National Marriage Week kicked off Feb. 7 among communities of faith across the United States. The highlight of this special week, World Marriage Day, was established by
Worldwide Marriage Encounter in 1983 and is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of February. In 2019, World Marriage Day fell on Feb. 10.
Launched in 2010, National Marriage Week is part of an international effort to mobilize individuals, organizations and businesses in a common purpose to strengthen marriage in communities and influence their culture.
According to the diocesan web page for World Marriage Day, the event honors husband and wife as the foundation of the family and salutes the beauty of faithfulness, sacrifice and joy in married life. In 1993, his holiness, Pope John Paul II, imparted his Apostolic Blessings on World Marriage Day. Parishes around the world, including in the Diocese of Trenton, traditionally hold special blessings and celebrations in honor of married couples on this day.
To commemorate National Marriage Week in the Diocese of Trenton, a day-long Cana Marriage Retreat was offered Feb. 2 by the Department of Evangelization and Family Life. The retreat served as an opportunity to build up couples who serve in marriage ministry, who will now be able to implement this retreat which they attended in their own parishes throughout the diocese. To learn more about this retreat, contact Peg Hensler, Associate Director of Marriage Ministries and NFP, at
[email protected].
More resources for marriage and marriage ministry can be found on the
diocesan World Marriage Day page, here. Look to The Monitor and
TrentonMonitor.com for local coverage of parish celebrations of World Marriage Day and Week.
As part of the on-going campaign to promote the beauty and truth of Catholic marriage, the Department of Evangelization and Family Life produced a number of beautiful, durable, double-sided lawn signs that can be placed in your front lawn for the month of February and beyond. They are available for parishoners on a first come - first serve basis.
To participate in this diocesan-wide lawn sign campaign and obtain your own lawn sign, contact Peg Hensler, Associate Director of Marriage Ministries and NFP at
[email protected] or 609-403-7156.