Pre-Cana with the Pope

Renzo and Monica Ortega

Your new favorite Catholic Marriage Podcast! In Pre-Cana with the Pope, Renzo and Monica Ortega, from @TwoBecomeFamily, share their hearts and their kitchen table with all of you as they discuss how the wisdom of St. John Paul II impacts their marriage and family. Each episode makes the Catholic faith's teachings on marriage and family accessible and engaging as they strive to restore your confidence in marriage and family life.

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Why You’re Worthy of Love, Even if Your Toddler Won’t Stop Crying
Apr 25 2023
Why You’re Worthy of Love, Even if Your Toddler Won’t Stop Crying
In todays episode, we sit down and talk about the struggle and  shame that comes in revealing our little battles. We talk about our worthiness of love, why we need to embrace Christmas and Easter and why we shouldn’t be embarrassed about our crying babies. Let’s jump in!Quotes from today:The man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly-and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being-he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must "appropriate" and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself. How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he "gained so great a Redeemer", and if God "gave his only Son "in order that man "should not perish but have eternal life" - JP2Pope Francis on Sharing everything with JesusSUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!This Episodes SponsorInito Fertility MonitorUsed code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabaySupport the show
Will We Have Stretch Marks in Heaven?
Apr 4 2023
Will We Have Stretch Marks in Heaven?
In today's episode, we prepare our hearts for Holy Week by contemplating Aquinas and asking whether or not their will be stretch marks in Heaven. Mentioned in today's episode:St. Thomas Aquinas: Whether Christ's body ought to have risen with its scars?1) He kept His scars not from inability to heal them, "but to wear them as an everlasting trophy of His victory.2) Secondly, to confirm the hearts of the disciples as to "the faith in His Resurrection"3) Thirdly, "that when He pleads for us with the Father, He may always show the manner of death He endured for us"4) Fourthly, "that He may convince those redeemed in His blood, how mercifully they have been helped, as He exposes before them the traces of the same death"5) Lastly, "Christ knew why He kept the scars in His body. For, as He showed them to Thomas who would not believe except he handled and saw them, so will He show His wounds to His enemies, so that He who is the Truth may convict them, saying: 'Behold the man whom you crucified; see the wounds you inflicted; recognize the side you pierced, since it was opened by you and for you, yet you would not enter.'" The Two Thieves Short FilmThe Preparation of the Gifts By  Breaking the HabitSUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!This Episodes SponsorInito Fertility MonitorUsed code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabaySupport the show
TOB 4: Learning to Get Naked Without Shame (General Audience 11)
Mar 21 2023
TOB 4: Learning to Get Naked Without Shame (General Audience 11)
In today's episode, we revisit the Theology of the Body and talk about what it meant for Adam and Eve to be naked without shame and how it relates to our marriage. From JP2:The sentence, according to which the first human beings, man and woman, "were naked" and yet "were not ashamed," unquestionably describes their state of consciousness, in fact, their mutual experience of the body. It describes the experience on the part of the man of the femininity that is revealed in the nakedness of the body and, reciprocally, the similar experience of masculinity on the part of the woman. By saying that "they were not ashamed," the author tries to describe this mutual experience of the body with the greatest precision possible for him. It can be said that this type of precision reflects a basic experience of man in the "common" and pre-scientific sense. But it also corresponds to the requirements of anthropology and in particular of contemporary anthropology, which likes to refer to so-called fundamental experiences, such as the "experience of shame."This passage, together with the meaning of original nakedness inherent in it, takes its place in the contextual setting of the Yahwist narrative. After some verses, the same author writes: "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons" (Gn 3:7). The adverb "then" indicates a new moment and a new situation following the breaking of the first covenant. This situation follows the failure of the test connected with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At the same time that test constituted the first test of "obedience," that is, listening to the Word in all its truth and accepting love, according to the fullness of the demands of the creative Will. This new moment or new situation also implies a new content and a new quality of experience of the body, so that it can no longer be said: "They were naked, but were not ashamed." Here, shame is an experience that is not only original, but a "boundary" one. SUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!This Episodes SponsorInito Fertility MonitorUsed code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabaySupport the show
Why You Need To Stop Complaining About Your Husband
Mar 7 2023
Why You Need To Stop Complaining About Your Husband
In today’s episode, we sit down and talk about how differently men and women view love, and respect, and why parenting or complaining about your spouse falls short of the call of marriage. Let’s jump in!From JP2: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Gen 2:18). The creation of woman is thus marked from the outset by the principle of help: a help which is not one-sided but mutual. Woman complements man, just as man complements woman: men and women are complementary. Womanhood expresses the "human" as much as manhood does, but in a different and complementary way.When the Book of Genesis speaks of "help", it is not referring merely to acting, but also to being. Womanhood and manhood are complementary not only from the physical and psychological points of view, but also from the ontological. It is only through the duality of the "masculine" and the "feminine" that the "human" finds full realization.8. After creating man male and female, God says to both: "Fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). Not only does he give them the power to procreate as a means of perpetuating the human species throughout time, he also gives them the earth, charging them with the responsible use of its resources. As a rational and free being, man is called to transform the face of the earth. In this task, which is essentially that of culture, man and woman alike share equal responsibility from the start. In their fruitful relationship as husband and wife, in their common task of exercising dominion over the earth, woman and man are marked neither by a static and undifferentiated equality nor by an irreconcilable and inexorably conflictual difference. Their most natural relationship, which corresponds to the plan of God, is the "unity of the two", a relational "uni-duality", which enables each to experience their interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift which enriches and which confers responsibility”SUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!This Episodes SponsorInito Fertility MonitorUsed code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabaySupport the show
Is the Husband the Head of His Wife?
Feb 28 2023
Is the Husband the Head of His Wife?
In today’s episode, we sit down and discuss the husband’s headship and a wife’s submission. We talk about what mutual submission means, what it looks like in our marriage, and we lean on St. John Paul II for guidance. Let’s jump in!From JP2:“The author of the Letter to the Ephesians sees no contradiction between an exhortation formulated in this way and the words: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife" (5:22-23). The author knows that this way of speaking, so profoundly rooted in the customs and religious tradition of the time, is to be understood and carried out in a new way: as a "mutual subjection out of reverence for Christ" (cf. Eph 5:21). This is especially true because the husband is called the "head" of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church; he is so in order to give "himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), and giving himself up for her means giving up even his own life. However, whereas in the relationship between Christ and the Church the subjection is only on the part of the Church, in the relationship between husband and wife the "subjection" is not one-sided but mutual.”https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_19880815_mulieris-dignitatem.htmlSUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!This Episodes SponsorInito Fertility MonitorUsed code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabayInito Fertility Monitor Used code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show
Unpacking the Lies Holding Back Our Marriage
Jan 24 2023
Unpacking the Lies Holding Back Our Marriage
In today's episode, we sit down and reflect on a wedding homily from St. John Paul II. We talk about memories, lies that we unknowingly believe, and the hills that Renzo is willing to die on. We’re so glad you’re here with us. Let's jump in!“May Christ be with you always. Never take your eyes off him. Seek him in your thought, in your heart and in your prayer, so that he may guide your young love towards these great tasks, the responsibility for which you assume from today onwards. And may new men -your children, the future fruit of your union—bear witness that you are carrying out faithfully the eternal plan of love of the Creator himself; and subsequently may they find, through you, the way to Christ and to his Church. In this way you will give thanks to God for the love which he has brought forth in your hearts and which he permits you today to express and confirm with this great sacrament.”  https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1979/february/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19790225_nozze.htmlSUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabaySupport the show
Making Your Marriage a Gospel With Pope Benedict XVI
Jan 10 2023
Making Your Marriage a Gospel With Pope Benedict XVI
In today's episode we look to the late Pope Benedict XVI for his thoughts on marriage. Together we reflect on what it means for our marriage to be a gospel and why our cultures crisis of faith is also a crisis of marriage. Let's jump in!Some Pope Benedict XVI quotes: The message of the word of God may be summed up in the expression found in the Book of Genesis and taken up by Jesus himself. What does this word say to us today? It seems to me that it invites us to be more aware of a reality, already well known but not fully appreciated: that matrimony is a Gospel in itself, a Good News for the world of today, especially the dechristianized world. The union of a man and a woman, their becoming “one flesh” in charity, in fruitful and indissoluble love, is a sign that speaks of God with a force and an eloquence which in our days has become greater because unfortunately, for various reasons, marriage, in precisely the oldest regions evangelized, is going through a profound crisis. And it is not by chance. Marriage is linked to faith, but not in a general way. Marriage, as a union of faithful and indissoluble love, is based upon the grace that comes from the triune God, who in Christ loved us with a faithful love, even to the Cross. Today we ought to grasp the full truth of this statement, in contrast to the painful reality of many marriages which, unhappily, end badly. There is a clear link between the crisis in faith and the crisis in marriage. And, as the Church has said and witnessed for a long time now, marriage is called to be not only an object but a subject of the new evangelization. SUPPORT OUR MINISTRYThank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do, and we pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing, here are some ways you can support our show:  Support us on Patreon!Our BooksGo To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. JosephGo To Joseph For ChildrenFREE RESOURCESFertility Awareness Cheat SheetRelationship Check-UpOur MinistryAbout UsConnect with us and send us a message on InstagramYouTube ChannelEpisode Music by Alex_MakeMusic from PixabayInito Fertility Monitor Used code MON15 at checkout for 15% off your starter kit.Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Support the show