The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship

Witness to Love’s latest book is now available to order here!

The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship: Forming Marriages and Families to Share the Joy of the Gospel

~Co-authored by Ryan and Mary Rose Verret with Peter Jesserer Smith and edited by Daniela Mazzone

The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship: Forming Marriages and Families to Share the Joy of the Gospel – Following the Synod on the Family and Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Catholics have looked to put in action the Church’s beautiful vision for marriage and family evangelization. Combining Church teaching, personal testimonies, and the Witness to Love marriage ministry experience and insight, The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship gives churches, ministries, and disciples of Jesus Christ a practical guide to form holy marriages, and accompany families for their mission to share the “joy of the Gospel.”

Visit our Marriage Catechumenate resource page here for more information.

What are readers saying about The Road to Missionary Discipleship? 

The message the Verrets share in The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship is simple: be true to Jesus Christ, be true to the spouse of your youth, and be open to life. And let’s go take the world with confidence too that God won’t be outdone in generosity; that saints come in clusters; and the more we can be a community of believers, and mentor others as fellow disciples of Christ, the greater strength we’ll have.

–CURTIS & MICHAELANNE MARTIN

Curtis is the founder and CEO of FOCUS; Michealann is the Co-founder and President of Made For More

Pope Francis has taught that “marriage is the most beautiful thing God has created,” yet more than ever, couples and families need guidance and support in living happy, holy, and grace-filled marriages. The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship takes the recent guidelines on marriage (Catechumenal Pathways) from the Holy See and translates it into practical language for couples to live out their vocation. Drawing on real-life experiences from across the country, it both illustrates the need for families of missionary disciples and offers a vision of the opportunities in parish life to form and assist couples to be witnesses to God’s love and goodness.  

–ARCHBISHOP SALVATORE J. CORDILEONE

Archdiocese of San Francisco

Marriage is a gift from God for the sake of our full earthly and spiritual flourishing. Yet many today live without a clear sense of what a joyful and holy marriage could look like. The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship draws on the stories of married saints of the past and the real lived experiences of spouses today in order to help couples see that they are not alone in striving to live their vocation. By presenting the endless possibilities available to couples for fellowship, mentorship and growing in God’s sacramental graces, this book will help foster the much needed renewal of marriage in our time.

–MOTHER AGNES DONOVAN, SV

Superior General for the Sisters of Life from 1993-2023

The future of the Church hinges on the vitality of the “house churches” that comprise her. Preparing couples well for marriage, accompanying them in good times and bad, sickness and health, poverty and prosperity throughout their marriage, and forming them to become evangelized evangelizers of other couples is one of the Church’s most important tasks. That’s why the accessible, engaging, encyclopedic, super-practical masterpiece Ryan and Mary Rose Verret have given us is so timely and why it belongs in the hands of all Catholic engaged and married couples, priests and deacons, and those involved in the pivotal work of marriage preparation and ministry.

–FATHER ROGER J. LANDRY

Catholic Chaplain, Columbia University

Marriage is essential and it changes lives and the world. The Road to Family Missionary Discipleship is an essential handbook for renewing the face of the earth one family at a time. It is a treasure for couples praying to live the fullness of the graces of the sacrament. God bless the Verrets and every couple that has contributed to this groundbreaking book and the Witness to Love movement in the Church. 

–KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ 

Senior fellow at National Review Institute; director of the Center for Religion, Culture, and Civil Society; author of A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living