Every year,  February 7-14 is recognized as National Marriage Week. It really is the perfect time to celebrate the gift of married life and to show appreciation for our spouse. It’s also a great idea to do a little extra something when it comes to nurturing your relationship together. And in case you wanted some ideas on exactly what you can do during National Marriage Week, we have some ideas…

1. Pray for all marriages.

This includes your own! We need strong and faithful marriages more than ever, and since prayer is so powerful, we need to make sure we’re praying for all marriages.

2. Show love and appreciation for your spouse.

How you do this can vary widely, but we always look to each other’s love languages for inspiration.

3. Plan a date night.

Even if you think date nights aren’t necessary in a marriage, it’s still good to get out together every once and awhile! Date night doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be intentional quality time for just you and your spouse. Check out our date night guide for more thoughts and tips! We also have ideas on having date nights at home.

4. Read a marriage book together.

We share some favorites on our Recommendations page, but there are so many more to choose from! Reading together provides the perfect opportunity to have some great conversation.

5. Choose an enrichment program or online retreat to go through together.

Just like certain professions require continuing education, we should be doing the same with our marriage! There’s an extensive list of enrichment programs at the USCCB’s website, For Your Marriage, here. We can personally vouch for how amazing United in Love is, which we did several years ago through our church parish. We’ve also hosted The Couple Prayer series a few times, and it’s been so fruitful for all couples. For Your Marriage also offers an online retreat every year for National Marriage Week; see the 2024 retreat here.

6. Listen to a marriage talk.

Dr. Brant Pitre has some great ones (like this one and this one), and there are plenty others one to be found on Formed.org by Venerable Fulton Sheen, Dr. Scott Hahn, and others.

7. Book a marriage retreat for the upcoming year.

We love retreats! Here are 10 reasons why you should go on a marriage retreat. We also share why we try to go on a retreat every year in this video: Why We Retreat

We encourage you to focus on your marriage throughout Lent too! Since National Marriage Week ends on Ash Wednesday this year, check out our Lenten marriage resources:

• What Catholic couples can do during Lent – our list of ideas
• Lent Challenge for Married Couples – do one thing for your marriage each day of Lent
• 40 Days of Loving Your Husband

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