"Everyone has a vocation to love. What's yours?"

Tomorrow, Jay and I are going to our Church marriage retreat. To prepare, the retreat coordinators (one of whom was my 7th grade CCD teacher) sent us a DVD produced by the Knights of Columbus called Everyone Has a Vocation to Love. What's Yours?

Yesterday, we settled into the family room to watch the marriage section of the DVD. And while I didn't have high hopes for the movie (I mean, just check out the title screen!), I was surprised by just how uninformative it was.

Maybe it's just that Jay and I were raised in fairly traditional Christian families, but I thought there would be more to it than a bunch of couples saying how great their marriages were because they prayed together, were open to children (read: no birth control), and saved sex for marriage. That was it. No history of marriage in the Church. No expectations of engaged couples. Not even an explanation of the very detailed requirements for a Catholic wedding.

The only thing Jay learned was the term "beatify."

I'm glad that I know one of the retreat coordinators so well. I just hope she's prepared for some intense discussion from me. If the Church is going to make me jump through hoops to get married, they had better make it informative and thought-provoking.

My questions are, "How do we develop a spiritual relationship as a couple?" "Why are openness to children and the use of birth control considered mutually exclusive?" "How does a 'mixed marriage' couple integrate and honor their different traditions?" "How does the Church support couples and families?" "Why is Church culture so obsessed with having children when the Catechism itself says that childless couples have spiritually fulfilling and valuable relationships?"