Posts by Francine & Byron Pirola
A Field Hospital For The Soul
We’ve written a lot about forgiveness, about the need to forgive others not just because Jesus’ commands us to do so but because it liberates us to receive love. As we approach 30 years of marriage, like most long-married couples we understand the relevance of forgiving the other all too well. But what about receiving…
Read MoreForgiveness Is The Life Blood Of Marriage
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do“. (Lk 23:24) These words of Jesus as he was being crucified were meant not just for his executioners, but for all of us. His love transcends all our limitations and failures and calls us into life. We all have someone to forgive; someone who has disappointed,…
Read MoreSt Valentine and Revolutionary Marriage
It’s St Valentine’s day next week. This year, it coincides with Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and a traditional day for penance and fasting. Oh dear! What to do?! Some think this is a pity; normally we focus on romance and joy for the lover’s feast and it’s hard to do that on…
Read MoreCelebrating Saint Valentine
Bulletin Advertisment A Message for Married Couples on St Valentine’s Day God does not call us to mediocrity. God calls us to be a radical witness; to bring alive within our marriage the passionate love and extravagant mercy he has for every human person. God calls us to live this reality within our own marriage…
Read MoreHelp For Marriages Under Stress
January is typically the peak month for divorce applications in English-speaking countries. Having made the decision to divorce, many couples agree to postpone the application for one last Christmas together as a family. The parents hope that by delaying the devastating news until after Christmas, the children will be able to enjoy the day and then have a few weeks…
Read MoreYes is our word. Let’s claim it!
Whatever you think ‘marriage’ means, one thing is clear: we need to change our language. When people think of marriage and the commitment we make to each other too often it is thought of in the terms of ‘no’: ‘no, I will not leave you’, ‘no, I will not be unfaithful’, no, we will not use contraception’. Marriage, and sexual morality more generally, has the problem of…
Read MoreMaking your marriage last the distance
Falling in love is easy! Staying in love requires deliberate effort. We all start out in marriage full of hope, brimming with love and unbounded generosity towards our spouse. Yet rarely do those euphoric experiences of early love persist unabated. Disillusionment edges in as our natural selfishness and thoughtlessness crowd out our earlier bliss-generated altruism.…
Read MoreGoin’ Natural – there’s an app for that
Making love and making babies … there couldn’t be anything more natural! A new development in the family planning field has brought the Church’s wisdom on fertility front and centre. We’ve been natural fertility users for our entire married life and after our third child was born, Francine trained as a fertility educator and we…
Read MoreThe Midlife Crisis Reinvented
Recently we were talking with a woman whose husband is in the grip of a midlife meltdown. Actually, she wasn’t the first; there have been a string of them over the years, all unique in their story line, but also sadly similar. The so called ‘midlife crisis’ has been stereotyped over the years with caricatures…
Read MoreTrigger Warning: You might not like this!
We write a lot of articles together. Usually one or the other will do the first draft taking the idea forward as much as they can. So far so good. It’s when it gets to the next stage that things often derail. We each have a distinctive writing style and we construct our argument using…
Read More