Greg and Lisa Popcak have a new marriage enrichment program.

The following is an article by Marian Tascio Friedrichs, from the July-August 2010 issue of “Family Foundations,” the publication of the Couple to Couple League International (CCL). “A Marriage Made for Heaven” includes a leader’s guide, DVD, and workbooks.

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“It’s so easy to put your relationship on hold and not pay attention to it,” said Peggy Skiano, who serves with her husband, Deacon Ralph Skiano, as director of the Office for Marriage and Family Life in the Diocese of San Diego, Calif.

Many CCL couples can relate: After taking care of  a home and children, advancing a career, carving out a prayer life and serving in ministry, spouses may find sometimes that the wellsprings of their personal connection has begun to stagnate or even run dangerously close to dry.

Greg Popcak, Ph.D., a Catholic therapist, author and Family Foundations columnist, and his wife, Lisa, want to see marriages brimming with life-giving love. Their books on the subject include “For Better… FOREVER! A Catholic Guide to Lifelong Marriage” (Our Sunday Visitor, 1999) and “Holy Sex! A Catholic Guide to Toe-Curling, Mind Blowing, Infallible Loving” (Crossroad Publishing, 2008). But the Popcaks’ latest offering, “A Marriage Made for Heaven: The Secrets of Heavenly Couplehood” (Crossroad Publishing, 2009), provides more than a reading experience: It is complete, interactive, and distinctly Catholic marriage enrichment program.

Designed for groups but adaptable for use by solo couples, “A Marriage Made for Heaven” includes a leader’s guide, a DVD, and a couple of workbooks. Participants commit to meeting once a month for 12 months. They explore a different topic each month under Greg and Lisa’s guidance via the DVD. Greg stresses that no formal training or experience is required to be the group’s leader couple. “All you have to do is open the book and read it,” he said.

After exploring the monthly theme, couples are presented with a fictional case study pair to whom they offer marital advice. In this way, spouses practice applying the meeting topic without discussing their own relationship in front of the group. For homework, husband and wife converse privately about their marriage in light of what they have learned.

The Popcaks conceived “A Marriage Made for Heaven” in response to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ November 2009 pastoral letter, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan. The program’s content evolved out of the questions and concerns that Greg and Lisa were hearing from couples through their call-in radio show, “Heart, Mind, and Strength,” and through Greg’s telephone-based counseling service, the Pastoral Solutions Institute. Greg said he hopes the program will deepen couples’ understanding “that the Catholic vision of love really brings something unique to the table” and that “[in] every great and mundane task of married life… there is great spiritual purpose and power.”

The Skianos initiated the program at their home parish of St. Michael’s in Poway, Calif., because they plan to spread it throughout their diocese; they also signed on “for selfish reasons,” Ralph said. He and Peggy wanted to enrich their own relationship, and the Popcaks seemed like an obvious resource. After reading their books, Ralph said, “I have a lot of trust in what [they are] doing.” He has not been disappointed: “I’m seeing lots of good things in our marriage that I tie directly to the program.”

When Jackie Corrigan, the consultant for Family Life in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., test-drove “A Marriage Made for Heaven” with her husband, Richard, she found that it “knocked down the roadblocks in our marriage, such as bouts of selfishness.” It has especially aided their prayer life, she said. “We can be bounced around by everything that the culture feeds us, and that couple-prayer steadies us.”

“I am excited for our married couples of all ages and stages, Jackie said. “[Greg and Lisa have] laid before us a wealth of practical ways to move our marriages from ordinary to extraordinary.”

Click to order “A Marriage Made for Heaven.”

Natural Family Planning Classes Taught

Classes in Natural Family Planning are taught in 17 locations in the Chicago metro area, including southeast Wisconsin and northeast Indiana. The next series of classes will begin Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, at 2 p.m., at St. Gerald Parish, 9310 South 55th Ct., Oak Lawn IL 60453, taught by Matt & Susan Jones, (708) 424-3750. Click for more information from CCL Central.

To register, and for a list of classes throughout the U.S., go to the CCL Central class locator. (800) 745-8252.

The method taught is the Sympto-Thermal Method, which is also taught via CylePRO software. Sign up for a membership with the Couple to Couple League International at www.ccli.org, and receive “Family Foundations.”