The first couple of the Holy Family also faced doubts, changes and fear. They went through it all trusting in God, together. Joseph did not understand everything at once. On learning that Mary was with child, he thought of quietly sending her away so as not to expose her. But he listened to the angel and took Mary into his home (Mt 1:18-24). He chose to trust. Then came the journey to Bethlehem, the flight into Egypt, the new beginning in Nazareth. And there was the day they

The couple who pray together are not free from crises, but they have something to lean on when crises come. On their wedding night, Tobiah and Sarah got up to pray together before anything else (Tob 8:4-8). They asked for mercy and for the grace to grow old together. That is how they began their life as a couple. Jesus assures us that when two agree on earth about anything they ask, the Father in heaven will grant it (Mt 18:19). The first “two” in a family is the couple. Many

Every marriage has wounds. What saves love is not never making mistakes, but learning to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. Saint Paul gives couples advice worth its weight in gold: “do not let the sun set on your anger” (Eph 4:26). And he adds: forgive one another, as God has forgiven you in Christ (Eph 4:32). Pope Francis, in the exhortation Amoris Laetitia (no. 133), recalls three words that keep a home standing: please, thank you and sorry. They seem small, but they carr