Blessing of Marriages ~ World Marriage Day

This Sunday is World Marriage Day and we will be blessing all marriages at the conclusion of all Masses this weekend. World Marriage Day salutes the faithfulness, sacrifice, and joy that are part of daily living for married couples and their generous love that gives rise to new life. "Love One Another" is the theme of every World Marriage Day and it is the power of love that fosters unity within the couple.

A Parishioner’s Reflection on Christian Marriage

Dear friends, marriage is an entire life filled with joy, love, compassion and gentleness, as well as dark days and struggles. Throughout the journey there is hope and that hope is the belief that God created us for love. “I do,” is just the beginning of the journey. 

“Marriage is not a lifelong attraction of two individuals to each other but a call for two people to witness together to God’s love… Marriage is a relationship where man and woman protect and nurture the inner sanctum within and between them, and they witness to that by the way they love each other.” — Henri Nouwen (Clowning in Rome)

Marriage in today’s secular society and its dependence on relativism, rather than truth, has left many marriages searching for hope. During the difficult and dark days we are left to struggle. Sometimes we lose sight that this journey includes the presence of God. He’s living with us and breathing life into our relationships. Through his teachings, Jesus created a path for us to walk this journey of marriage, in love, joy, compassion and gentleness.

“Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithfulness and fruitful love.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church 1662

 St. Thomas Aquinas said that the word joy implies an “expansion of the heart.” Pope Francis expanded on this idea by viewing joy present amid all the struggles and hardships. We accept these struggles as part of a marriage and, if we stay on the path Jesus created for us, it will lead to friendship, which ultimately inspires couples to care for one another. “They help and serve each other.” (Aquinas)

“It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 “The future, with God’s grace, is in building your future day by day.“ (Pope Francis) In the trials and tribulations of the current time and culture we live in, we need to remind ourselves of St. Augustine’s words, “the greater the danger in battle the greater the joy in victory.” On this weekend, let us all cultivate charity by seeing the best and sacredness of each person, especially our spouses.