CCL Releases New Marriage Prep Book

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEYour Love Story
October 28, 2016

Media Contact:
Ann Gundlach, Director of Communications
agundlach@ccli.org
1-800-745-8252 Ext. 1033

 

New book helps engaged couples write their love story in line with God’s plan

CCL releases low-cost/high-impact complement to any marriage preparation program  

CINCINNATI, OHIO — It took many years and several missteps before William and Pat Turrentine finally discovered God’s marvelous plan for marriage. This allowed them to correct their own path and rewrite the story of their marriage and family life into something deeper than they had imagined. Now a deacon in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, William Turrentine has written Your Love Story: A Guide to Engagement and Marriage to give other couples these “liberating, though sometimes difficult, truths” from the beginning “to deepen their love and enrich their marriages.”

Published by the Couple to Couple League, Your Love Story proclaims the Christian view of authentic marriage. Deacon Turrentine, who along with his wife prepares couples for marriage and has taught Natural Family Planning for more than three decades, filled the book with personal stories and helpful insights in a blend of humor and wisdom to connect the young couples of today to the fullness of Church teaching in a society confused about marriage.

“It’s so easy for couples to get trapped by the pleasures and minimal commitments of today’s cynical, consumerist society,” Turrentine says. “But with an understanding of Christ and his Church about marriage they can write their love story in the context of God’s love story. They can reveal God’s love to each other in their human love.” Turrentine stresses that this goes beyond the couple, too, as their mutual love can lead others around them — including their children — to a strong human love that can even point them to a divine love.

“Getting marriage right can truly change society,” he says.

Your Love Story makes the teachings that the Catholic Church has on sexuality, love and marriage more relevant and relatable to young couples today, in part by using the Theology of the Body to explain how marriage makes the invisible love of God visible in the world. It also follows the example of Pope St. John Paul II of using witnessing rather than teaching, proposing rather than imposing. To that end, interspersed with Turrentine’s own personal stories and anecdotes are several inspiring stories written by real couples who share their struggles and triumphs through the seasons of married life.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York appreciates the approach of Your Love Story. “It includes some powerful stories and testimonies from couples that can truly speak to young men and women entering marriage preparation,” he said.

While the book is targeted to young couples, Reverend Erik Pohlmeier, Pastor of Our Lady of Holy Souls in Little Rock, AR, also sees the book as a benefit for leaders in the Church, describing it as “a perfect resource for engaged and married couples as well as priests, deacons and lay leaders for use in marriage preparation programs and counseling.”

A great benefit is that Your Love Story makes it easy to communicate reading and prayer preferences — no other publication is necessary. The book contains the complete, new and approved translations of all the readings and prayers for the wedding ceremony. Other features include:

  • A welcoming tone to non-Catholics as well as to both practicing and non-practicing Catholics (it does have an imprimatur)
  • Gospel essentials such as the meaning of salvation, the central importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the transforming power of the seven Sacraments
  • The role of forgiveness and sacrifice in real life marital situations
  • The meaning of becoming one flesh and an explanation of natural family planning

Quantity discounts are available for clergy and parishes.

For more information, visit www.ccli.org/your-love-story

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The Couple to Couple League (CCL) is an international, Catholic, non-profit organization founded in 1971 dedicated to promoting and teaching fertility awareness (natural family planning) to married and engaged couples. Our mission is to build joyful marriages by teaching natural family planning, couple to couple.