Posts by Francine & Byron Pirola
Reconciliation
Love means more than saying “I’m sorry”. There’s a difference between the ‘I’ centred statement “I’m sorry”, and the other centred statement, “Will you please forgive me?” The ‘I’ centred statement simply acknowledges a fact. A person might recognise that they behaved poorly, inconsiderately, insensitively, thoughtlessly or carelessly. They might also just want to move…
Read MoreNew Product: Sexuality as Gift
In a world where sexuality is crassly exploited it can be difficult to connect with its giftedness. Yet gift it is: given by God to each man or woman to draw him or her into love. To be human is to be sexual. Sexuality is fundamental to being human – after all, every single cell…
Read MoreGender Bias in Intimacy
While almost everyone acknowledges that men and women are different, managing these differences is not so easy, especially in the area of intimacy. A woman’s preferred way of achieving intimacy is deep personal conversation, talking and sharing feelings, that is, verbal language. A man’s preferred way of achieving intimacy is physical bonding, touch and love…
Read MoreWhen Sex is Just an Activity
Almost everything around us – movies, magazines, books, even our friends and relatives-approach sex as something you ‘do’. In other words, sex is seen primarily as an activity. Most people never question this attitude and can naturally assume that if it is something that you ‘do’, you should ‘do’ it well. Prowess and performance can…
Read MoreCouple Prayer
Based in the Sacrament of Matrimony, couple prayer is different to community prayer; it recognises that our intimacy and trust as a couple is directly related to our marital holiness. So the purpose of couple prayer is to not only bring you closer to God, but to also bring you closer to each other. Couple…
Read MoreGender Complementarity
Are we from the same planet? The popularity of John Gray’s “Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus” (and titles by other authors), signals the widespread recognition of gender differences in our society. It is now permissible to speak of stereotypical behaviours and gender specific abilities without being accused of putting the clock…
Read MoreHave you got a Smart Relationship?
There’s more to successful relationships than just following your instincts. Do the quiz to find out how you rate A. Love is… 1: A feeling – so I follow my feelings in my marriage 2: More than a feeling, but mostly I let my feelings tell me how to act 3: Hard work…
Read MoreCommunication
When we promise to take one another, we promise to take all of that person – body, psyche and spirit. We take one another with all the beliefs, thoughts, feelings and attitudes that each has. We take the biases, prejudices, fears, and anxieties as well as all the dreams and expectations we each have for…
Read MoreNew Product: Hear Me Know Me
It is often said that we cannot love what we do not know. Listening, truly listening and entering into the experience of our spouse is vitally important if we want to know our spouse and therefore be better equipped to love him/her. In this the topic for the latest instalment in the SmartLoving @Home series (more info: here) the…
Read MoreNew Product: The Ambitious Couple
Ambition means ‘to seek after earnestly, to aspire to’. It is usually a characteristic associated with individuals. The question for couples is: What is the role of ambition in our marriages? This is the topic for the latest instalment in the SmartLoving @Home series (more info: here) in which authors Byron & Francine Pirola offer thought-provoking insights and practical…
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