Couples, Awaken Your Love

by Robert Sarah

With the luminous insight that we have come to expect from his writings, Robert Cardinal Sarah helps spouses rediscover the deep source of their love—God Himself—and the means for letting love between them grow.


This book presents the essentials of a retreat that the cardinal preached to married couples in Lourdes, France. It is meant for all couples, including those who are struggling. There is a path to renewal for everyone, and couples in every situation can find again the preciousness of the love that binds them, no matter how hidden it may be.


We are all, without exception, called to joy, and Christ alone can give it to us. He works through his Church, through the sacraments, and through his saints—especially Mary, the Mother of God, who heals couples.

Genres: Catholic, Marriage, Christianity, Nonfiction

106 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 16, 2021

About the author

Robert Cardinal Sarah was born in Guinea, West Africa. Made an Archbishop by Pope John Paul II and a Cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI, he was named the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in 2014.

Reviews

[Evelyn Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just not my summer for reading. I’m sure all these books are objectively amazing but I haven’t been able to fully engage with them resulting in a pretty meh experience. Will have to try reading again at a more stable time of life.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cardinal Sarah, as always, has great points and speaks well of the sacrificial nature of marriage and the love of spouses. He also covers the challenges facing married couples today. My lower star rating is because of a lack of clarity at times that is unlike his other writings. I blame the editors. These are excerpts of retreat talks Cardinal Sarah gave, and in the way they were edited, they don't flow together. Even within each chapter, there are paragraphs that jump from one thing to another that made me go back and read and try to figure out what I missed. I'd love to find the full length of these talks.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by Cardinal Sarah is worth reading! Loved the analogy he drew between marriage and a chalice.

[Peter Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This beautiful little book is a meditation on married love and the call to holiness that couples are to pursue through it. Cardinal Sarah contemplates the richness and beauty of marriage and how we can understand God’s relationship with us through it. And because this relationship is at the core of our theology, we can also see more clearly the fundamental importance of marriage and family since society and human flourishing is built upon it. Besides this, he also discusses several aspects of spirituality that he has written about before, especially the importance of interior silence and prayer, and brings them into the context of the spousal relationship. The book concludes with a resource walking through how to have daily spousal prayer, and listening and communication exercises for spouses to strengthen their relationship.

[Caitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was initially disappointed with this because it wasn't what I expected. However, there is an appendix at the end with a couple of the workshop activities for couples that I had checked this out to read, and they were great! This suffered from some editing issues and really should have been more fully translated into a treatise from the retreat notes, but it was still a very powerful piece on the importance of the domestic church.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for all married couples especially in these times where marriage and the sanctity of life is under attack by society.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and short reflections all couples should read.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick and effective book of reflections on the place of marriage and the family in the Church. The ideas lean on the more conservative/traditional side, which is to say that if you like other things you've heard from Cardinal Sarah, you'll like this one as well.

[Raul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent and profound, Robert Cardinal Sarah provides an inspirational support for Christian couples who are often at odds with the spirit of the present age.