Marrying, Loving, and Dreaming: A Case Study of the Developmental Tasks of Lasting Marriages in the Philippines

This paper is a case study of lasting marriages in the Philippines. It examines couples who are together or are still married for 25 years or more. This study evaluates three couples using Judith Wallerstein’s and Sandra Blakeslee’s Nine Developmental Tasks of Marriage. It will examine its effectiveness up to date while being open for recent tasks not mentioned. With the interdisciplinary component of theological studies coupled with guidance and counselling concerning the family, the study will also connect the analysis of these marriages in the idea of Marrying, Loving, and Dreaming, the third one being an important element in marriage as Pope Francis said in his meeting with families in the Philippines last January 2015. The analysis will try to weave the effectiveness of the Nine Tasks with some ideas of the new exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ of the Holy Father but still following the trajectory of marrying, loving, and dreaming. This paper juxtaposes a secular study on marriages with a Catholic point of view when the element of being Christ-centered enters the scene. The theological assertion is that marriage, love, and dreaming would be nothing without God.