Posts by Francine & Byron Pirola
Holy Spouses – Holy Family
The Church has long valued the spousal dimension of Mary and Joseph’s relationship. It encourages us to see marriage not just as a social institution for the purpose of raising children, but as a divine calling to personal holiness through service to each other. We’ve all heard of major Marian feasts like the Immaculate Conception or the Assumption,…
Read MoreMarriage: to be happy or to be holy?
“And they lived happily ever after”… it’s the ending of the fairy tale love story and has become the expected story line of most modern day couples. Swept away by passion and the overwhelming experience of ‘falling in love’, couples expect the wedding to seal their happiness in permanent (and effortless) marital bliss. Of course,…
Read MoreHabit Makers, Habit Breakers
Do your evenings ever disappear into the couch, your phone, and a half-watched Netflix show? We realised ours had—and something important was quietly missing. In this post, we explore how small, intentional rituals can transform ordinary routines into meaningful couple time… without adding another thing to your to-do list. Lately, we’ve slipped into a not-so-good…
Read MoreResolutions to Have and to Hold
It’s a new year, a new beginning. Among all the goal setting, consider what you can do to transform your marriage. Have you ever noticed that New Year resolutions often have a repentance nature? Resolutions such as ‘to drink less’ or ‘to give up smoking’ directly identify behaviours we readily associate with vice. Even those…
Read MoreKeeping Our Eyes On What Matters
The day after the biggest birthday in the world (i.e. Christmas), is the feast day of St Stephen. He also happens to be the confirmation saint chosen by Byron some 50+ years ago. As the first Christian martyr, Stephen’s story is featured in Chapters 6 and 7 of the Acts of the Apostles. Selected as one of…
Read MoreGratitude: Superfood for Relationships
We all seek happiness and are drawn to the things we believe will make us happy. But sometimes, the things we desire fail to deliver. Whether it’s a lotto payout, the dream job, the celebrity-style wedding or the mega mansion in the best part of town, it often turns out that the things we think…
Read MoreBlessed be the (Relationally) Poor
Embracing the Call to Love in an age of relational poverty. Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation Dilexi Te (Latin: I have loved you, Rev 3:9), reminds us that faith and love for the poor are inextricably linked. He writes, “We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith…
Read MoreLove in the Waiting
Advent is the season of waiting; we wait in anticipation of the coming of Christ. But are we the only ones doing the waiting? I (Francine) was hurrying to get out the door for 7am Mass. I looked at the time on the car clock and sighed in defeat: 6:58. There was no way…
Read MoreA Real-World Advent
Fasting from devices to make room in our hearts and homes Halfway through a supermarket dash last week, Francine’s watch alarm began buzzing insistently – the pavlova in the oven was done. Reaching for her phone, realisation hit – her digital lifeline was still at home! Juggling the imminent arrival of family for…
Read MoreGratitude: Plant Now, Reap Later
As we look forward to the new year, lots of us are making resolutions, setting goals, planning for the coming months. Most of our colleagues in the marriage education field are posting articles about setting relationship goals – an excellent idea, but we’d like to propose something different. It has been well established that gratitude…
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