Sponsor Couple Ministry Helps Engaged Couples Prepare for a Lifetime Together

Those of us who are or have been married know that marriage can be a rollercoaster. Joy, heartache, love, and sorrow can all come to us at times when sharing our lives with our spouses. Because marriage is a lifelong commitment, it is important to prepare wisely and with purpose, so that couples can face all of these moments together.

Through the Sponsor Couple Ministry at our parish, each engaged couple preparing for marriage is matched with a married couple. Jason and Ines Roach lead the ministry.

“We have been leading this ministry for about five years,” Jason says. “It’s a lot of fun. We really enjoy it.”

Couples meet about four to six times in the months leading up to the wedding. First, a meeting with Deacon Bruce Corbett is scheduled to ensure all the requirements are met for a Catholic wedding. Couples then take the Fully Engaged questionnaire, a series of questions based on Catholic teaching that is meant to spur discussion on pertinent marriage topics, like finances, for example. The sponsor couple would talk with the engaged couple on why they answered the questionnaire a certain way.

“Finances are a really big and important topic,” Jason says. “We are there to help them get the conversation going and be sure they follow through.”

Ines and Jason meet with the couple in their homes and typically provide a meal at that last meeting. The meetings are informal. They discuss marriage, work through topics and ensure the couple is ready for the sacrament.

There are currently seven couples who serve in this ministry. Jason and Ines would love to have more. continued on back cover

“This ministry is a lot of fun,” Jason says. “We really enjoy it.”

There are no prerequisites to this Sponsor Couple Ministry — just to be a married couple and practicing Catholics.

“You don’t have to have any special skills,” Jason says. “You just have to like people and like to talk to people.”

Jason says this ministry is very flexible, as meetings are set at times that work for both couples. Jason and Ines enjoy the fact this ministry can be done as a couple from their own home. With children who are a bit older, they can keep them home with them during the meetings. Jason and Ines try to match up sponsor couples with engaged couples who can relate to each other, whether it be an older couple or one in an interfaith marriage.

“This is a very rewarding ministry,” Jason says. “It is rewarding to see a couple go through this process and get married.”

At the first session, Jason and Ines take a photo of the couple. As a gift, they give them a frame with that photo, a space for their wedding photo, and the Marriage prayer:

“Lord, help us to remember when we first met, and the strong love that grew between us, to see the good within the other, and find answers to all our problems. Help us to say the kind and loving thing, and make us big enough to ask forgiveness of the other. We put our marriage into Your Hands.”

If you would like to get involved in the Sponsor Couple Ministry, please contact Jason and Ines Roach at marriageprep@svdpcc.org.

Jason and Ines Roach enjoy leading the Sponsor Couple Ministry.