Catechism of the Catholic Church. PART TWOTHE CELEBRATION OF THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERYSECTION TWOTHE SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCHCHAPTER THREETHE SACRAMENTS AT THE SERVICE OF COMMUNION ARTICLE 7. THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY1. God himself is the author of marriage.
Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity,8. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man.
It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: . This experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but it does seem to have a universal character.
The doctrine that marriage is a sacrament of the New Law has never been a matter of. Saint James Roman Catholic Church is a.
Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament parish, guided by the Holy Spirit. OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. Home / Pastoral Offices / Family Ministry Office / Marriage Preparation / Sacrament of Marriage. Before planning your wedding. The Church takes great care and concern in the preparation of each couple who is preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage. MARRIAGE PREPARATION PROGRAM. Even if your Marriage Celebration is. Marriage in the Catholic Church. Catholics accused Waldensians of condemning the sacrament of marriage. The first available written detailed account of a Christian wedding in the West dates only from the 9th.
As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were distorted by mutual recriminations; 9. Creator's own gift, changed into a relationship of domination and lust; 9. Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed.
To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them. Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them . The punishments consequent upon sin, . After the fall, marriage helps to overcome self- absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self- giving. In the Old Testament the polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected.
Nevertheless, the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by the husband, even though according to the Lord's words it still carries traces of man's . Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, insofar as it is a reflection of God's love - a love . She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence.
With God's help, granted during the Sacrament of Marriage, spouses can amicably. The significance of Christian vows is especially revealed in an Orthodox wedding. Celebrating the Sacrament of Marriage at. SAMPLE PROGRAM OUTLINES. SACRAMENT OF HOLY MATRIMONY. The wedding rings are made of gold. What does the Catholic Church teach about the Sacrament of Marriage, and how does the Sacrament of Marriage differ from a natural marriage?
However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to . This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath. Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church.
Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant. Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom.
Christ is the center of all Christian life. The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model.
He who is able to receive this, let him receive it. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will. Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom. Christian understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each other. Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of virginity. Whoever praises it makes virginity more admirable and resplendent.
What appears good only in comparison with evil would not be truly good. The most excellent good is something even better than what is admitted to be good.
In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but . In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses,1. The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the bride. In the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.
The presence of the Church's minister (and also of the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial reality. Several reasons converge to explain this requirement: 1. Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act.
It is therefore appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church. Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children.
Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have witnesses). The public character of the consent protects the . It requires particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors.
A case of marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a non- baptized person) requires even greater circumspection. Difference of confession between the spouses does not constitute an insurmountable obstacle for marriage, when they succeed in placing in common what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each other the way in which each lives in fidelity to Christ. But the difficulties of mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. The spouses risk experiencing the tragedy of Christian disunity even in the heart of their own home. Disparity of cult can further aggravate these difficulties. Differences about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards the education of children.
The temptation to religious indifference can then arise. According to the law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed marriage needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority. In case of disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for the validity of the marriage.
This permission or dispensation presupposes that both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of marriage; and furthermore that the Catholic party confirms the obligations, which have been made known to the non- Catholic party, of preserving his or her own faith and ensuring the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic Church. Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them. In marriages with disparity of cult the Catholic spouse has a particular task: . This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.
The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb. How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh.
Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility.