This is a question that has often crossed my mind when I see married couples praying... and it may be aimed more at married members on here. I see a lot of devout married people seem to pray alone. I understand some of you may not have known the Lord when you married, but has your partner turned out to be a help or a hindrance in your walk with the Lord?
When I met my husband, we were both far away from our respective faiths, I was raised Catholic and he was Pentecostal. He was raised to be suspicious of Catholics and told me he thought they were a "cult". I just laughed it off because at the time I didn't really care. We married outside the church and almost from the beginning things started going downhill. It was coming down to us not making it, then I got mad. So mad I decided to start going back to church. Because our marriage was "irregular" I tried going to different protestant churches, where I would "fit in". They were nice for the most part, and if I hadn't been raised Catholic I would have probably been quite happy with one of them, but for me there was always something missing. I finally gave up and started attending Mass even though I could not go to confession or receive communion. I quietly started praying the rosary, I hid green scapulars under the mattress, and after about 6 months, a miracle occurred. My husband said he wanted to go to Mass with me! I told him it would be hard because of our irregular marriage and that I didn't think he'd like it, but he insisted so we started going as a family. After a couple months, he wanted to become Catholic! The annulment process took 3 difficult years (I dont know why people think they're too "quick and easy"--I assure you they are slow, gut-wrenching, embarrassing and humbling) during which we continued faithfully attending Mass without receiving the sacraments. Finally, we were able to have our marriage blessed and the next spring he was received into the faith. So, I would say he started out as a hindrance, but turned out to be the person who drove me back to God. Also, I do pray alone quite a bit because I'm kind of chatty with God and Mary and my angel, and etc..., but we pray the rosary together as a family almost every evening (our son can't sleep unless we do). God bless! pcj
