The Four Keys to Everlasting Love: How Your Catholic Marriage Can Bring You Joy for a Lifetime

Pope Francis, in his recent exhortation Amoris Laetitia ("Joy of Love"), praises marriage as a unique "friendship marked by passion" and "a free, faithful, and exclusive love." We live in a culture that doesn't cherish the permanence of marriage, according to Karee and Manuel Santos. Even Catholics aren't immune from the epidemic of divorce. But how can you make the ideals of being forever, faithful, fruitful, and free a reality? How can you maintain a healthy Catholic marriage when society is pushing against it?

No marriage--even a sacramental one--is free from conflicts about sex, money, child-rearing, in-laws, and work/life balance. Marriage columnist Karee Santos and her husband, Manuel, a psychiatrist who has been counseling couples for more than fifteen years, explore how applying the wisdom of the Catholic faith to marriage can free us to experience deep, lasting, and soul-satisfying love.

We live in a culture that doesn't cherish the permanence of marriage, according to Karee and Manuel Santos. Even Catholics aren't immune from the epidemic of divorce. But St. John Paul II, in his Theology of the Body, calls engaged, newlyweds, and long-married couples alike to be "forever," "faithful," "fruitful," and "free."

How can you maintain a healthy Catholic marriage when society is pushing against it?

In The Four Keys to Everlasting Love, the Santoses draw on real-life stories, scriptural principles, and the timeless wisdom of St. John Paul II to help you celebrate the sacrament of Marriage without downplaying the difficulties of married life. In doing so, they will inspire you to stay in love with each other, Christ, and the wisdom of the Church.

The Santoses tell their own story as well: how they learned not to cling to personality, culture, or religious differences; how they learned to put family first; how they overcame health crises that exacted a physical, emotional, and spiritual toll; and how they navigated stressful holiday get-togethers with extended family. They let God transform them and make their marriage stronger.

Each chapter provides discussion questions, action prompts, quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church and various popes, and additional online and print resources to stimulate the couple's conversation, mutual understanding, and positive change. Free worksheets and other supplemental resources are available on the authors' website, canwecana.blogspot.com.