She Finally Found Her Kindred Spirit!
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Elliot had just proposed to Maribeth in the Adoration chapel, and the two knelt embracing near the entryway of the chapel when the door suddenly opened.
"It was an older man who seemed quite taken aback to see us there!" recalls Maribeth.
The couple broke the awkwardness by saying, "We just got engaged like five seconds ago!"
"The gentleman seemed more surprised, mumbled some congratulations, and then his eyes filled up with tears. He said, pointing to his wedding band, 'My wife and I are having some problems; that's why I'm here.'"
Eliot and Maribeth had previously asked God to use their love to evangelize. "Only a moment after our engagement, we felt that prayer was answered," they say.
They both had "deep" souls...
It's easy to see why Elliot and Maribeth connected. They both think deeply and share a love for philosophy and poetry. Maribeth first found herself attracted to Elliot's sincerity and his shared love of various poets, writers, and philosophers. His first question to her over messaging was, "Who are your favorite thinkers?"
When they discovered that they both liked writer Wendell Berry, they thought, "God had sparked a connection between us," she says.
Maribeth also felt impressed when Elliot shared over Zoom that he loved Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. "I saw his eyes light up with his great love for this community. His love for the poor, intentional communities, and stewardship of creation were beautiful to me," she recalls.
In retrospect, Maribeth says that learning about his concern for the poor is when she first fell in love with Elliot.
They bonded through the poems they shared!
Elliot felt attracted to Maribeth's smile, and he liked that she was well-educated. "She studied philosophy in undergraduate and theology in graduate school, which was quite impressive to me. I had done similar college studies, so I knew we could connect over this important part of our life," Elliot says.
The couple, who met on CatholicMatch on July 3, 2020, started going on regular Zoom dates after three weeks of messaging. At the end of their Zoom dates, Elliot and Maribeth often shared a poem from one of their favorite poets or ones they wrote themselves. For Maribeth, those poems showed Elliot's heart and made her fall more deeply in love with him.
She felt instantly at peace as soon as she saw him.
On August 28, 2020, Elliot drove nearly three hours to visit Maribeth for the weekend. She felt nervous before Elliot arrived but felt instantly at peace as soon as she saw him. Elliot met Maribeth's parents, and the couple cooked dinner and talked on the back patio well into the evening.
"We read Wendell Berry and Kahlil Gibran together, two of our favorite poets," she says. "The next day, we hiked in Shenandoah National Park to Compton Peak. Who knew that the next time we would do that hike would be the day before our wedding, when we took a retreat day to prepare for the sacrament!"
A literary proposal!
On July 3, 2021—exactly one year after meeting each other on CatholicMatch—Elliot would propose. The couple hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail. During their hike, they sang several of their favorite hymns and read poems to each other. They returned home to attend a Holy Hour and Vigil Mass.
"Before we left for a Holy Hour, Elliot read to me one of our favorite poems, "On Love" by Kahlil Gibran—which we would later recite together at our Rehearsal Dinner," she says.
At the Adoration Chapel, Maribeth noticed a single red rose. There, Elliot read one of Maribeth's favorite passages from The Little Prince by Antoin de San-Exupery, which describes the Prince's love for his rose and his responsibility for taking care of her. He then knelt and asked her to marry him, to which she responded, "Yes!"
Even with all the excitement, Elliot and Maribeth prayed a Holy Hour, attended Mass with their families—a surprise arranged by Elliot—and feasted into the evening.
They were ready to solidify their vocation!
Looking back on their March 19, 2022, wedding, Eliot remembers reciting their vows as the most touching part of the wedding. "There was so much catharsis in finally making these promises to share our lives fully with each other," he remembers. "We were both 30 and ready to solidify our vocation, so doing it, at last, felt awesomely satisfying and exciting."
Maribeth adds, "Our entire wedding was beautiful. One particular memory I cherish is singing the hymns we chose during the Mass."
The latest news...
Happily, the couple announces that Maribeth is expecting a baby in 2023!