Hindsight: Wisdom From Couples Who Have Prepared A Wedding And Lived A Marriage

by T. Jerome Overbeck

People who have prepared a wedding and actually lived a marriage offered these reflections. As one who accompanied many in these areas over the last thirty-five years, patterns emerge worth further consideration. For example, no couple exactly mirrors another. Even the husband and wife within the same marriage who experienced the same wedding do not always see and understand the same experience the same way. By comparison and contrast we can gain insight into aspects of our unique experience. We can identify qualities worth developing or diminishing. We can examine presuppositions and expectations and foregone conclusions which warrant reconsideration and, perhaps, modification. We can learn perspectives and strategies which others found helpful in their situation and “try them on for size.” Also, though it may not fit exactly, someone else’s reflection may trigger a little different insight into the dynamics of your relationship.

Almost every single contributor to this book articulated their surprise at the helpfulness of their reflecting and articulating their thoughts for themselves. Offering reflections upon their experience enabled them to identify and to put words on the dynamics present in their relationship which helped or hurt over time. While many of the issues and concerns surfaced during their wedding weekend and married life, often they remained just below the radar of consciousness until they reflected upon them for someone else to understand, including their spouse.

83 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2014

About the author

Rev. T. Jerome Overbeck, S.J. is an American author and Christian theologian who is also a prominent priest of the Society of Jesus. Since 1983, he has been chaplain, liturgist and professor at Loyola University Chicago with the Loyola University Chicago School of Law and the School of Social Work in Chicago, Illinois. He has also been a professional consultant for the construction and renovation of Roman Catholic places of worship.

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, he entered the Jesuit religious order—obtaining a bachelor's degree at Loyola University Chicago in 1970 and a master's degree in education at Xavier University in 1972. Overbeck entered the Berkeley Jesuit School of Theology where he obtained a master's degree in divinity in 1974, a master's degree in theology in 1975 and a licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1982. He continued his studies at the Graduate Theological Union and University of California Berkeley, obtaining a doctoral degree in 1983.