Two Become Family with Renzo and Monica Ortega

Sorry this has come so late! Our family has had to navigate a couple of things so we haven't been able to keep up. 
Thank you for understanding and your support!
We wrote a Catholic sex book! Check it out: Order LOVEMAKING!  
Our other books
Go To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. Joseph
Go To Joseph For Children
SUPPORT OUR APOSTOLATE
Thank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do and pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing read and subscribe to our Substack: https://twobecomefamily.substack.com/
Our Apostolate
About Us
Connect with us and send us a message on Instagram
YouTube Channel
Support the show
Support the show

Parenting has a way of bringing you to the end of yourself. There are seasons where the noise, the conflict, the exhaustion, and the constant needs of your kids can make you feel like you’re barely keeping your head above water. A lot of parents quietly assume that if things feel this hard, it must mean they’re doing something wrong. But the truth is that family life was never meant to be carried alone.
In this episode of our Lenten Series, we talk about what it looks like to ask for help when parenting becomes overwhelming. Not in theory, but in the real, messy moments that every parent eventually faces. We walk through three places parents can turn for help when things feel difficult. First, we talk about going to your spouse and learning to lean on each other instead of trying to carry everything individually. Marriage is meant to be a partnership, and parenting becomes much heavier when we stop asking our spouse to step in with us.
Second, we talk about seeking help from people who are just a little further ahead of you in family life. Parents whose kids are a few years older, who have already walked through the season you’re in. They don’t need to be perfect parents to offer wisdom. In fact, some of the most helpful guidance comes from people who have made mistakes and learned along the way. And finally, we talk about therapy—both for parents and for children—and why reaching out for professional help can sometimes be one of the most loving and responsible things you can do for your family.
If parenting has felt heavier than you expected lately, this episode is an honest conversation about why asking for help is not weakness. It’s often the very thing that helps a family grow stronger.
We wrote a Catholic sex book! Check it out: Order LOVEMAKING!  
Our other books
Go To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. Joseph
Go To Joseph For Children
SUPPORT OUR APOSTOLATE
Thank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do and pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing read and subscribe to our Substack: https://twobecomefamily.substack.com/
Our Apostolate
About Us
Connect with us and send us a message on Instagram
YouTube Channel
Support the show
Support the show

This is part 3 of our Lenten series, where we’re walking with Catholic parents through the real struggles of family life during the season of repentance, mercy, and renewal.
Parenting often feels like a daily examination of conscience. We lose our temper. We forget a commitment. We say the wrong thing, again. Many Catholic parents quietly carry guilt and shame after these moments, fearing that repeated missteps mean they are failing their children or falling short of God’s call.
In Missing the Mark, we explore failure, sin, and imperfection through a deeply Catholic lens. Lent reminds us that “missing the mark” is part of the human condition, but it is never the final word. Through humility, repentance, and grace, our failures become invitations to growth rather than sources of despair. If you’ve ever worried about being a “bad parent,” struggled with shame after losing patience, or wondered how holiness is possible in the chaos of family life, this episode is for you.
We wrote a Catholic sex book! Check it out: Order LOVEMAKING!  
Our other books
Go To Joseph: 10 Day Consecration to St. Joseph
Go To Joseph For Children
SUPPORT OUR APOSTOLATE
Thank you all for your ongoing support. We love what we do and pray that it is a blessing to you and your families. If you are benefitting in some way from what we're doing read and subscribe to our Substack: https://twobecomefamily.substack.com/
Our Apostolate
About Us
Connect with us and send us a message on Instagram
YouTube Channel
Support the show

Why does parenting feel so overwhelming, even when we’re trying to do everything right? In this episode of Two Become Family, we explore how much of our stress, guilt, and burnout as parents comes from aiming at the wrong goal. When success is measured by calm children, good behavior, or having everything under control, everyday family life can quickly feel like failure.
“Changing Our Aim” invites Catholic parents to rediscover the virtue of magnanimity, the call to live with a greatness of soul that aims beyond perfectionism and control. Rather than shrinking our expectations out of fear or comparison, magnanimity helps us set our sights on the true goal of parenting: forming hearts for love, virtue, and holiness. Through the lens of Lent, we talk honestly about missing the mark, feeling discouraged, and how re-aiming our hearts allows God’s grace to do the real work.
This episode lays the foundation for the entire Lenten series by reframing parenting not as performance, but as participation in God’s slow, faithful work of transformation in family life.
In this episode, we discuss:
•Catholic parenting during Lent
•What magnanimity really means for parents
•Why control and perfection increase parental burnout
•How changing your aim reduces guilt, shame, and comparison
•Raising children with faith, hope, and trust in God
Support the show

Parenting has a way of exposing our limits. The moments we lose our temper, feel overwhelmed by the noise, or realize we don’t have the patience we hoped we would can quickly turn into shame. In this episode, we begin our Lenten journey by reclaiming humility, not as self-condemnation, but as truth. Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it’s seeing yourself clearly and letting God meet you there.
We talk honestly about why parenting feels so personal when we fall short, why our culture equates control with competence, and how humility frees us from the pressure to be perfect. Drawing from real parent struggles, Catholic wisdom, and lived experience, this conversation reframes failure as the starting point of grace,not the end of the story.
This episode sets the foundation for the entire series: Lent doesn’t ask parents to try harder, but to lower their defenses, tell the truth, and let God work in the middle of the mess.
In this episode:
Why feeling overwhelmed doesn’t make you a bad parent
How humility opens the door to grace instead of shame
What Lent teaches us about letting go of control
How honest self-assessment leads to freedom, not discouragement
Support the show