The Cana Rosary Offers a Beautiful Meditation for Married Couples

Editor's Note: I'm pleased to share the following guest post from Chris Ebberwein, author of the special devotional The Cana Rosary. Lisa

Several years ago, I began praying a daily Rosary on my drive to or from work. During that time and over the course of several years, four nieces and a nephew were married in Savannah, Georgia and I thought often of my hopes for them in their married lives. Somewhere along the way, those hopes for their marriages blended with my Rosary meditations.

I became aware that the mysteries of the Rosary—as windows into the lives of Jesus, Mary, and the disciples—provide insight into the ways that a couple can work side by side to fulfill their Christian missions through the married life. I would sometimes become aware of new insights into marriage and family life when praying the mysteries, and I would type out my thoughts that night after the kids went to bed.

At some point, I decided to turn those ideas into a wedding gift. As these things go (!), two weddings passed before I finally gave the first copy of The Cana Rosary, with two sets of Rosary beads, to my niece Erin and her husband Travis in the summer of 2012. With several edits and reviews and some encouragement, The Cana Rosary is now available on Amazon through Kindle Direct Publishing, and I hope to have it in print in the near future.

As a bit of background, I am in my twentieth year of marriage and have such great admiration for this vocation. Some of the thoughts that went into The Cana Rosary seemed to come out of the blue, but most should be credited to the people around me for being beautiful witnesses to the married life. My wife, my siblings, my men’s group, my parents and in-laws, fellow members of an RCIA team—and really the list goes on—have all shaped my understanding of what a gift it is to be married. They have all modeled for me the beauty that can be found in Church encyclicals and other Church writings on marriage and family life. My relationships and those writings (and to a large extent, my work as a psychologist) all served as background for The Cana Rosary. I pray simply that the thoughts I wrote down in this little prayer book will be useful to every couple who prays it together.

Chris Ebberwein, Ph.D.

Chris Ebberwein, Ph.D. is a Catholic husband and father of four children, with one on the way. His career as a psychologist and his history as an RCIA catechist have both served to inspire these meditations on the Rosary from a couple’s perspective. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Chris met his wife Katie at the University of Notre Dame, completed a Master’s degree in counseling at Kent State University and his PhD in counseling psychology at the University of Kansas. He has lived in Wichita with Katie and his children since 2000.