Couples in Love: Straight Talk on Dating, Respect, Commitment, Marriage, and Sexuality

Rating:
Summary: Solid, Clear and Engaging
Review: Fr. John Waiss' "Couples in Love" is a solid, clear presentation of Catholic teaching on sexuality and related topics. Fr. Waiss grounds his presentation in John Paul II's personalist philosophy, focusing on the intrinsic meaning of sexuality as created by God, which is much more helpful than enumerating lists of "dos and don'ts".

The dialogue format gives the book an engaging, easy-going feel, and yet Waiss is completely faithful to what the church has taught "always, everywhere, and by all". Waiss' great strength is to present Church teaching positively. He calls on the reader's love of God, and emphasizes the abundant life to be had by living in correspondence to God's design for human sexuality. As I read the book, I was inspired.

The dialogues are composites drawn from Fr. Waiss' pastoral experience, so they have an "authentic" feel to them, although at times "Margie" and "Sam" seem to accept "Fr. JP's" input a bit easier than I would expect in "real life" (I am sure this is mainly due to space considerations, and the fact that in "real life", there would be a lot more repetition and restatement than would be tolerable in a book).

While the main focus of the book is in the first three-quarters, focusing on sexuality, marriage, and dating, the final section on vocation (and the discernment thereof) presents valuable insights that don't get much "airplay" these days. Thanks to Fr. Waiss for including them.

This is a solid book, and I highly recommend it for teens or twenty-somethings dating and/or thinking of marriage, their parents and youth ministers, and to anyone who wants to clearly and faithfully understand what the Church teaches us about our sexuality.

Rating:
Summary: Great Primer on Marriage and Sexuality for Everyone
Review: I highly recommend this book for everyone! This book is presented in a casual conversational style, yet through these discourses can be found some key insights for understanding our human sexuality and the institution or sacrament of marriage. Face it: today's media and culture present a complicated, confusing, and frankly immoral picture of sexual relationships. Few of us truly understand how to "love" in a human or Godly way. Our culture confuses sex with love. This book simply and beautifully helps us to see what truly loving relationships can and should be. We are lifted to a higher emotional, physical and spiritual level. Through eavesdropping in on these sincere conversations, we get a glimpse of what is possible, what each of us can attain, and what each of us rightfully deserves! What a wonderful world this would be if all marriages lived the simple truths that Fr. Waiss illuminates.

Rating:
Summary: Great Primer on Marriage and Sexuality for Everyone
Review: I highly recommend this book for everyone! This book is presented in a casual conversational style, yet through these discourses can be found some key insights for understanding our human sexuality and the institution or sacrament of marriage. Face it: today's media and culture present a complicated, confusing, and frankly immoral picture of sexual relationships. Few of us truly understand how to "love" in a human or Godly way. Our culture confuses sex with love. This book simply and beautifully helps us to see what truly loving relationships can and should be. We are lifted to a higher emotional, physical and spiritual level. Through eavesdropping in on these sincere conversations, we get a glimpse of what is possible, what each of us can attain, and what each of us rightfully deserves! What a wonderful world this would be if all marriages lived the simple truths that Fr. Waiss illuminates.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book!
Review: If you're looking for a book that outlines why Catholics believe what they believe, then this is the book for you! It is an excellent book in detailing the teachings on relationships and the reasons for those teachings in a gentle and non-confrontational way. An easy read with a conversational presentation. Loaded with information to help folks understand the "whys" and to inspire readers!

Pick it up today!

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring - not only for Catholics
Review: In this book, Father John Waiss, a Roman Catholic Priest, presents in a beautiful way the catholic positions on all the issues surrounding relationships of young people. The book is set up as a dialogue between Sam, a non-practising Jewish teen, Maggie, his catholic girlfriend and Father JP, a young Roman Catholic priest. Maggie and Sam are debating whether to have sex before marriage and they go to see Fr. JP for his advice. Maggie and Sam are both not very religious and their opinions, doubts and questions are very typical of what our generation is struggling with. Fr. JP is depictured as a sympathetic young priest and the reader imagines that Fr. Waiss is portraying a young Pope John Paul in this character.
In his dialogue with Sam and Maggie, Fr.JP explains why it makes sense to wait with sex until marriage, why dating is mainly about finding out whether you want to marry the other person, what to do if the person you are dating is of another faith etc.
Besides being well written, the book is good mainly because of the two following points:
First, it has a positive perspective by showing that it's because you have high goals and want more from marriage that you can wait. Fr.Waiss manages to bring across the attractiveness of this.
Second, through a lot of available research data and common sense, Fr. JP's remarks show that his points are really not for Catholics only. It becomes clear that everybody who thinks that marriage is important and unselfish behavior better than selfish behavior should follow his suggestions.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for Teens and their parents
Review: This book smoothly facilitates discussions between parents and their teens on healthy relationships and the role of sex in dating and how both affect marriage. Easy read, written in colloquial style-explores and answers issues from the secular males' perspective.
Note to Catholics; good intro on the basics of Theology of the Body.

Rating:
Summary: Waiss Rocks
Review: Waiss makes controversial statements -- statements that will make you say, "How could he believe that?" And then he goes on to show why, and by the end, you say, "Why didn't I believe that before?"

Also, it's well formatted, so you can read what you want to read and skip what you don't. But there's not much you'll want to skip. And he answers most questions that people ask.

Rating:
Summary: Why young males should read this book
Review: When I saw the title, I thought it all would be a long list of "don't", coming from an expert in couple counseling and spiritual guidance. Love is a word with little value nowadays, if not understood in the proper context. Then I found the book was much more about how to overcome passion and start thinking with the heart.

The narrative is fine, and the story behind is compelling, too. Of course one would say that "there is a lot of faith involved", but America is a country of believers. Leaving aside the particular affiliation or creed, the book fills a gap in the genre of practical guidance to what young males should think about when dealing with their girlfriends. Falling in love can be not only one of the best moments in life, but also the momentum for a total turnaround in the way life is being lived. Of course, the first time it may not work out; the second, either; but after some trials, the girl looks like the spouse one wants to share the future with.

Readable, straightforward, and fun.

Rating:
Summary: Why young males should read this book
Review: When I saw the title, I thought it all would be a long list of "don't", coming from an expert in couple counseling and spiritual guidance. Love is a word with little value nowadays, if not understood in the proper context. Then I found the book was much more about how to overcome passion and start thinking with the heart.

The narrative is fine, and the story behind is compelling, too. Of course one would say that "there is a lot of faith involved", but America is a country of believers. Leaving aside the particular affiliation or creed, the book fills a gap in the genre of practical guidance to what young males should think about when dealing with their girlfriends. Falling in love can be not only one of the best moments in life, but also the momentum for a total turnaround in the way life is being lived. Of course, the first time it may not work out; the second, either; but after some trials, the girl looks like the spouse one wants to share the future with.

Readable, straightforward, and fun.

Rating:
Summary: Enhance Your Relationship and Your Faith
Review: With his newest book Couples in Love: Straight Talk on Dating, Respect, Commitment, Marriage and Sexuality (Crossroad Publishing Company, November 2003, paperback, 224 pages), author John R. Waiss has provided a valuable primer for committed couples looking to live in conjunction with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to the theology of the body. Written in dialogue format, the book covers the many delicate, yet crucial issues that confront young couples in relationships.

Based on his many years of counseling couples, Fr. Waiss introduces Margie (recently returned to practicing her Catholic faith) and Sam (raised Jewish and perplexed by his girlfriend's refusal to be sexually intimate with him prior to marriage). Sam is committed to his relationship with Margie and suggests a visit and conversation with her parish priest, the popular and highly regarded Father JP, who is involved with preparing young couples for marriage. Sam and Margie open their hearts to Father JP, asking many hard questions on topics ranging from the meaning of love and marriage, to contraception, to learning to communicate and much more.

Couples in Love provides a comprehensive, yet approachable and enjoyable overview of the Church's teachings. Written from the perspective that human sexuality is "an affirmation of love", the book presents its subject manner in a kind, loving and non-judgmental fashion. The book's Foreword, written by Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, underscores the importance of Couples in Love as a helpful tool for not only learning Church teaching, but also for exploring the reasons behind those teachings.