She Met Her Husband After She Tried CatholicMatch For Three Days!

Zachary, from New Jersey, was always skeptical about online dating, the whole concept of it seemed too non-traditional to him. After four years of being single, he heard about Catholic Match on Matt Fradd’s podcast “Pints With Aquinas,” and he decided to give it a try. The app connected him with a vibrant community of young, like-minded Catholic people.  

One year later...

Zach received a message from the woman to who he would one day propose to. Megan also had been skeptical of online dating, but she had just returned home from being a FOCUS missionary and was yearning for a Catholic community. With the encouragement of her friends, Meg downloaded Catholic Match during a “72 Hours Free Trial” promotion. She said, “if Jesus could rise from the dead in 3 days, He could probably resurrect my love life in three days, too.” 

While pursuing the site one day soon after that, she came across Zach’s profile.

“I liked his beard,” Meg said, of the first time she saw her now-fiance’s profile on CatholicMatch.com. With the encouragement of her younger brother, Meg made the first move and sent Zach a message. Over the next month or so, Zach and Meg corresponded online before meeting for the first time.

From the very beginning, they were upfront with each other about their dating intentions.

They were both looking for a serious relationship leading to marriage. Their first date was at the Blue Army Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Washington, New Jersey. They attended mass together at the chapel there and took a walk of the grounds. Then, they sat on a bench near the chapel and just talked for hours.

The date went really well, and they instantly felt a mutual connection. Zach said that “there was a natural comfort between us that was just rare.”

Eight months later, Zach would propose to Meg on that very same bench!

Over the course of their relationship, communication and prayer have played an especially important role. In the course of their relationship, learning each other’s hearts and how they desire to be received in different situations was crucial.  As in any relationship, men and women tend to communicate differently. Women often desire to simply be seen and known in the midst of a struggle, while men often desire to get to the root of the struggle and fix it. Learning how to communicate with each other and growing to know the intricacies of each other’s communication styles was necessary for Zachary and Megan’s relationship to work.

They can now appreciate each other more wholly than they could before.

“I appreciate Zach’s strong presence and calmness and trust in the Lord in all different situations,” says Meg. And Zach said that “one of the things I appreciate most is her openness and honesty - I can count on it always.”

As a couple, they also began to pray together on a regular basis. “From the very beginning, we knew we were attracted to one another, but we also knew it needed to be deeper than that.”  

A big part of their relationship from the beginning was praying together. They started praying Novenas together, asking for intercession for specific needs in their relationship and certain people in their lives. Through that, it led to them praying together every night over the phone or in person.

Turning to the Lord in prayer individually and as a couple, as well as their conscious faith formation, gave their relationship a firm foundation of how to communicate what they were experiencing with one another, rather than just being frustrated by the way one person reacts. 

One night in August, Zach called Meg and told her that he would pick her up the next day for “a surprise.”

Meg asked what she should wear, and when Zach told her to wear a nice dress, alarms started to ring in her head. As soon as she hung up the phone, she began to paint her nails. Try as he might to keep it a surprise, it was no secret what was about to happen next.

The next day, Zach took Meg back to the Blue Army Shrine and proposed to her, sitting on the same bench where they had met eight months earlier. He got down on one knee and said, “Megan, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you and I want to enter into the mystery of marriage with you and the Holy Trinity.” And of course, Megan said yes.

The ring was particularly significant to the couple, as it belonged to Zach’s mother, who passed away earlier this year.  She had been praying for her son to find love and marriage shortly before he met Megan.

“I want to enter into the mystery of marriage with you and the Holy Trinity.” 

Funnily enough, though, the happy couple has already *almost* exchanged vows!  

Last year, they attended a retreat run by Dr. Bob Schuchts through the John Paul II Healing Center. The theme was “Unveiling the Mystery of Marriage.”  Almost everyone there was married or engaged, and they were one of the only few couples there who were just dating at the time.

Towards the end of the retreat, all the married couples were renewing their marriage vows. As they walked in late, Meg and Zach were waved into the room and join in. It wasn’t until after everyone started reciting their vows that they realized that this activity was meant for married couples only, and all of the other participants were sitting on the sidelines watching! The married couples chided them by shouting “nice try!” as they went to sit down.

Soon enough they will be exchanging their own vows though and will embark on a happy journey together into married life. The wedding ceremony is set for June 18, 2022.