Office of Family Life

George Rigazzi, Director
Lisa Carrasco, Associate Director and Coordinator of Hispanic Family Ministry
Cristy Welch, Program Assistant and Coordinator of Natural Family Planning
(405) 721-8944*7501 NW Expressway, Oklahoma City
Mailing address is P.O. Box 23180, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73123 

Programs Offered
Use the links below to find out more information on any of the following programs:

Pre-Cana w Convalidación  w Engagement Encounter Weekend wFirst Years and Forever
Parish Sponsor Couple Training w Marriage Encounter w To Seal & Strengthen Love 
 Parenting Class  w Stepping Into Marriage with Children w Natural Family Planning  
Retrouvaille w Divorced and Separated Support Groups
Beginning Experience w Bereavement Ministry w Rainbows  
Miscarriage Support Group wRachel's Vineyard Retreats  w Project Rachel  w Project Gabriel  Sacred Heart Apostolate w Teams of Our Lady

Survey of Medical Research Associations and Foundations

PRO-LIFE APOLOGETICS 101

Prolife Outreach Information
http://www.nccbuscc.org/

Pre-Cana
A day for couples preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage.  A specially prepared volunteer team of married couples and a priest, share their experiences and information with the intention of enabling engaged couples to be more aware of the privileges and responsibilities of marriage.

June 20, 2009
August 22, 2009
October 24, 2009

Pre-Cana in Spanish
June 27, 2009
September 12, 2009
November 21, 2009

Convalidación
A Spanish-language marriage preparation program for couples that are married civilly or thru common law and want to have their marriage blessed by the Church. This program gives a couple an opportunity to learn how to live their marriage as a sacrament in today’s society. The couples reflect on various topics and the demands they face in marriage. The program helps them to focus on how to foster a Christian family life.

Engagement Encounter Weekend
The program for the weekend is presented by a team of married couples and a priest.  The team couples share their own personal journey of marriage in relation to selected topics.  After each presentation, the engaged couples are given questions that are related to the topic of the presentation.  The couples then share their responses with one another.

November 13-14, 2009
 

Resources for Young Married Couples
You can receive a monthly e-newsletter, from the Archdiocese of Chicago office of family ministries, designed specially for young married couples called First Years and Forever. The newsletter is a available in  English, Spanish and Polish. Check out a sample newsletter or click here to Subscribe.

Parish Sponsor Couple Training
The Office of Family Life offers sessions to benefit couples who will serve as mentors to the engaged in their parish. Videos are also available.

Call the Office to make an appointment.
Training will be held in the parish.

Marriage Encounter
Marriage Encounter is a process designed to give you and your spouse a special opportunity to examine your life together and your strengths and your limitations, your attitudes toward each other and toward your family, your hurts and your fears, your desires and ambitions, your disappointments and your joys, your successes and frustrations. 

World Wide

Marriage Encounter in Spanish

To Seal & Strengthen Love
A program based on Dr. Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages designed to help married couples communicate more deeply and effectively.

Parenting Class
A training session will be offered to instruct the participants on how to implement a program in their parish

Stepping Into Marriage with Children
Too often we assume that second marriages need little to no preparation, but 60% of second marriages end in divorce.  This seems to be due, in part, to unanticipated problems and miscommunications.  The issues highlighted in this program are:  communication, Step-family structures, former spouses, conflict, sexuality, and spirituality.

November 7, 2009

Natural Family Planning
Introductory / Informational Sessions and courses on NFP are offered each month at the Office of Family Life and throughout the Archdiocese. Learn more about “A Way of Life, A Way of Love”, by calling (405) 721-8944 or email Cristy Welch for the schedule or to make an appointment. NFP is 98/99 % effective in family planning for most couples when taught by a qualified instructor. It is scientific and compatible with the teaching of the Catholic Church. It is easy to learn. Classes are available in the Ovulation Method, Marquette Model, and Sympto-Thermal methods. Choose the method that is best for you.

Natural Family Planning in Spanish
Given by Certified Instructors, videos also available. Introductory Session held in Parish

Couple to Couple League Natural Family Planning
http://www.ccli.org/

Billings Natural Family Planning
www.usa-boma.org

Retrouvaille
Retrovaille is for couples with troubled marriages including separated and divorced couples that want to try again to make their marriage work. All names are kept in strictest confidence. Retrouvaille begins with a weekend. Six Follow-up sessions are required following the weekend.

Divorced and Separated Support Groups
This workshop is designed to help new leaders, those wanting to become leaders and those who lead support groups that need revitalizing. While some time the participants will enjoy personal enrichment and spiritual renewal, this workshops main aim is to teach leaders what it means to be a ministry leader for the divorced and separated. Through discussions, small group interaction and activities the participants will first learn the grieving process, then how to start a support group, and many other projects.

Beginning Experience
This is a ministry to help cope with the traumatic experiences of losing a loved one through separation, divorce, or death.  Beginning Experience is carried out by a trained team of volunteers done at special weekend gatherings which encourage participants to share their need and deal with the natural process of grief and loneliness.


July 24-26, 2009
October 16-18, 2009

Bereavement Ministry
This year's Bereavement Ministry training will be offered by The Samaritan Ministry.  This all-day workshop will focus on providing organized, caring ministry for the sick, the homebound, and their caregivers, along with the families both at the time of death and for the bereaved.  Practical elements of the training will include how to start-up this ministry within a parish, how it can compliment and work with other parish ministries (especially Stephen Ministry and those who are hospice volunteers), and how to recruit and train volunteers.

Rainbows
A weekly support group program for children, adolescents, and adults who are grieving a death, divorce, or painful transition in their family

Miscarriage Support Group
This program is for women and men. Based on materials from Elizabeth Ministry, this 12-week support group meets on the last Saturday of the month from 1-2:30 p.m. Registration required.

Rachel's Vineyard Retreats for Healing after Abortion
Experience the healing love of Jesus Christ on a Rachel’s Vineyard weekend retreat. The retreat offers an opportunity to deeply enter into the grieving process and identify the ways your abortion may have affected you. Discussions, spiritual exercises, prayer and reflection are combined with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a Memorial Service honoring your child and a Mass of Resurrection. Participation is strictly confidential and offers a beautiful opportunity to experience God’s love, forgiveness and tender compassion.

Both men and women are invited to experience this therapy for the soul. The program is an apostolate of the Catholic Church, but those from other faith backgrounds are welcome to attend. Pre registration is required. Cost is $75 for materials, lodging and meals. Financial assistance is available. Space is limited.
 

Project Rachel is Available
With one to one meetings with a lay minister, priest and / or licensed counselor, work through the spiritual, emotional and psychological. After effects of abortion.

Rachel Support Group
This support group meets prior to attending a Rachel’s Vineyard Retreat.

Rachel Aftercare
Group meetings for those who have already attended a Rachel’s’ Vineyard Retreat or Project Rachel.

http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/

Project Gabriel
Help Moms choose life! PROJECT GABRIEL is an apostolate of the Catholic Church that reaches out to Moms experiencing a crisis pregnancy. It is a mentoring program that offers support through prayer, friendship and referrals for medical and material needs. Project Gabriel is a grass roots, hands-on approach, an opportunity to make the corporal and spiritual works of mercy come to life. Please consider becoming a Gabriel Angel or a member of the Gabriel Auxiliary. Trainings are held at the Catholic Pastoral Center.

Project Gabriel is:
Pastoral:  the church responding by meeting a mother's needs that range from spiritual to material;
Educational:  the church proclaiming the value and dignity of all life, especially unborn life, through the witness and actions of its members;
Evangelical:  the church loving and caring for those possibly outside the faith community so that they may be brought to Christ.

Sacred Heart Apostolate
This one hundred year old apostolate is geared toward the fostering of putting Christ at the center of the family and prayer as a family. Mass for the Sacred Heart Apostolate is the First Friday of every month at 7 p.m., beginning with Adoration and confessions and 5:30 pm., in the Chapel at the Catholic Pastoral Center.

Teams of Our Lady
An international movement of married couples that seeks growth in the spiritual life of the couple and the family through a program of prayer and study. Growth on communication is another goal by developing intimacy by way of shared prayer and regular in depth talks.