A new book of personal anecdotes and academic research on marriage
In a new collection of essays edited by Art and Laraine Bennet, a diverse group of men and women lend their voices to a rising chorus. Their message? Marriage is hard — but it’s oh, so worth it.
Catholic and Married: Leaning Into Love brings together nine essays that delve deeply into the challenges facing married couples in contemporary society. Should we have children? Is it okay to use contraception? How do we raise faithful kids? How do we handle our differences in personality and communication styles? These questions are all addressed with sensitivity and humor in a way that is readable and relatable — and always orthodox.
It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with her work, but Simcha Fisher’s chapter is a standout. Fisher is the author of the wise, funny, and no-nonsense Sinner’s Guide to Natural Family Planning, resident blogger at the National Catholic Register, and contributor to books such as Style, Sex, and Substance (in which she gives the single best treatment of the feminine gift of receptivity that I’ve ever encountered).
In Catholic and Married, Fisher tackles the topic of children — specifically, the ways children change you and your marriage. In Catholic circles, we often hear that every child is a gift. But what does that really mean?
And you will praise God for it. You will never regret this life of joys and sorrows, frustrations and exaltations, petty duties and profound revelations. You will, as it says in the rite of Baptism, thank God for the gift of your child.
But the book isn’t just for married couples. It also addresses the hopes and fears of young men and women who want to get married someday, but aren’t quite sure how to get there. In one essay, clinical psychologist James D. White gently acknowledges the experiences of children of divorce, who are often hesitant to marry, fearing that they will repeat the mistakes of their parents. Himself the child of divorced parents, White tells young adults what they need to know to make their marriage succeed, weaving concrete, practical conclusions from social science with a theologically rich explanation of the graces of the sacrament of marriage.
Other essays grapple with the realities of premarital sex, porn, and cohabitation. In an excellent chapter entitled “Stars in the Night Sky: Contemporary Challenges to Marriage,” Brandon McGinley dives deep into the murky darkness of sexual sin. He examines the deeply disturbing prevalence of porn usage and explains how it cripples the human person’s ability to love.
The statistics McGinley cites are not new. But no matter how many times articles report that 70 percent of men and 30 percent of women use internet porn, the fact remains shocking. It seems impossible to understand, let alone
accept, the enormity of the distorted sexuality that number signifies — the broken relationships, lies, and darkness.
At this moment, the emotional low point of the entire collection of essays, McGinley stops to explain the metaphor in his chapter’s title. He writes:
And today we celebrate...
