Search
-
PARMA, Ohio — It took only the first two sessions of the Pre-Cana weekend, held at the cathedral complex March 17-18, for a participant to approach presenter Father Thomas J. Loya of the eparchy’s Marriage and Family Ministry with feedback.
Father Loya recalled how the young man said, “This is not what I expected. I expected a boring weekend and being told ‘do this and don’t do that.’ I really did not even want to come to this. I was brought up Catholic but my only experience of it was just a bunch of rules and things like that. This Pre-Cana program is so different. I cannot wait for tomorrow’s sessions.”
This marriage preparation program, designed in conjunction with the Tabor Life Institute, fuses Byzantine Catholic spirituality and St. John Paul II’s theology of the body to return the world of love and marriage to its mystical context. Instead of a talk on finances, the focus is on the spirituality of stewardship. Instead of a talk on communication, the focus is on the Christian way of relating to others. Instead of a talk on the evils of artificial birth control, the focus is on the sacramental worldview versus the contraceptive worldview.
With the help of presenters from the local Byzantine Catholic community, the nuts and bolts of daily life, such as paying bills, raising children and running a household, were set in the context of the domestic church. Regardless of their topic, all of the presenters consistently communicated that living a sacramental marriage, where God and church are at the center, is the only guarantee to a long, holy and happy marriage.
Father Michael Hayduk, rector of the cathedral, also explained the Byzantine Catholic marriage ritual to the 11 couples present. A very unique feature of this program was when couples were taught by Father Loya how to paint a canvas together.
More than one participant remarked at the end of the weekend that what they learned was “so different than anything else we ever knew.”
Caption: Deacon Greg Loya speaks to Pre-Cana couples about the spirituality of stewardship. (Photo: Father Thomas J. Loya)
As published in Horizons, March 25, 2018.
Sign up for the e-newsletter.
