A fourteen session inductive study of Christian marriage, written for engaged couples in marriage preparation and for a leader who is not a theologian. It runs in five movements: the design, from Genesis 1 and 2 through what went wrong and the covenant God keeps in the prophets; Christ restores it, at Cana, in Ephesians 5, and in the sacrament itself; the consent, where the vows are taken apart and what God has joined is examined honestly; the body, on the language of the body and openness to life; and the home and its destination, when the cross comes, the domestic church, and the marriage supper of the Lamb. Three mechanics are particular to this study. On the first take-home each person writes and seals a private answer to the question of what they are actually promising on their wedding day, and the envelopes open in a four step ritual in Session 8. Couple Conversation boxes hold the questions a couple answers privately and never reports back to the room. Before the Altar panels accumulate over fourteen weeks into a real checklist: documents, dispensations, ritual choices, a natural family planning course, financial disclosure, guest list decisions, and confession before the day. The hard questions are taken directly, divorce and remarriage, annulment, cohabitation, contraception, reproductive technology, same sex marriage, and abuse, and each is built at full strength before it is answered. Leader-only panels give pastoral triage for irregular situations, with one instruction throughout: notice, refer, and do not investigate. Sessions 3, 6, and 13 carry safeguarding notes. Each session is written for ninety minutes with a seventy-five minute plan that names its own cuts in advance, and carries a Leader Preparation Guide, a Discussion Guide, and a Leader Reference Card. Scripture follows the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. Leader guides and take-home sheets for every session.
From the Beginning runs 14 sessions. Every session comes with a complete leader's preparation guide and a printable take-home sheet for the people in the room, and the full text of each night can be read on a phone from the list below. All of it is free to download, print, and share, with no sign up and no cost.
Every title below opens the full leader's guide for that night, set to read on a phone. Nothing is held back and nothing asks for an email address.
You do not need to be a theologian to lead From the Beginning. The leader's guide carries the questions, the answers, and the background, so the group can discover the text together. There is a short guide to hosting a Bible study if this is your first one, and a set of six questions that will help you choose a study if you are still deciding.