On the Road to Ever After (E-book)

A wedding lasts for a day. Marriage is for a lifetime.

That is why helping couples prepare for marriage is more than helping them complete a requirement before the wedding. It is a sacred opportunity to guide them through prayer, reflection, honest conversations, deeper understanding, and grace.

On the Road to Ever After: A Pre-Cana Workshop Manual for Engaged Couples, Serious Relationships, and Church Workers is a practical guide for priests, parish workers, family and life ministry volunteers, speakers, and organizers who accompany engaged Catholic couples as they prepare for their wedding and for the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Written like a workshop in a book, this manual guides church workers through the important areas of married and family life that engaged couples need to reflect on: knowing and loving oneself, growing in faith, understanding one’s future spouse more deeply, communicating with love, preparing for the wedding and marriage, embracing sexuality as a gift, welcoming children, building a family of faith, and facing real-life family challenges together.

Each chapter is designed to help speakers and facilitators lead couples to pause, reflect, write, and share. The manual encourages engaged couples to keep a notebook or journal where they can answer the reflection questions, pray over their thoughts, and later discuss them with their fiancé or fiancée. In this way, Pre-Cana becomes not only a requirement to attend, but a meaningful experience that can help couples prepare their hearts and lives for marriage.

Written in simple and conversational language, this manual helps church workers present the beauty of Catholic marriage in a way that is practical, pastoral, and relevant to everyday life, especially for couples who may not have attended many catechism classes or faith formation sessions.

This book may serve as a speaker’s guide, workshop reference, and formation tool. It includes scripts and outlines that can help parishes conduct Pre-Cana sessions with more structure, depth, warmth, and pastoral care.

Marriage preparation is not simply about helping couples get ready for the wedding. It is about helping them prepare two hearts, two lives, and one future family.

May this book help church workers accompany engaged couples with greater confidence, compassion, faith, hope, and love.