What is marriage according to the Catholic Church?
1. Matrimonial covenant between a man and a woman
2. Life-long union entered to establish an intimate partnership of life and love.  Total giving of self.
3. It is ordered:
     a.  Mutual good of the spouses
     b.  Open to the procreation and education of children.
4. The essential properties of marriage:
     a.  Unity
     b.  Fidelity
     c.  Indissolubility
5.  This description of the Church's understanding of what makes a union to be a marriage, applies to all marriages whatsoever, whether of Catholics or non-Catholics, whether Christian or non-Christian.  Hub of marriage:  consent
6.  The ministers of the Sacrament of Marriage are not the deacon, priest, or bishop.  The ministers are the couple because they minister the love of Christ to themselves, their family, and to the world.

Three important questions asked during the marriage rite to verify the couple’s freedom to marry and to commit themselves to the fundamental aspects of a Christian marriage:
1.  ____________, have you come here to enter into Marriage without coercion, freely, and wholeheartedly?  I have
2.  Are you prepared, as you follow the path of Marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?      I am
3.  Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?        I am


The consent each party gives to the other is the hub of the marriage:
Official witness: Since it is your intention to enter the covenant of Holy Matrimony, join your right hands and declare your consent before God and his Church.
I, _______, take you _______, to be my wife.  I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.
I, _______, take you _______, to be my husband.  I promise to be faithful to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.
Official witness:  May the Lord in his kindness strengthen the consent you have declared before the Church, and graciously bring to fulfillment his blessing within you.  What God joins together, let no one put asunder.

Importance of a Christian marriage:
The Catholic Church is unique among the very few large public institutions in society because we continue to take marriage very seriously. Fundamentally, marriage is a commitment to a Christian community to be faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ concerning marriage and divorce, as stated in Holy Scripture. We are also committed to manifest the compassion of Jesus to those people whose marriages fail. So, the Catholic Church and its ministers are committed to be both "prophetic" (to teach what Jesus taught) and to be "pastoral" (to minister to those whose marriages, unfortunately, have ended in a civil divorce).




 

One of the major problems in society is the failure of many marriages. Every family has members who are struggling with difficult marriages or who have divorced or become victims of divorce.  We offer our support and prayers to them.  At the same time, however, our parish has the obligation to better prepare people for the Sacrament of Marriage. The family is central to all of us, and marriage is a gift that is meant to bring new life and continued growth in love. We ask couples to make arrangements at least six months in advance to begin the paperwork and pre-marital counseling. Couples are required to participate in an Engaged Encounter weekend held in Charleston.  Since the bride and groom are the ministers of this sacrament, they will plan both the ceremony and the music according to parish guidelines.