Failure of Living Together

The charge is sometimes made that living together prior to marriage gives a couple an insight as to how they shall interact as man and wife. Many thus see these informal unions as trial marriages. However, the statistics show that the divorce rate among couples who live together before marriage is higher than among those who do not. I do not propose to offer a certain rationale for this statistic. Quite logically, it seems that it should be the other way around.

However, during my brief period of ministry, I have been much taken aback by the number of individuals, both male and female, who have come to the rectory door in terrible grief over the estrangement of a partner. No sooner would they reach the parlor that they would burst into tears. One young man told me that just the night before, he and his girl had made love. Repeatedly, she confessed her love to him. Come that morning, after a two year relationship, she was gone, leaving only the pain of rejection and a note saying that she did not love him anymore. Did this make any sense?