We are nearing the end of National Marriage Week! Whether you’re married or engaged, thinking ahead to a life with your future spouse or living your vocation every day, I hope that this week has been a time of spiritual growth. I’m so glad that the USCCB dedicates a week every year to praying for married couples. We spend a lot of time, as a Church, praying for men in seminary. We beg God for more callings to the priesthood but often we forget about marriage and holy, happy families being a major source of inspiration for young men who become priests! Marriage is the common vocation, of cours ..read more

When my husband and I were doing our marriage preparation, we went on a weekend long retreat at a local campground. It was COVID time, so there were only a few couples, all safely spaced apart, trying to take in the advice and wisdom given to us as we prepared for a life of loving and choosing each other. At the end of the retreat, we were given wooden crucifixes for our future homes and told about the beautiful Croatian marriage crucifix tradition. It started in a small town called Siroki-Brijeg. The couple will carry a crucifix to the altar and receive a blessing from the priest. When they ..read more

Gift-giving is my love language. By that I mean, I do enjoy receiving gifts, but I really love showing someone I care by gifting them something that makes them happy. I often see things that make me think of someone and make myself save them in anticipation for the next event (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) — or I would just end up giving presents to people I love all the time! Something I wasn’t expecting in marriage was that I really enjoy finding fun themed anniversary gifts for my husband. Anniversary presents absolutely do not need to follow the customary “themes,” but sometimes it helps ge ..read more

If you’re not familiar with Covenant Co.’s Instagram, a few weeks ago I did a revamp! Now more than ever, the goal is to serve you in your upcoming marriage — beyond just getting you successfully to “I do.” Every Monday is focused on prayers for your spouse to start your week (remembering that God is outside of time, so God knows who your spouse is ahead of time!). On Friday, I share brief prompts to help you reflect on the week; what the highlights were, how you nourished your marriage, and perhaps even provide an opportunity to see where you can grow. Wednesdays are for “Q&A,” where marr ..read more

Feast day: April 2 As many of you already know, Ukraine has weighed heavily on my heart since the fighting began in the country. So this month, I wanted to offer something in addition to the opportunity to donate to Ukraine through the chotki — I want to tell you the story of a beautiful married Blessed. Only through God can good consequences come out of evil events. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, as a small community of Covenant, we could learn about this otherwise unknown holy man, pray for his cause, and assist in his canonization?  I’d like to introduce you to Volodymr Pryima. A modern ..read more

Patronage: Affianced couples, against fainting, beekeepers, happy marriages, love, mentally ill, plague, epilepsy Feast day: February 14 Happy Valentine’s Day, friends! In December, I wrote about how St. Nicholas, patron saint of marriage, became Santa Claus. For February, the obvious patron of marriage is St. Valentine! But did you know that our knowledge of the St. Valentine is… muddy, at best?  A brief reminder on the history of canonizations. At the time of St. Valentine, we did not have the official canonization process that we use today. Known as “pre-congregation” saints, our lita ..read more

Originally published by Every Sacred Sunday. I'm just going to say it: I'm really bad at praying the rosary.  I suffer from chronic wandering mind, and no matter how much I set myself up for success, I can't seem to turn it off.  It's not even that I'm easily distracted, like putting my phone in another room would do the trick.  Any time I'm in a silent, distraction-free space, my mind latches onto whatever problems I think I need to solve at that moment. I don't think I'm the only one whose prayer life tends to turn this way. I'm very good at sporadic, sometimes desperate, pr ..read more

Patronage: marriage, illness, Catholic creators Feast day: July 12 Happy October, y’all! This month, I’m really excited to tell you about a couple who you might not realize you know! I opened this Married Saints series with blesseds Luigi & Maria Beltrame Quattrocchis who were the first couple to be beatified together. October’s couple was also beatified together, 7 years after Luigi and Maria, but they hold the distinction of being the first spouses to be canonized together. Prior to meeting each other, Louis Martin pursued becoming a monk and Marie-Azélie “Zélie” Guérin wanted to become ..read more

Family crisis First, I want to give a little bit of a personal update. At the end of August, I had to take a step back from Covenant. My husband contracted COVID-19 while we were both on a business trip to foster and promote Catholic church music. He's young, healthy, and has no underlying issues so we thought it would be a quick "flu-like" event, but he ended up being hospitalized for two weeks and was nearly put on a ventilator. My first priority became making sure he was taken care of. Even though I couldn't visit him, I was still able to do simple things like delivering outside meals and m ..read more

Patronage: farmers Feast day: May 15 (Isidore) & September 9 (Maria) Sts. Isidore and Maria were born just outside of Madrid in the early 12th Century, Spain. A poor family, Isidore worked his entire life as a farmer for the wealthy John de Vergas at Torrelaguna while Maria spent her time cleaning chapels and shrines. Together, they were known for caring for the needy among them. Constant symbols of the faith, working as the hands and feet of Christ, Isidore was consistently late to work the field as he would go to Mass at the dawn of the day. Thankfully, John de Vargas allowed this, and ..read more