Pope Leo XIV recently offered a marriage council to a young American couple a few days after his wedding, sharing how he was blessed by the example of his own parents, who prayed the rosary together every day.
Cole and Anna Stevens, recently married, received the personal blessing of Pope León during one of his first general audiences under the burning Roman Sun, on June 11, just four days after having married in the Cathedral of St. Paul, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
The moment, captured in video, became an unexpectedly intimate exchange with the American pontiff, who answered his question about how to pray together as marriage.
“First of all, it is very important to go slowly and find the style of prayer that works for you and your spirituality,” said Pope León in English.
“My parents prayed the rosary together all their lives, every day. I always felt that I was blessed by their mutual love and for their faith in God … it is something wonderful,” he added.
The Stevens, who currently live in Pensacola, Florida, approached the crowded general audience with their wedding costumes, not knowing if they would even meet the Pope. They were one of the approximately 65 newly married couples present that day in the Plaza de San Pedro to receive the blessing of “newlyweds”, An opportunity that the Vatican offers every week to Catholics who have married within the previous six months.
“We pray a rosary while we expected the audience to begin, because we were in the square from 8 am and the question that came to my heart while we prayed was: how can we deepen our faith and our life of prayer inside the marriage?” Cole said.
Anna recalled how Pope León answered Cole’s question as if there were no one else in the square at that time.
“There was no hurry in his voice. He didn’t look around … I was completely concentrated in school’s question and how he could answer it as well as possible,” he said.
After the exchange, the couple gave the Pope a commemorative stamp of his wedding. “Then we asked his personal blessing, and he gave it to us … he imposed his hands on us and blessed us.”
“He entrusted us with the Holy Family and prayed so that the sacred family protect us, guide us and accompany us,” Anna added.
Without the Pope knowing, Cole carried a relic of the Holy Family – a fabric that touched the cane of San José, the veil of the Virgin Mary and the manger of the Child Jesus – when they received the blessing.
A marriage made in heaven
Cole, 24, originally from Colorado, and Anna, 25, a school teacher at Birmingham, Alabama, met at a blind event while he studied a master’s degree at the University of Alabama.
“A good friend of the high school met Cole and asked what kind of girl she was interested in. And Cole said: ‘A Catholic volleyball player’. And she replied: ‘I know a’ … and it was me. I played Volley in college and was her only Catholic friend. Thus it started,” Anna said.
His relationship grew with remote calls and visits between Alabama cities. “It took me to the worship chapel in our third appointment. And that’s where I married two years later,” Anna recalled.
Novenas prayed together for 90 days before the wedding – to San José, to the Virgin of Lourdes and the Sagrada Familia.
His honeymoon, originally planned on the Amalfitan coast, took a turn when they discovered the possibility of receiving a special blessing for newly married in the Vatican. “We were looking at Sorrento and realized that we were just two hours. How we were going to miss the jubilee year and the holy doors? And when we knew about the ‘spasi novelli’, we said: we have to go,” said Anna.
It was the first time Cole left the country. “There is no other experience in my life that can describe as truly transformative and overwhelming at the same time,” he said about his encounter with Pope Leon.
Romantic walks with the rosary
Back in Pensacola, Pope León’s advice has already left a mark on the life of the young couple. “It’s curious. At the end of the day we say: ‘Oh no, we have not prayed the rosary! We have to do it; Pope León told us to do it.’ So we’ve incorporated it,” said Anna.
Your solution? Walks with the rosary after dinner.
“Our new goal is to walk praying the rosary every night, and has become one of our favorite moments of the day. It is very peaceful. It is usually at sunset,” said Anna.
“We use it as an opportunity to pray for particular intentions of the week,” Cole added.
Anna, reflecting on the Pope’s advice, said that the important thing is “to find, as Pope León said, a way that works for you. In our current life stage, they are the walks with the rosary. Each couple will have their moment and their way of praying together.”
What most impacted Cole was the applicability of the papal council. “I was surprised how real it was … very practical: this is what my parents did, and now you find what works for you. It is advice that we can really apply.”
Translated and adapted by ACI Press. Originally published in CNA.
Courtney Mares
Courtney Mares is correspondent in the Vatican of Catholic News Agency (CNA), Ewtn News agency. Graduate from Harvard University, has reported from news offices on three continents and received the Gardner scholarship for its work with North Korean refugees.