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Review by Ellen Gable Hrkach
“Marriages work when you work on the marriage” and “Everyone wins when a marriage succeeds” are two quotes which set the theme for this Catholic marriage enrichment book.
When trying to decide what title and focus to give to their book, they write, “It was the word ‘aim’ that moved us to focus on the analogy of the Bullseye. When we discuss our marriage and what we are aiming at we always conclude that what we want is a great relationship. There are many tools, books, and experiences that assist us in getting where we want to go, but to be effective we need to keep in mind what we are shooting for in our marriage. The archery analogy began to form in our minds.”
Chapter Titles include: What’s Your Bullseye? What’s Your Experience? Are you Right-Handed or Left-Handed? Men and Women Shoot Differently? What Happens When you Get Tired? Tips and Tools for Target Practice; Those Who Benefit from Target Practice and Resources.
Throughout the book, the authors take turns with the narrative, sharing parts of their story and their marriage.
“We discovered that marriage was more like showing up at an archery range every day, getting the target in sight, picking up the bow and arrow and shooting. There are days when we hit the Bullseye. There are other days when don’t but we at least hit the target. Some days we totally miss the target. Then there are those times when we are too tired to even pick up the bow and arrow and try…”
Included are quotes from Scripture, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, movies, books, authors, philosophers, songs and even a few quotes from their relatives. At the end of the book, each of the Fontana children (as well as their daughter-in-law) share a bit about how they have benefitted from their parents’ “Bulls Eye Marriage.”
Helpful exercises include sensory brainstorming and masterpiece time line activity.
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, and I can envision it being used at marriage preparation classes or marriage retreats. As well, I would recommend it to anyone seeking to improve their marriage.
Copyright 2011 Ellen Gable Hrkach
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