On the afternoon of May 19, at the Holy Patrons of Rome parish (run by the Schoenstatt Fathers), the Couples’ Coffee gathering took place as a pilot version, which consists of a proposal for an afternoon offering an opportunity for a relaxing environment and strengthening of the couple’s bond, sharing a common journey, and enjoying the original freshness of the couple’s life.

The day began with the “Couples’ Game”, questions for each couple with the purpose of getting to know each other better within the group of couples present.

After the game, some topics for reflection were presented (some inspired by Father Kentenich’s pedagogy), such as:

• Pope Francis’ words “Excuse me, Thank you and Sorry” with the corresponding explanations;
• couple’s dialogue and self-education;
• maintaining a relationship as a couple.

Maintaining the couple’s relationship, in particular, aims to periodically confront, during the couple’s dialogue, the changes that evolve as the couple’s own life as well as that of their family develops (choosing a new home or moving, children growing up, changing the workplace, etc.).

In such situations a couple’s harmony may grow, as they face difficulties and/or new developments together, but it is also possible that the Covenant may deteriorate and rivalry and/or intolerance may emerge where unity and understanding used to reign.

It is necessary, therefore, that the couple periodically work on providing maintenance to their relationship, just as a car that is regularly checked by the mechanic.

The gathering continued with a moment of dialogue between the participating individual couples, in a relaxing atmosphere (the organizers served coffee or other beverages, with some pastries and romantic music playing in the background) to encourage a moment of conversation between the two of them on certain topics.

The meeting ended with the presentation of the path to be taken by the “Couples’ Coffee” which is an initiative aimed at married couples or engaged couples to offer a journey of growth and strengthening of the relationship and an opportunity for dialogue, based on 5 topics that have as their initial letter the individual characters of the word Caffe (Italian for coffee): Condivision (Sharing), Alleanza (Covenant), Fedeltà (Fidelity), Fecondità (Fertility), Educazione (Education).