The 2024 diocesan marriage preparation course opened with Father Charbel Challita on the ethics of married life, followed by the testimony of Marianne and Joe Nehme.
The Family Committee and Metanoia Listening Center of the Greek Melkite Catholic Diocese of Sidon and Deir El-Qamar opened the diocese's 2024 marriage preparation course.
The first session took place on Monday evening 29 April, from 7:00 to 9:30 pm, at Dar Al Inaya in Salhiyeh, under the title "The Ethics of Married Life," with Father Charbel Challita, a specialist in moral theology and bioethics.
In the first part, Father Challita introduced the theme and handed out questions; the participants divided into three groups, answered the questions individually and then shared their experiences for an hour.
During the break everyone celebrated Father Challita's birthday by cutting a cake and wishing him a long life.
After the break, Father Challita enriched the participants with ethical principles that help them read their relationship clearly. He stressed openness and sharing in everything concerning their married life – financial, practical and social matters – and considering one's spouse an essential part of one's life: being in constant partnership while leaving space for the other. Freedom in married life grows together with the other, on the one hand, and also means knowing when to say "no," on the other. We must decide what we want to give up and what we will keep.
Ethical discernment means distinguishing between what can be postponed and what cannot, since time is not always on our side. So we must know how to choose the right moment to discuss shared and personal matters.
Father Challita stressed fairness towards one's spouse: giving them what they need and want, not what I think suits them.
After the talk, the participants listened to the life testimony of Marianne and Joe Nehme, a couple from the Family Committee, who spoke about their experience of marriage preparation courses during their engagement and how these helped them resolve their disagreements in the first years of marriage.
Each person then wrote down the fruits they had received from the talk and shared them with the group. The session ended with prayer.
The second session, on Thursday evening 2 May 2024, was titled "The Importance of the Physical Relationship," with Dr. Aline Ghosn.
