Welcome to the Office of Family Life. Please feel welcome to browse through any of our sites and select your area of interest.

• Pre Cana
• Marriage Encounter
• Natural Family Planning
• Retrouvaille Marriage Help Program
• Grief Support Groups

PRE CANA

Please contact the parishes below directly for more details and to sign up.

Agawam: St. John the Evangelist Parish
Contact: 413-786-8105
Arrangements for Holy Matrimony at St. John’s will need to be made at least one year in advance of your wedding date. Please call the Rectory office at 413-786-8105 and we will be happy to help you.

Chicopee: St. Stanislaus Parish
Contact: 413-594-6669
Date: Saturday, October 5, 2024 @ 9:00 a.m.
Meeting in the library at St. Stanislaus School Refreshments included

Longmeadow: St. Mary’s Parish
Contact: 413-567-3124
Date: Saturday, October 26, 2024, or April 5, 2024
Classes begin with lunch @ 11:30 a.m. and ends with Mass at 4:00p.m.Preregistration with payment is required. Register online at www.stmarylong.org/pre-cana Class fee is $60. per couple. Space is limited.

Monson: St. Patrick Parish
Saturday, Febraury 15, 2025 
 Check-In: 8:00 a.m., Mass 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
 Cost per Couple only $50.00. Light refreshments, lunch, and take-home materials. Join us for an enlightening day of relaxing, open, non-judgmental discussion related to these marriage themes:
 Communication – Explosive Issues – Conflict Resolution
 Our Families – Our Hopes & Dreams – Intimacy
 Religious Faith – Family Planning – Financial Matters
 Contact Couple: Peter & Elizabeth Matrow
[email protected] or 413-887-7308
Please contact us to receive a fillable pdf registration

Latino Ministry
November 16, 2024
St Mary’s, Westfield
9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.

Please contact Lucy Ramos at the Office of Latino Ministry to register
413 452 0631  [email protected]

We prefer our face to face pre-cana options for our engaged couples. Having said that, during this time we are offering an online option for your consideration. Living our Faith in Love is approved by the Catholic church and will give you a certificate of completion to present to your priest. Learn more about The Marriage Group here 

MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER

Worldwide Marriage Encounter’s Mission of renewal in the church and change in the world is to assist couples and priests to live fully intimate and responsible relationships by providing them with a Catholic “experience” and ongoing community support for such a lifestyle.

Marriage Encounter is designed to give married couples the opportunity to examine their lives together…a time to share their feelings, hopes, disappointments, joys, frustrations…and to do so openly and honestly in a face-to-face, heart-to-heart encounter with the one person they have chosen to live with for the rest of their lives.

The emphasis of the Marriage Encounter weekend is on communication between husband and wife, who spend a weekend together away from the distractions and tensions of everyday life, to concentrate on each other. It’s not a retreat, nor a marriage clinic, nor group sensitivity. It’s a unique approach aimed at revitalizing Christian Marriage.

Learn More Here

NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING

Natural Family Planning (NFP) promotes the love-giving and the life-giving nature of marriage, supporting God’s design for husbands and wives. NFP, which promotes an openness to life, is based on scientific, natural and moral methods of achieving or postponing a pregnancy.

For more information, contact Jennifer McManus at [email protected] or call (413) 533-5204

Additional NFP Resources

• Natural Family Planning (NFP)

• FertilityCare Centers of America

• NaPro Technology

• Pope Paul VI Institute

• The National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility

RETROUVAILLE WEEKEND
 

Retrouvaille, a Christian Peer Ministry for troubled marriages. Although this confidential ministry has its origin in the Catholic Church, all denominations are welcome. Retrouvaille, which means “rediscovery”, consists of a weekend experience in which husbands and wives are helped to re-establish communication and gain new insights into themselves as individuals and as a couple.

You will not be asked to share your problems with anyone else. However you will be encouraged to put the past behind you, to look beyond the hurt and pain, in order to rediscover each other in a new and positive way.

You may contact Retrouvaille on the Internet at Retrouvaille Home Page: www.retrouvaille.org for articles, dialogue, questions, etc. Many of these articles may be just what you were looking for.

For more information on programs in your area please call: 1-800-470-2230 or visit the www.helpourmarriage.org