be completed and self-scored by each participant and brought to the Saturday Session. 

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Saturday Session)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an assessment of personality preferences (e.g., extroversion/introversion, thinking/feeling, etc).  Effective relationships recognize the need to value these preferences and integrate them within a living and loving relationship.  The MBTI will be taken and self-scored prior to this interpretive session.  This dynamic meeting will be a valuable means to understanding and accepting each other’s differences.

Communication and Dialogue
Discussions will involve issues of communication and how you learn to attune yourself to your partner’s ways of communicating his/her feelings, thoughts, and emotions.  The exercises focus on how comfortable you are expressing and receiving emotions and feelings, how successfully you employ good communication skills, and how you might communicate more successfully

Theology and Spirituality
The Catholic Christian community sees marriage as “sacramental”: a privileged way of experiencing God in the day-to-day partnership of life.  Participants are encouraged to see that God is a significant part of marriage, and that you can count on god and the Church for support and help in difficult moments.

Family Traditions & Values/Shared Decision Making & Money Management
What roles do your "families of origin" play in building your relationship?  How will you approach the new family you are creating?  Here you will have an opportunity to remember your family experiences and to talk about how they will impact you as a couple.  The group will discuss take-home case studies, and then will face some of the financial management issues any couple must deal with.  You will then discuss the process of building support groups to help deal with the difficult moments in your marriage.

Sexuality in Marriage
This session will focus on the opportunities you have to bring out the best of one another in your marriage, and how sexuality plays a significant role in your lives together.

A number of other programs are available in the Washington area for those couples unable to participate in Holy Trinity’s program.  Since the following programs are administered outside of Holy Trinity, please contact these programs directly to make your own arrangements.  Donations vary for each program.

Catholic Engaged Encounter
A weekend retreat from Friday through Sunday afternoon.  Go to www.engagedencounter.org and check listings for Washington, D.C., Arlington, VA, Richmond, VA and Baltimore, MD engaged encounters.

Archdiocese of Washington
Friday night and Saturday day program. Go to www.adw.org/family/marriage or call 301-853-4564.

Diocese of Arlington
Conference for engaged couples on Friday night and Saturday day program. Go to www.arlingtondiocese.org/offices/family/mpe-prep.html to get information and register.

Our Lady of Bethesda Retreat Center
Friday, Saturday and Sunday day program. Call 301-365-0612 for information and registration.

St. Raphael Catholic Community, Rockville, MD
This program is held over the course of three consecutive Sundays in October. Contact Director of Family Life and Worship, 301-762-2143.

You may also contact the Archdiocese of Washington family life office at 301-853-4564 to see if any other parish programs are available.