Marriage and Family Life Ministry Parish Resources
This page will continue to be updated with resources for helping parishes develop a fulsome marriage and family life outreach. If you are interested in assessing your current parish ministries and talking through some additional resources available please contact the office: jdaniel@diorc.org
Marriage and Family Life Ministry Studies
To help your parish form a vision of what marriage and family life ministry might look like, the following studies are the most recent from two of the most prominent research groups on the topic.
CARA Study – Future Faithful Families Project: Successfully Raising Catholic Children to be Active Catholics as Adults
BARNA Study – Communio
Programming
Below are a few programs that have been curated that would be a good fit for a parish wishing to implement a substantial ministry to strengthen marriage and family life.
Together in Holiness Conference Series & Formation Small Group Series
Together in Holiness is a comprehensive marriage enrichment initiative that inspires spouses to grow together in holiness and empowers and equips parents to form their children in the Catholic faith. It accomplishes this mission in two complementary ways:
- an annual, one-day Conference series for couples in dioceses
- a year-round formation series for couples in parishes, schools, and small communities (Currently 4 years of content)
The St. John Paul II Foundation is a national Catholic apostolate proclaiming the Good News about life and family through education and formation. As part of this mission the foundation works in collaboration with a parish to start and implement these initiatives over the course of a full year. The parish sponsors part of the costs for their materials and staff expertise and the individuals going through the program cover their individual costs at a much lower rate.
Building a Eucharistic Marriage
The “Building a Eucharistic Marriage” course is a 7-part video series, built off of a therapeutic model for change, which connects 7 areas for therapeutically strengthening our marriage with 7 areas of deepening our relationship with Christ through the Eucharist. This course comes out of a longer program written by Greg Schutte, MSW, LISW-S called “Discovering Our Deepest Desire,” which has an imprimatur from the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
Trinity House Community Groups
The Trinity House model centers on how the family is a communion of persons in the image of the Holy Trinity. The Gathering format gives busy families what they want—not lengthy talks and loads of homework—but friendship and community in a primarily social setting. Families receive formation, but in a context that starts by fulfilling their felt needs.
Dynamic Catholic – Better Together
BETTER TOGETHER gets couples excited for marriage prep because the practical and inspiring content truly resonates with them. The program can be adapted to fit any schedule, making the marriage prep process easier for you and every couple you work with. We believe it’s important for all Catholics to have access to world-class sacramental prep programs. All of the BETTER TOGETHER content is available online for free.
Be Light Series
Be Light, a 5 year marriage enrichment movement, draws married Catholic couples closer together in Christ while being transformed into family missionary disciples within their own communities. It has 3 components: Be Light Mini Date Night Series (free for couples and parishes), a 5-Year Be Light program for parishes, and access to the leadership course for those Be Light parish subscribers.
Catholic HOM (Households on Mission)
Developed by Dr. Greg Popcak, CatholicHÔM is the first-ever digital platform dedicated to helping Catholic families encounter Christ more meaningfully at home and draw closer to each other by living the Liturgy of Domestic Church Life. When God created families, he programmed certain practices into them that would help them be happy, healthy, and holy. Social science research reveals that every happy, healthy family throughout history and across every culture has employed these practices, at least implicitly. Although every family is different, and the shape of these practices can vary from place to place and home to home, these habits are very much alike at their core. Taken together, we call these God-given, family-building practices the Liturgy of Domestic Church Life.
Well Ordered Family
And that leads to spouses drifting apart, teenagers drifting away, and the resulting grief that you are losing those you love most. It isn’t necessary. The Well-Ordered Family was founded to put an end to this. As a father of fifteen children (yes, 15) and CEO of multiple businesses, Conor Gallagher has created a management system by adapting business tools for family life. There is a reason business runs smoothly and family runs chaotically. Our unique system will put order and clarity back into your life.
Communio
Communio is a full service ministry that helps you over the course of 3 years to implement a full parish strategy from start to finish by doing 4 things:
- Analyze: They help your parish uncover the marriage and relationship health of your members and community through first-party survey and data insights tools.
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Plan: They equip you to build a Data-Informed, Full-Circle Relationship Ministry® to strengthen the relationship health of your parish and evangelize your community through the renewal of marriage and family life.
- Implement: Communio provides ongoing ministry consultation to execute your ministry and turn-key outreach services to invite new people to your new experiences.
- Review: They equip you to measure efficacy of your ministry and discipleship in real time in order to make adjustments as new data becomes available.
Upcoming Events
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Becky Berreth2026-08-01 16:31:302026-09-14 13:46:12Celebration of Marriage 2026