The vocation of marriage is a beautiful sign of God's love for humanity.  It is meant to unite a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of faith and service, and it is the foundation for openness to life.

Given society’s move from Christendom to Apostolic Age, the formation of couples for the vocation of marriage has taken on greater responsibility to insure that those approaching the sacrament are prepared to live out marriage in a culture that is does not support the teachings of the Church. Couples will be formed to live out their marriages counter-culturally with the support of the Church. With this in mind, Marriage Formation at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is one of accompaniment through couple to couple relationship.

The engaged couple contacts SEAS and meets with one of the priests who will share with them SEAS marriage formation process and expectations. The couple takes the Fully Engaged inventory and is assigned an accompanying couple who are married and living out the vocation of marriage. The accompanying couple walks closely with the engaged couple throughout the year long marriage formation process. The two couples gather twice a month and have intentional discussions on a range of topics during the year of preparation. These gatherings will also include touching base with how the engaged couple is doing and if there are questions or concerns arising in the engagement. Ideally, this accompaniment and resulting relationship will continue after the wedding into the early years of married life. The purpose of these gatherings is to build disciples of Christ as the couple is formed in their vocation of marriage.

It is important that every engaged couple as they are being formed hear the proclamation of the Gospel. To this end, the engaged couple will participate in the 9 session Rescue Project and retreat at some point during their year of preparation.

The couple will also complete the Natural Family Planning course as part of their formation. In addition to the gatherings between the engaged and accompanying couples, the engaged couple will attend three short retreat type experiences. These will be 2 to 3 hour times where all the engaged couples gather. The format will include: time for prayer and topical presentations by Marriage Formation Ministry Members.

Finally, the engaged couple will have multiple meetings throughout the year with the priest who is overseeing their formation.

Because of the popularity of weddings in our church, we require parishioner registration of at least one year and active participation in our parish prior to beginning the year of marriage formation.

Please contact us at 970 226 1303 to discuss details about the celebration of your wedding at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.