John Curtis - The Mission of Love: A Sacramental Journey to Marital Success

THE MISSION OF LOVE

A SACRAMENTAL JOURNEY
TO MARITAL SUCCESS!

By

John Curtis, Ph.D.,

Fr. Dominic McManus, O.P.,

& Mike Day

Imprimatur :

In accordance with c. 827, permission to publish is granted on June 25, 2014, by Most Reverend Francis J. Kane, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Permission to publish is an official declaration of ecclesiastical authority that the material is free from doctrinal and moral error. No legal responsibility is assumed by the grant of this permission.

Copyright 2014 by the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great (U.S.A.) All rights reserved. Published by New Priory Press,
1910 South Ashland Avenue, Chicago, IL 60608-2903

NewPrioryPress.com

Table of Contents

Preface: This Book Is for You vii

Introduction: On A Mission From God

Book I: Who Are We?

CHAPTER 1:
Creating the Vision of Your Relationship Together

CHAPTER 2:
What Do We Stand For?
Branding Your Relationship

CHAPTER 3:
Growing the Body

Book II: Where Are We Headed?

CHAPTER 4:
Eye on the Prize:
Setting Objectives and Working to Achieve Them

CHAPTER 5:
Funding the Vision:
Financial Transparency and Personal Serenity

CHAPTER 6:
Job Descriptions for Couples:
The Importance of Expectations

CHAPTER 7:
Compensation and Benefits

Book III: Why?

CHAPTER 8:
A Sacramental People

CHAPTER 9:
Virtue Coaching:
Feedback, Redirect, and Reconciliation

CHAPTER 10:
Family Time:
Meetings and Retreats

CHAPTER 11:
Prayer: the Final Frontier

Conclusion: Ite, Missa Est

Afterword:
Sign, Sex, and Sacrament

Appendix:
Cohabitation and other Considerations

About the Authors

Index of Citations

Table of C ontents

FORWARD

Preface: This Book Is for You

Introduction: On A Mission From God

Book I: Who Are We?

CHAPTER 1: Creating the Vision of Your Relationship Together

CHAPTER 2: What Do We Stand For? Branding Your Relationship

CHAPTER 3: Growing the Body

Book II: Where Are We Headed?

CHAPTER 4: Eye on the Prize: Setting Objectives and Working to Achieve Them

CHAPTER 5: Funding the Vision: Financial Transparency and Personal Serenity

CHAPTER 6: Job Descriptions for Couples: The Importance of Expectations

CHAPTER 7: Compensation and Benefits

Book III: Why ?

CHAPTER 8: A Sacramental People

CHAPTER 9: Virtue Coaching: Feedback, Redirect, and Reconciliation

CHAPTER 10: Family Time: Meetings and Retreats

CHAPTER 11: Prayer: the Final Frontier

Conclusion: Ite, Missa Est

Afterword: Sign, Sex, and Sacrament

Appendix: Cohabitation and other Considerations

About the Authors

Index of Citations

F orward

I began my career as a marriage counselor in 1975. Then, after ten years as a psychotherapist, I transitioned into my current profession of organizational development consulting. I initially thought I was leaving behind the field of marriage therapy as I embraced what seemed to be the completely unrelated field of organizational development.

However, the synthesis of these two fields became the basis for my doctoral dissertation in 2005 when I studied the relationship between the marital satisfaction of dual career couples and their commitment to their employer. The outcome of my research was the genesis of my first book, "The Business of Love , which was published in 2006. It was my attempt to show couples how to use simple, easy and proven strategies from the world of work to increase their marital satisfaction.

While it took 30 years, I seemed to have "wedded" marriage therapy with organizational development in a manner that I could never have imagined. As a result, I began to present on "The Business of Love" at national marriage education conferences. It was at one of these events in 2009 that I met Michael Day, Director of Family Life Ministries for the Diocese of St. Augustine, FL. He was so enthusiastic about my business approach as a new and contemporary method to build a marriage that he insisted that we find a way to "translate the book into Catholic."

After many months of talking and planning for the new book, we decided we needed to add a third member to our team to ensure the new book would authentically reflect the Catholic Churchway to "translate the book into Holy Matrimony. This lead us to Fr. Dominic McManus, OP, a young Dominican theologian teaching at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.(credentials) Father Dominic brilliantly repurposed the book to become, "The Mission of Love: A Sacramental Journey to Marital Success" which we released in 2014 through New Priory Press.

John Curtis , Ph. D.

July 2014

FORWARD

I began my career as a marriage counselor in 1975. Then, after ten years as a psychotherapist, I transitioned into my current profession of organizational development consulting. I initially thought I was leaving behind the field of marriage therapy as I embraced what seemed to be the completely unrelated field of organizational development.

However, the synthesis of these two fields became the basis for my doctoral dissertation in 2005 when I studied the relationship between the marital satisfaction of dual career couples and their commitment to their employer. The outcome of my research was the genesis of my first book, "The Business of Love, which was published in 2006. It was my attempt to show couples how to use simple, easy and proven strategies from the world of work to increase their marital satisfaction.

While it took 30 years, I seemed to have "wedded" marriage therapy with organizational development in a manner that I could never have imagined. As a result, I began to present on "The Business of Love" at national marriage education conferences. It was at one of these events in 2009 that I met Michael Day, Director of Family Life Ministries for the Diocese of St. Augustine, FL. He was so enthusiastic about my business approach as a new and contemporary method to build a marriage that he insisted that we find a way to "translate the book into Catholic."

After many months of talking and planning for the new book, we decided we needed to add a third member to our team to ensure the new book would authentically reflect the Catholic Church s theology of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. This lead us to Fr. Dominic McManus, OP, a young Dominican theologian teaching at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.(credentials) Father Dominic brilliantly repurposed the book to become, "The Mission of Love: A Sacramental Journey to Marital Success" which we released in 2014 through New Priory Press.

Preface : This Book Is for You

There are a million different reasons you could be reading this book. Maybe it popped up as a seemingly random recommendation from Amazon or you saw a friend post about it on Facebook or Goodreads. Maybe your parish priest or the deacon or sponsor couple helping you with marriage prep is having you read through it before you plan the ceremony. Or maybe your mother slid it across the kitchen table with a knowing look when you finally admitted that you and your girlfriend are sharing an apartment. However you came across this book, there s only one reason to keep reading: its been written for you.

This book exists because God loves you and His Church cares for you. This book was written because throughout the whole of Church history, but especially for the last thirty years or so, popes, bishops, and theologians from around the world have gone out of their way to teach on the goodness and value of marriage and family life. You are reading this book because the authors have together been so taken with the Church s teaching on marriage and family that they were absolutely compelled to share itand they have some pretty good ideas on how to make it work for your relationship toono matter where youve been or where youre at right now.