GETTING MARRIED IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Marrying in the Catholic Church is a beautiful gift! It's much more than having your wedding in a particular building. Catholic marriage is a sacrament. But what does that mean?
When the Catholic Church teaches that marriage between two baptized persons is a sacrament, it is saying that the couple’s relationship expresses in a unique way the unbreakable bond of love between Christ and his people. Like the other six sacraments of the Church, marriage is a sign or symbol which reveals the Lord Jesus and through which his divine life and love are communicated. All seven sacraments were instituted by Christ and were entrusted to the Church to be celebrated in faith within and for the community of believers. The rituals and prayers by which a sacrament is celebrated serve to express visibly what God is doing invisibly.
In a sacramental marriage, God’s love becomes present to the spouses in their total union and also flows through them to their family and community. By their permanent, faithful and exclusive giving to each other, symbolized in sexual intercourse, the couple reveals something of God’s unconditional love. The sacrament of Christian marriage involves their entire life as they journey together through the ups and downs of marriage and become more able to give to and receive from each other. Their life becomes sacramental to the extent that the couple cooperates with God’s action in their life and sees themselves as living “in Christ” and Christ living and acting in their relationship, attitudes and actions.
Catholic teaching holds that sacraments bring grace to those who receive them with the proper disposition. Grace is a way of describing how God shares the divine life with us and gives us the help we need to live as followers of Christ. In marriage, the grace of this sacrament brings to the spouses the particular help they need to be faithful and to be good parents. It also helps a couple to serve others beyond their immediate family and to show the community that a loving and lasting marriage is both desirable and possible.
- http://www.foryourmarriage.org/marriage-as-sacrament
When you marry in the Catholic Church, you as groom and bride are making a covenant with each other and with God to make Him the center of your lives and to give yourselves totally to each other. You are committing to love each other with self-giving love--freely, fully, faithfully, and fruitfully. Your marriage preparation and participation in the life of the Church will help you understand what all this means and how to live it out.
THINKING ABOUT GETTING MARRIED AT HOLY SPIRIT? That's wonderful! We're eager to talk with you.
If you have any previous marriages that ended in divorce and have not been annulled, please contact us at least two years before your proposed wedding date.
In order to set a date, you will need to:
MARRIAGE PREPARATION - Marriage Preparation is part of getting married in the Catholic Church. It's an investment that the Church makes, and that you make, in your marriage. You and your family will receive dividends for a lifetime! Here at Holy Spirit, the two of you meet several times with a sponsor couple (see below). For Marriage preparatin fees, contact the office.
Readings for Catholic Weddings
http://www.foryourmarriage.org/readings/
SPONSOR COUPLE PROGRAM - A series of Marriage Preparation sessions that gives a couple the opportunity to develop necessary skills for succeeding in marriage today and also emphasizes faith formation as an essential ingredient for the journey. It provides a personal approach, addressing the unique needs and issues of the couple as they work with a couple trained in marriage ministry in preparation for celebrating the Sacrament of Matrimony.