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Marriage:The Sacrament of Matrimony

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This Sacrament leads us to the heart of God’s design, which is a plan for a Covenant with his people, with us all, a plan for communion. At the beginning of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, at the culmination of the creation account it says: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.... Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 1:27; 2:24). The image of God is the married couple: the man and the woman; not only the man, not only the woman, but both of them together. This is the image of God: love, God’s covenant with us is represented in that covenant between man and woman. And this is very beautiful! We are created in order to love, as a reflection of God and his love. And in the marital union man and woman fulfil this vocation through their mutual reciprocity and their full and definitive communion of life.

When a man and woman celebrate the Sacrament of Matrimony God as it were “is mirrored” in them; he impresses in them his own features and the indelible character of his love. Marriage is the icon of God’s love for us. Indeed, God is communion too: the three Persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live eternally in perfect unity. And this is precisely the mystery of Matrimony: God makes of the two spouses one single life. The Bible uses a powerful expression and says “one flesh”, so intimate is the union between man and woman in marriage. And this is precisely the mystery of marriage: the love of God which is reflected in the couple that decides to live together. Therefore a man leaves his home, the home of his parents, and goes to live with his wife and unites himself so strongly to her that the two become — the Bible says — one flesh.

 

POPE FRANCIS GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Celebrating the Sacrament of Marriage at St.Gerard

 

It is a duty and privilege of all Catholics to get married in the Church. Baptism and free marital status is the basic requirement for engaging in the sacrament of marriage in the Catholic Church. The Catholic party must be a registered member of the parish and show some sort of engagement in parish life. Six months is considered the minimum amount of preparation time before a couple can get married. Marriage preparation includes: meetings with the pastor, a pre-marriage inquiry, meetings with a married couple for premarital course, and a course on Natural Family Planning. No commitment to a date for marriage is to be set before meeting with our pastor.

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