Top 3
Expectations

Jose and Mayra – Diocese of Sacramento, CA
His impression of the prep: This class has helped me see things in a different view and has helped me open up more to my fiancé about topics we really never talked about. The explanations to our answers helped me understand more on what is to come in my new soon to be marriage and how much God will be a part of our lives. Thank you again to our instructors. God bless.
Her impression of the prep: Wow- where to start. this class has given us the tools to grow closer in conversation and become closer to God. I say that because the assignments allowed us to come together as one when responding to the questions. There was still so much to talk about after each assignment, it made for great conversation, and really opened my eyes. We are really fortunate to have had our instructors as out mentors. I know Jose and I gave pretty short and direct responses but the clarification that was provided in our answer key really helped.
Did it meet his expectations: Yes, it met my expectations.

Did it meet her expectations: Indeed, it did!

Jacob and Katherine -  Archdiocese of New Orleans, LA
His impression of the prep: I found this class to be a great way to prep for our upcoming Catholic wedding.  I love learning new things, and I found the lessons about Catholicism and the Catholic Church's practices to be very informing and great stuff.  More importantly I loved learning about my soon to be wife and how she feels on certain things.  This class provides great insight on what to expect in a marriage along with the Christian values we must uphold to make a marriage work.  Our teachers were awesome and provided some of their own experiences as a married couple (as well as tons of websites and tools to read) which I found very helpful.
Her impression of the prep: I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course, it not only helped me better understand some of the teachings, but it also helped me understand where he stood on several of the teachings.  I think it hit on quite a few tough subjects, but also subjects that did need to be discussed together.  Katie and Jeff were awesome, their responses as well as their real-life situations, really put things into perspective for us. The course helped Jake and I open up on a much deeper spiritual level.
Did it meet his expectations: Being totally honest here, Katie and I planned on attending a weekend Catholic wedding prep retreat in New Orleans back in August.  However, Hurricane Ida had other plans and the retreat was cancelled.  We then decided to take this online marriage prep class and admittedly we had a little bit of apprehension/doubts about it, mainly because it was going to be on a computer screen and not with other couples in person......but this class was so great!  It met my expectations and then some.  I really wanted to learn more about Catholicism, and this class helped tremendously with that.  It also provided great resources (websites, videos, etc) that we can use in the future.

Did it meet her expectations: It met my expectations by helping Jake understand a little bit more about being Catholic. It helped us grow closer to God and each other.  I also learned how Jake interpreted the teachings and his view point on certain topics.  I enjoyed the refresher course on some of the teachings, but I also learned deeper meaning of the teachings that I never quite understand fully. We were sad about not making the retreat due to IDA, but this turned out to be the perfect substitute and we learned a lot about each other.

Marc and Brittany -Diocese of Boston, MA
His impression of the prep: This entire course made my relationship better with God and Jesus - moving forward, the information that I have learned and that we discussed has also strengthened my relationship with my future wife. I now know that nothing, and I mean nothing, can come between us. I also want to mention, this is going to push me to attend mass every week - and make it a priority via work schedule. It's important to me to have that. And I don't think I would have if I didn't take this course.
Her impression of the prep: This course solidified my relationship with God and with Jesus, what I knew deep down, came right out. It was almost like a test to see how much love I have for God and Jesus and also with Marc. We were pushed at times to really think about our future as husband and wife through the eyes of God and the Holy Spirit. This course made us do that in a way that was healthy and healing at the same time. I can't speak on Marc's behalf, but I think we enjoyed every assignment and enjoyed reading and watching all that was provided for us to strengthen our relationship with each other and with God.
Did it meet his expectations: Yes! I didn't know about a lot; specifically, how important this sacrament is. I had an idea, and I knew it was important, but I never thought about the importance of it via God.

Did it meet her expectations: YES! BIG YES! This is all I could ask for - when we sat down and discussed each assignment and when we watched the slide shows and videos, just being able to do that together as a couple was great. learning together was such a great process. And the feedback we got from our instructors was even more helpful.

Top 3

Parish Life

Brandon and Anna – Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL

Impacted his Faith: The course absolutely reinforced my commitment to God and the Church. There were so many powerful examples provided, many of them coming from Kathy and Dave, of how God must be the center of our lives and our relationship.
Impacted her Faith:  This class didn't seem like just a marriage course. It really seemed to teach us how to draw closer to God together. This class felt like it was adding onto my progression into the Catholic faith, so I appreciated the extra Catechism and Scripture built within the lessons. A lot of the advice and answers gave great ways to develop healthy habits in prayer, going to Mass, and growing together. I really think we will be using most of these!
His parish life plan: Anna brought up some good suggestions during one of the last assignments, such as me being an usher on Sundays. Another way I was thinking about while we were going through this answer key was Anna and I helping out with the Catholic Marriage Prep in the future. Once we have years of love experience under our belt, I think it would be an awesome way to pay it forward and try to help out a young couple just as our instructors did for us!

Her parish life plan: Due to working on Sundays, I honestly gave myself the excuse of not going in person to Mass often and sometimes just watching it online. I'm now going to challenge myself to go on Saturday's or earlier Sunday morning before I work. I also want to challenge myself in contributing in offering and tithing. Hopefully, when Brandon and I are able to live together next year, we can contribute together in evangelizing and participating in events/bible studies.

Cody and Megan – Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas

Impacted his Faith: It reminded me why we do all of the things we do as Catholics and makes me want to do better at talking with God each day.
Impacted her Faith: This course gave me a deeper understanding of what it means to be married in the eyes of God. It makes me want to have a strong, spiritual relationship with my future husband and God
His parish life plan: I plan to attend mass every Sunday and to continue doing my daily devotionals.

Her parish life plan: In order to solidify my relationship with Christ I plan to attend mass each week, continue to communicate with God daily through prayer, and continue my daily prayer/devotionals through the app on my phone.

Daniel and Sara – Diocese of Monterey, CA

Impacted his Faith: Absolutely revived my faith by doing the work and learning along the way.!
Impacted her Faith: I am revived and feel so thankful for this course which really helped me understand the entirety of the sacrament of marriage and I thought before the class that I knew why this was a sacrament but I have a much better understanding of it now and it makes me desire getting closer to God and His Church through this sacrament and be prepared for my marriage to Daniel.
His parish life plan: Attend mass, confession, and all the sacraments.

Her parish life plan: We plan to read the Bible together, go to church every Sunday, and give more of ourselves to our church regarding time and money.

Top 3
Communication and Comments

Miguel and Kimberly – Diocese of of San Jose, CA

How did it better your commutation: Our communication improved tremendously! It made us have more conversations on what we thought after every assignment. It also helped us find ways to discuss our disagreements.

Appreciated most by him: I appreciated our instructors the most because they took the time out of their lives to give us feedback and information on every assignment we submitted.

Appreciated most by her: I appreciated the forgiveness cards, because I thought it was an amazing way to communicate with each other and taught us to not be afraid of speaking out and forgiving one another.

Jantz and Heather – Diocese of Lafayette, LA

How did it better your commutation: We did talk about things that we have never deeply discussed before. We talked about abortion, contraceptives, and pornography more than just our opinion on it, but our feelings and concerns, etc.

Appreciated most by him: What I appreciated most was how well thought out the topics of the assignments and the questions. I think until someone bring up the topics and how it relates to God's word and the relation to marriage, I never gave it that much thought in that way. Also, being able to do this together and see how we have similar feelings about things is beneficial.

Appreciated most by her: I appreciated the honesty of the topics and from our instructors. I loved how it touched on REAL topics of everyday struggles in marriage, and well in life. And the honesty of the struggles that they faced in their own relationship just make it easier to relate and helps eliminates the idea that marriages are perfect.

Logan and BrookeAnn – Diocese of Cambridge, OH

How did it better your commutation: It improved our communication tremendously. We were able to sit down together and discuss how we truly felt about the different components of the class. Even though we are not both Catholic, we share many similar beliefs and the ones we did not agree on, we were able to talk through with understanding.

Appreciated most by him: I appreciated how in the depth the lessons were. Each section of the class gave us very detailed information. I feel that we learned very much from this class.

Appreciated most by her: I appreciated the care and passion put into the answer keys the most. The responses we were given by our instructors really made us feel like our lives and experiences were truly important.