Family Life Ministry
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Welcome to the Office of Family Life. Please feel welcome to browse through any of our sites and select your area of interest.
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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
Dates: Saturday, March 1, 2025 @ 9:00 a.m.
Saturday, October 4, 2025 @ 9:00 a.m.
Meeting in the library at St. Stanislaus School
Registration Fee: $60 per couple
Refreshments included
Longmeadow: St. Mary’s Parish
Contact: 413-567-3124
Date: Saturday, April 5, 2025 (Session Full)
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-canaClass fee is $60. per couple. Space is limited.
Monson: St. Patrick Parish
Saturday, February 14, 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
Springfield: Sacred Heart Parish
Pre-Cana class is scheduled for Sunday March 1, 2026 at 11:15 am.
Call Darci in the Parish Office 413-732-3721
Sacred Heart Church
395 Chestnut Street
Springfield, MA 01104
Latino Ministry
Please contact Lucy Ramos at the Office of Latino Ministry for information.
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
An Invitation for Married Couples to Enrich their Spiritual Bond
Worldwide Marriage Encounter is excited to announce a transformative event titled “God Chose You For Me.” - a seven-hour experience designed to deepen the spiritual connection between married couples. St. Elizabeth Parish in Ludlow will be hosting this one-day experience at their parish Pastoral Center on Saturday, December 6, 2025 – 8:30am - 3:30pm. This unique program will be guided by Fr. Larry Brault (Worcester Diocese), a married couple, and a surviving marital spouse. The experience is an exploration of matrimonial spirituality, rooted in the love shared between husband and wife - a reflection of God's presence. Couples will be guided in creating a personal couple prayer developed progressively through the day. This prayer will then serve as a daily spiritual practice, reinforcing the spiritual bond. The experience is about the profound truth that married couples become an actual manifestation of God's love and Christ's presence in this world, through the way they love one another. Donation per couple is $100 – with Refreshments and Lunch included.
Couples may register online no later than November 30, 2025:
http://wwmectw.org/enrichment.phpFor more information contact
Bob & Marie Lussier @ (413)224-1145 or email [email protected]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.
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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
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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
