The home is the environment where family life is nurtured, where the basic needs of the person are cared for and the domestic church is fostered. Today’s world of dual career families, abundant outside demands, and limited time and economic resources, often distracts from creating a home that meets a family’s spiritual and material needs.
When couples marry they each bring very different home life experiences to their new life together. From the practical perspectives about organization, cleaning and meal planning to important decisions about family traditions and the education of children, couples benefit from making decisions about their future homes together.
HomeAdvantage offers practical educational approaches for creating a home environment that fosters family communication, peace and happiness. Creating a Home Together is a brief workbook of reflective questions designed to aid couples in the process of considering their individual perspectives about home life. It can be incorporated into existing marriage preparation and enrichment programs at either the diocesan or parish level. Once couples complete the questions individually they talk over their responses and identify areas of agreement and divergence. The result is an open dialogue about the time, task and responsibility decisions they want to make to create the home life they envision together.
Creating a Home Together is a 30 page book of reflective questions.
1. Each partner receives his or her own book and takes time to independently reflect on and answer the questions about how he or she envisions their home life as a family.
2. Later the couple comes together to compare their responses and discuss the similarities and differences in their expectations and vision for their home.
3. They then join a small group in the context of marriage preparation or marriage enrichment and with the help of a facilitator discuss their shared priorities and next steps for creating their home together.
This reflective conversation will raise practical questions for how to create the home environment they envision. To provide practical support, Creating a Home Together can be followed by the HomeAdvantage “Let’s Talk Home” discussion series organized in the parish.
