Blog
Practical wisdom, faith-filled insights, and real-world relationship advice for couples at every stage. Our blog offers practical tools and Catholic perspectives to help you love smarter. Explore topics including communication, fertility, forgiveness, spirituality, parenting, and more — authored by Francine & Byron Pirola and other guest contributers.
Undoing the Knots is Easier than you Think
September 28 marks the feast of Mary Undoer of Knots. The devotion is over 300 years old and is based on a Baroque painting by…
Unconditional Love is a Contradiction of Terms
A Story Over the last few months, we have had several conversations with a woman who is struggling with a difficult situation. Her best friend…
Change Starts Here
Part 4 of It Takes One to Tango. See others in this series here, here. and here. All change in our relationships should start with ourselves.…
Making Stumble-Stone Altars
There will be mistakes. We will make errors and we will mess up in this marriage business. Obstacles and challenges will be part of every…
Why Reality TV Makes Us Stupider
These days we rightly talk a lot about exploitation and abuse. It comes in many forms and we worry we might walk past it without…
Forward Planning your Family Planning
Some years ago, I (Francine) was teaching a couple fertility awareness. They had been married five years and assumed that once they discontinued the pill,…
Song of Songs Explained
Get in touch with one of the greatest love songs of all time – the Book of the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.…
Families on Mission
In 2016 Pope Francis published Amoris Laetitia which translates as the ‘Joy of Love’. The document, the result of discernment over several years and two…
Myths about Arguments
When it comes to marriage and relationship, there are a lot of myths out there. Here are five of the most common. Myth 1: Good…
We Married Too Young
Lots of people told us so. Neither of us had really experienced life: Byron at 27 had at least lived out of home for three…
Why Two is better than One
One of the more popular posts on the SmartLoving blog features Couple Projects. First published in 2014, our search data over the years shows that…
Honest Talk about Physical Intimacy – Messy Family Podcast
The sexual intimacy we share as spouses is both wonderful and complicated!
Say a little prayer for marriage
In October a few years ago, the Australian bishops called the entire Catholic community to pray for marriage and family. The initiative was joined by…
Something worth dying for – Saint Valentine’s Day
On February 14 every year, couples around the world celebrate one of the heroes of Catholic history. As the story goes, Valentine was a Roman priest who married young couples in secret despite…
Joyfully Married…Sometimes
Advent is a season of penance in preparation for the Lord’s coming; not the first coming which we celebrate on Christmas Day (his birthday), but…