Only Love

Subtitled "Father Mark Connolly's Video Guide to Building a Successful Marriage," Only Love is an inspirational and relatively practical guide to maintaining harmony in a Catholic marriage. Host Joe Garagiola opens the first volume with the four ruling principles of good relationships: 1) minimize unrealistic expectations, 2) develop a sense of the sacred, 3) communicate honestly and openly, and 4) keep your sense of humor. These principles are explored through interviews with Catholic couples ranging from newlyweds to seasoned pros who openly share their past problems and methods for overcoming them. The second volume, while featuring the same format, is more issue oriented, and covers the following topics: 1) managing money, 2) sex in marriage, 3) family planning, and 4) handling conflicts. One of the couples, Carter and Adrienne Bird, talk about the problems they experienced when Carter was laid off from his job. Adrienne, whose family had always been involved in art, decided to open a frame shop, and Carter worked in the shop in a second fiddle position, a role he was initially uncomfortable with. Based on their experiences, the Bird's offer two suggestions for fair fights: 1) hold hands while arguing (it helps keep the emotional level down, and prevents anyone from getting slap happy), and 2) fight naked (which, the Bird's maintain, is very difficult to do with any amount of seriousness). Our only quibble was with the section on family planning: the technique (which includes checking the temperature and mucus level of the female genitalia) is only briefly hinted at here, and the remarks from couples are more likely to confuse people who are unfamiliar with the concept than offer guidance. This aside, Only Love is a professional looking, wide-ranging series which is likely to appeal to both Catholic and Christian couples. Highly recommended. (Available from: Specialty Video Marketing, Inc., 274 Westport Rd., Wilton, CT 06897.)