Discerning marriage in the Catholic Church involves prayerfully considering if God is calling you to the vocation of marriage with a specific person, focusing on whether the relationship helps you grow in holiness and virtue. It’s a process of self-knowledge, mutual understanding, and recognizing the other person as a gift from God. Dating with the intention of discerning marriage is important, rather than just dating for experience. Here are some resources that may be helpful as you discern whether God is calling you down this sacred path!
Resources for Discerning Marriage
- Dating and Engaged: A wonderful webpage from USCCB’s For Your Marriage hub with reliable advice on marriage prep, guidance on dating, tips for wedding planning, and more.
- The Dating Project: 50% of America is single. The way people seek and find love has radically changed. The trends of hanging out, hooking up, texting and social media have created a dating deficit. Dating is now considered…outdated. Follow 5 single people, ages 18 to 40, as they navigate this new landscape.
- Life-Giving Wounds: The mission of Life-Giving Wounds is to help young adults & adults with divorced & separated parents give voice to the pain & find transformative healing in Christ. This journey of healing can be very helpful during the process of discerning marriage.
- The Dating Blueprint: A guidebook on dating for men from Catholic speaker and evangelist, Jason Evert.
- Next Step: An exciting new initiative of the Theology of the Body Institute for people discerning marriage. Based on Pope St. John Paul II’s ideas for proximate preparation for marriage, Next Step walks seriously dating couples through topics that JPII highlights as important for people who think they want to get married but aren’t yet engaged.
- Discerning Marriage: A podcast about marriage discernment with Elizabeth Busby, MTS, LMFT
- Couples who are discerning marriage, even if not formally engaged, are welcome to attend our Celebrating Your Love Day, which has a strong focus on discerning the vocation to marriage.
- Humanum Series from Ecce Films: A series of documentary films and shorts originally commissioned by the Vatican on human love, marriage, and sexuality.
Contact Information
Staff
- Director: John Prust
- Associate Director: Janelle Peregoy
- Associate Director: Wendy Baez
- Administrative Assistant: Angie Rosario