Congratulations on your engagement! As you begin to prepare not only for your wedding day, but also for your married life together, please be in touch with us as soon as possible. We want to make sure to reserve the church for your big day.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
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Celebrating your Marriage at OLMC
During the year-long period of preparation for marriage at OLMC, we help couples develop a better understanding of the Sacrament of Matrimony; evaluate and deepen their readiness to live married life; and gain insights into themselves as individuals and as a couple.
As you begin this process keep in mind the well known adage: “Your wedding lasts a day, but your marriage lasts a lifetime.” The investment of time and energy you make into preparing for married life will profit you now and in the future.
Preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage might seem a bit daunting at first, but our team of planners and mentors is eager to help. Send us a note today to get started!
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On Marriage, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1601 “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”
I. MARRIAGE IN GOD’S PLAN
1608 … 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 “in the beginning.”
1609 In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments consequent upon sin, “pain in childbearing” and toil “in the sweat of your brow,” also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of 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.
1615 … By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, [Jesus] 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 “receive” the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ…
II. THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE
1621 … 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 “one body” in Christ.
1622 “Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of marriage… must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful.” It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of penance.
1631 [Because marriage is an ecclesial reality,] the Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage according to the [established] form. Several reasons converge to explain this requirement:
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 “I do” once given and helps the spouses remain faithful to it.
1632 So that the “I do” of the spouses may be a free and responsible act and so that the marriage covenant may have solid and lasting human and Christian foundations, preparation for marriage is of prime importance.
IN BRIEF
1659 St. Paul said: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church…” (Eph 5:25).
1660 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament.
1664 Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of marriage; divorce separates what God has joined together; the refusal of fertility turns married life away from its “supreme gift,” the child.
1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called “the domestic church,” a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.
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