09/16/2024
From Sarah Bartel of www.canafeast.com
Ladies, check it out!
“It was a big leap of faith--and really stepping out on a limb for me!--when I created a class for Catholic women to help them thrive in their love lives with their husbands.
However, I am so glad I did it!
There is just nothing else out there like it that...
Respects Catholic teaching
Is woman-to-woman!
Includes 12 weeks (90 days) of live, ongoing support to accompany you on your journey!
So many Catholic wives in the course shared with me that this helped them enormously in various ways, even if it was just that they realized they were normal and not broken!
Women told me "I wish I knew all this when I first got married."
An engaged young woman in my fall class a few months ago said, "You have saved me and my future husband from a lifetime of bad habits."
In our weekly group coaching calls, I have been able to speak to the specific, anonymous questions that women in the course emailed me directly asking about, drawing on my training as a Catholic moral theologian, my background in marriage ministry, and my experience of being a s*xually satisfied wife of 24 years.
Since opening the course for the first time in Fall 2022, I have had taught four cohorts, and am now preparing to open enrollment for my Fall 2024 group (open enrollment: Monday, Sept. 16-Thursday, Sept 19th).
It has turned out actually to be a ton of fun for me (despite being quite nervous when opening that first cohort!), and I have been humbled to hear what a blessing it has been for the women who have gone through the course over the last year and a half.
One wife who we'll call "Morgan" had a specific questions for me about how far was too far during the infertile time when she and her husband were trying to avoid pregnancy.
After hearing my advice, she wrote me this email:
"I wanted to follow up on this and let you know.... THANK YOU!
This truth was a bit difficult to swallow at first for me, and I delayed talking to my husband about it until the next day (after our date night). As I expected, he was upset at first. But being the choleric he is, he quickly reflected and read up on it, and immediately saw the truth of it. He wrestled with it in prayer for a time that day.
Already the next day, and every day since then, there has been such an outpouring of grace in our relationship and in ourselves individually since we have held to this standard. I have loosened up and I am free to receive his affection during our abstinent-fertile times. He has poured himself out during these times, intensely cleaning the house and doing yard work. But I think the greatest gift of all, is that he has really taken ownership of his prayer life and has committed himself personally to it every day. I think he (as we all do) have a great need for intimacy, and he was displacing some of the God-shaped hole in his heart on me, and I was feeling the pressure of never being able to fill that infinite need. Now he prays his own personal prayer daily, and I can ask him to intercede for me on specific things. And we discuss often the beauty of intentionality of each season of my cycle. And we can both see now, what a tremendously sacred thing it will be in the future whenever we discern TO make love during a fertile time!
Thank you so much for your guidance and direction. I have told my husband, that the price of the course was worth it, just to receive your direction in this one matter, and have things changed so much for the better.
And so many of the practical insights have been good for us as well! I am able to use so many of them to our advantage given our constraints."
Are you interested in joining the next group to go through My Delight with me?
If so, I wanted to make sure you know that I'll be opening up the course again to a new cohort of Catholic wives (and engaged women) this week!
Monday, Sept. 16-Thursday, Sept. 19th th will be the open enrollment period for the Fall 2024 My Delight group.
In the days ahead I'll be sharing more about the course.
If you have a friend, sister-in-law, daughter, young engaged bride-to-be or newlywed wife you're mentoring, and you want them to know about the course, feel free to share this Enhancing Intimacy Guide with them, and that will put the on the waitlist so they will get the announcements.
You can also hear more about the work we do in My Delight and the approach I take in the podcast episodes I've been on lately (see P.S. below).
Thanks so much for your interest and support!
God's plan is for s*x to be mutually joyful and delightful in marriage. Don't be afraid to step into that gift!
In the Joy of the Bridegroom,
Sarah
P.S. This only happens twice a year! My Delight will open for enrollment for the Fall 2024 cohort tomorrow, Monday, Sept. 16-Thursday Sept. 19th
***I have been a guest on several podcasts lately talking about the work I do in this course. Catch me on:
The Hormone Genius Podcast (emphasis on s*xual health, function, and flourishing. Shorter conversation, on all your podcast platforms.)
Mrs. Happy Catholic (especially for Traditionalists. This one is long! It's a video episode on YouTube)
Charting Toward Intimacy: Talking with host Ellen Holloway about Licit and Illicit Acts (Part 1 and Part 2)
Charting Toward Intimacy: What Do I Do If My Husband Doesn't Agree with Church Teaching?”
