Marriage: A Source of Hope, Spring of Renewal and Pursuit of Lasting Love

AS CATHOLICS, WE CELEBRATE MARRIAGE IN THE CHURCH as “a sacrament.”  The Baltimore Catechism states that a sacrament is one of the seven “outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace (Question 574).” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) similarly defines a sacrament as an “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us (CCC 1131).” The 1983 Code of Canon Law (CCL) states that “the sacraments of the New Testament were instituted by Christ the Lord and entrusted to the Church” as “actions of Christ and the Church … “signs and means which express and strengthen the faith, render worship to God, and effect the sanctification of humanity and thus contribute in the greatest way to establish, strengthen, and manifest ecclesiastical communion (canon 840).”

CCL goes on to define the Sacrament of Marriage as “a covenant by which a baptized man and a woman “establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring (canon 1055).”  

The Church establishes laws and regulations for the baptized faithful that govern its valid celebration.
 
As Catholics, we understand sacramental marriage as something not just between a baptized man and woman but between the two parties and God. That is why we refer to the Sacrament of Marriage as a “covenant.” 

Read the full message HERE.