Through spiritual formation and teaching the Church's ministers seek to help couples who are preparing for marriage to accomplish certain fundamental goals:

• Discovering God's gift of faith
• Renewing one's prayer and sacramental practice
• Learning mature love through chastity
• Entering into a dialogue that results in true and honest knowlege of one another and each others' qualities
• Coming to know the essential elements of married love with a particular
• Focus on the ends of marriage: the mutual good of the spouses and procreation, and education of children
• Growing in freedom so that the exchange of vows can be a truly free act of love

The long-standing custom of marriages in the United States is for the religious ceremony and the civil ceremony to concur with each other. In other words, we cannot celebrate the Sacrament of Matrimony without a civil marriage, nor can we celebrate a civil marriage without the Sacrament of Matrimony.  In the case were the couple have already been married civilly, and wish to have their civil marriage "convalidated," the couple is then prepared for the Sacrament of Matrimony.

Please contact Isabel Germes, at the church office 813-988-1593 for more information.
Click here for a guide to marriage preparation at Corpus Christi Catholic Church.