Sense of Life. Articles in English. The Grace of Being Engaged.
Welcome to the world of language jobs!
 
Portal for Language Professionals and their Clients.  39,000+ Freelance Translators.  7,000+ Translation Agencies.
Articles for translators and linguists - The Grace of Being Engaged
Home More Articles About the Sense of Life Database of Translation Agencies Database of Translators Become a Member!

Menu

  Upload Your Resume
  Add Your Translation Agency
  Become a Member
  Edit Your Profile
  Find Translation Jobs
  Find Rare Translation Jobs
  Find Very Rare Language Jobs
  Find Jobs in Rarest Pairs
  Receive All Jobs by RSS
  Work for Translation Agencies
  Post Your Translation Job
  Hire Translators-Members
  Hire All Translators
  Easily Contact Translators
  Hire Translation Agencies Members
  Contact All Translation Agencies
  Obtain Blacklisted Employers
  Apply to Collection Agencies
  Read Articles (By Category)
  Read Articles (By Index)
  Read Sense-of-Life Articles
  Read Work-at-Home Articles
  Use Free Dictionaries
  Use Free Glossaries
  Use Free Translators
  Use Free Software
  Vote in Polls for Translators
  Subscribe to Free Newsletter
  Advertise Here
  Buy Database of Translators
  Buy Translation Agencies List
  Buy Membership
  Watch Out for Scam E-mails
  Read Testimonials
  Read More Testimonials
  Read Even More Testimonials
  Read Yet More Testimonials
  Read Still More Testimonials
  Become our Customer
  Use Resources for Translators
  Use Online Directory
  Read our FAQ
  Ask Questions in Forum
  Use Sitemap
  Admire God's Creations

The Grace of Being Engaged


October 20, 2008. Zakopane-Górka. A wooden chapel in the retreat house of the Jesuit Fathers. My friend, Fr. StanisÅ‚aw, has invited me here on the pretext of introducing me to certain woman. I greet her; we start a brief conversation. Father asks me to approach the altar and suddenly calls out, “Darek!” My boyfriend walks out of the sacristy. He is all spiffed up in a suit and holds a bouquet of nine roses in his hand. Now I know what is in the wind. That day I became engaged to an exceptional fiancé.

Among my fellow students I often encounter criticism of marriage and what it entails, including the formal process of engagement. Many are of the opinion that one does not need a piece of paper to be happy. They claim that pledging one’s fidelity and love at the altar changes nothing, since they declare their love every day at a café or party–and often in the presence of friends. All these arguments strike me as funny and immature, totally unsuited to twenty-four-year-olds who, come May, will be receiving their master’s degree. It strikes me as odd that people should attach so much weight to a superior education, a good profession, and an expensive car, and yet dismiss so important a matter as family life and an authentic relationship with another person.

Darek and I have been together for over five years. Never have we enjoyed as deep a bond as the one we are now building as an engaged couple. Since the day he asked for my hand in marriage, it is as if our relationship had risen to another level. Now we enjoy the certainty that we will always be together. Because of this, we can talk honestly and openly about our weaknesses and how we intend to live our life together. We want to make special use of this time in order to perfect ourselves. In the presence of the other’s love, it is easier to see and overcome those flaws in our character, which prevent us from developing a friendship with Jesus and each other. At the same time we can develop a spirit of acceptance and unselfishness, which enables us to be a gift to Another. Our engagement is a great grace, and this is why we have also taken certain steps, which, while bringing us closer together, enable us to better prepare for marriage. Above all, these concern remaining pure in heart. We try not to arouse immodest actions and thoughts in each other. Remaining pure in our relationship has been much easier since we were engaged. That same day we decided that on the day of our wedding we would say to Jesus at the altar: “It is for You that we waited. Our pure hearts are our wedding presents to You–our common Bridegroom.”

Chastity enables us to see each other in a different way–with greater love. The tenderness we express toward one another is innocent of sexual overtones, and this gives us a great deal of joy. We also try to talk to each other more often and openly. We have decided, for an hour every month, to share our recent achievements and things we still find difficult, which hinder us in developing our common bond. Another important element in the whole process are the pre-marriage courses we took in high school and the more intense and immediate sessions we are currently taking at spiritual retreats of the Movement of Pure Hearts. We have been members of MPH for five years. That is where it all began: building our friendship with Jesus, meeting interesting people we can count on, and getting to know each other. MPH put us on the right path. Our engagement was the next step in the process.

We have had crises in our relationship. One was particularly serious and threatened to break us up. But then everything our friends had taught us, their prayers and support, helped us to weather the crisis.

Ignatian retreats have been another way of perfecting our friendship with Jesus. The Jesuit Fathers have a retreat house in the peaceful precincts of the Tatra mountains. There we are able to take part in meditative and contemplative forms of prayer. This discipline helps us to build a personal bond with Jesus, upon which we can subsequently ground a relationship with each other. Our friend, Fr. StanisÅ‚aw, is very helpful in preparing us for the great day of our wedding. We can always count on him in time of difficulty and when we need to make a confession. I think it is very important to have someone close by who can direct us in case of need. He advises us, sometimes reprimands us, but he always approaches us with a father’s love and warmth.

Through the grace of engagement God is bestowing upon us all the gifts we need to build a good and loving marriage in the future. These gifts are: strength, endurance, the will to improve, openness, unselfishness, deep love, understanding, and acceptance. I trust we are making full use of these gifts, and that our marriage will bring us great satisfaction and joy.

M. & D.

Please e-subscribe

If you are interested to download entire issue in PDF format




The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in June 2016.




Read sense of life articles in the following languages:
English Deutsch Polski Český Magyar Slovenský Română Български Українською Русский







Submit your article!

Read more articles - Free!

Need translation jobs? Click here!

Translation agencies are welcome to register here - Free!

Freelance translators are welcome to register here - Free!

Subscribe to TranslationDirectory.com newsletter - Free!

Take part in TranslationDirectory.com poll - your voice counts!










Free Newsletter

Subscribe to our free newsletter to receive updates from us:

 

New at the Forum

Read Articles

# 2488
Rosetta Stone and Translation Rates

# 2467
Translation - an Ageless Profession

# 2466
Have Language, Will Travel

# 2486
Почему так мало хороших переводов и хороших переводчиков?

# 2479
Average monthly wage in different European countries

# 2487
Two New Chinese Translations of Hamlet Introduced and Compared

# 2475
Linguistic history of the Indian subcontinent

# 2474
Languages with official status in India

# 2251
The Database: Your Most Valuable Asset!

More articles
More articles for translators

Vote in Polls

All Polls:
Polls on all topics

Christian Polls:
Polls on Christian topics

Financial Polls:
Polls on Financial topics

Polls for Freelancers:

Poll # 104
Have you obtained at least one new client through your facebook account?

Poll # 100
What is the worst time-waster?

Poll # 099
If you work at a laptop, do you usually use touchpad or mouse?

Poll # 094
If you run a translation agency, do you ever outsource / subcontract your projects to other translation agencies?

Poll # 090
What do you like the most about TranslationDirectory.com?

Poll # 088
Which translation portal emails you the largest number of job notifications?

Poll # 087
Which one of the following sites has the most appealing color scheme?

Poll # 085
Do you charge a fine (interest) fee for every day of payment delay?

Poll # 083
Do you have licensed SDL Trados software installed at your computer?

Poll # 079
Have you always dreamt to become a translator?

Poll # 078
Do you plan to be a freelance translator for the rest of your life?

Poll # 077
Is it necessary to learn translation theory in order to become a good translator?

Poll # 076
Will human translation be entirely replaced by machine translation in the future?

Poll # 074
Do you have savings?

Poll # 065
Do you know that the Bible is the most popular book in the world?

Poll # 063
What is the purpose of your life?

Poll # 059
How many hours per night do you sleep (in average)?

More polls
More polls for freelancers


translation jobs
christianity portal


 

 
Copyright © 2003-2024 by TranslationDirectory.com
Legal Disclaimer
Site Map