Matrimony

Why is it important for each spouse not to be pressured when they marry?

Every covenant must be freely entered into for it to be valid. God wants our free cooperation with him.

What is NFP?

For serious reasons, spouses may morally practice periodic abstinence (NFP) to avoid the conception of new life.

What does the Church teach about every conjugal act?

It must be open to new life.

What is NFP?

NFP includes several methods by which the wife's natural cycle of fertility is accurately predicted. The couple abstains from the conjugal act during the period of fertility.

What are some unfortunate situations in which a separation or even civil divorce might be appropriate?

Situations involving physical abuse, alcoholism, psychological problems, or unfaithfulness may arise.

How many parties are there in every marriage?

Three: a man, a woman, and God.

What is the best environment for a child to be born?

A marriage is best in which husband and wife love each other completely and resolutely carry out their responsibilities toward the child, who with God's help, they have brought into the world.

The Sacrament of Matrimony is:

-Is a sacrament in which God binds a baptized man and a baptized woman together in a permanent union. -Is an indissoluble covenant established by God, which may not be broken by man. -Gives the actual graces needed to fulfill one's vocation to the marital state. -Is directed toward the union of the spouses, their mutual good, and the procreation and education of children. -Enables a couple to cooperate with God in his plan of creation.

Summary of CCC 1660

-It is a covenant. -The man and woman form it. -It is an intimate communion of life and love. -It has its own special laws that God has given it. -It is ordered for (1) the good of the couple and (2) the generation and education of children. -Christ raised marriage between baptized person to a sacrament.

What lessons can children learn in the domestic church?

-Life is a struggle to get to Heaven through Christ's love. -Self-sacrifice is true love. -Children are a gift. -How to pray and worship. -Faith includes a wider community. -Suffering is part of God's plan and is redemptive.

What type of sacrament is the Sacrament of Matrimony?

A Sacrament of Service.

What is a mixed marriage?

A marriage between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic Christian.

What does Christ say about marriage and divorce in Matthew 19:8?

According to God's original plan, divorce was not allowed. Moses permitted it because of man's hardness of heart.

What did Paul VI warn would be results of accepting contraception?

Adultery would become more common, accompanied by a weakening of the family and an increase of divorce. They general level of sexual morality would be lowered, and there would be a dramatic increase in sexual promiscuity, premarital sex would become widespread. Respect for the human person especially women would be diminished as the body would be viewed as a object for selfish enjoyment. Governments would impose contraception on segments of the population.

What is the conjugal act?

Also called the marital act , it is sexual intercourse between husband and wife.

How is an annulment different from a divorce?

An annulment is a declaration that no valid marriage ever took place. Divorce seeks to dissolve a valid marriage.

Eternal Rest

Eternal Rest, grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

How is the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony similar to the Sacrament of Holy Orders?

Both are Sacraments of Service, both entail a specific vocation, and both require preparation.

What did Jesus Christ teach about marriage?

By prohibiting divorce, Jesus Christ restored marriage to the indissolubility that God willed for it from the beginning. By raising marriage to a sacrament, he provided the graces that a baptized couple needs to achieve the ends of marriage in total, self-giving love.

What is the effect of denying the meaning of the conjugal act?

Denying either the unitive or procreative mean of sexual intercourse is gravely sinful. Contraception denies the procreative meaning of the conjugal act, is gravely sinful, and opens the way for a variety of other evils.

Why do all dioceses have marriage preparation programs?

Diocese have marriage preparation programs so that couples will understand the responsibilities they are undertaking. A second reason is to provide time so that each act each see whether the person he or she is engaged to is really the one to whem he or she want to give himself or herself for the rest of his or her life.

What are some of the effects of Original Sin on marriage?

Disordered passions and desires, selfishness, self-absorption, and adultery all resulted in the tolerated practice of divorce (by Moses).

What is the domestic church?

Each Christian family is a domestic church, a place in which the spouses and their children receive grace and develop their spiritual lives.

What is the supernatural effect of the conjugal act?

Each time that the spouses express their love in the conjugal act, they renew their marital covenant and receive graces from God to love each other and God more.

Sin

God created marriage between a man and a woman as an indissoluble union of two people that must be open to children, who are gifts from God. All actions contrary to this union are seriously sinful.

What does Christ declare about divorce in Mark 10:6-9?

God joins husband and wife together. What God has joined man should not separate.

Why is grace needed in marriage?

Grace is needed to overcome the effects of Original Sin, which can make a marriage fall into discord, jealousy and disunion.

Study

Handouts

Sin: Contraception

Harms: Procreative Short Version: It makes the marriage act sterile.

Sin: Abortion

Harms: Procreative Short Version: It kills the new life in the womb, also violates the Fifth Commandment.

Sin: Same-sex union

Harms: Procreative Short Version: Same sex relations are inherently non-procreative.

Sin: Adultery

Harms: Unitive Short Version: One cannot be one flesh with two different people.

Sin: Polygamy

Harms: Unitive Short Version: One cannot be one flesh with two or more different people.

Sin: Divorce

Harms: Unitive Short Version: The marriage vow is for life.

Sin: Premarital Sex

Harms: Unitive Short Version: There is no lifelong bond.

Sin: Trial Marriage

Harms: Unitive Short Version: There is no lifelong commitment, by definition.

Sin: Cohabitation

Harms: Unitive Short Version: There is no lifelong commitment.

Sin: Improper sexual intimacy

Harms: Unitive Short Version: There is no lifelong commitment.

How does God involve a married couple in his own creative work?

Husband and wife are co-creators, with God, of a new human being.

How is the sacrament of Matrimony an example of limitless love?

In the Sacrament of Matrimony, the spouses give themselves completely, body and soul, in unending fidelity.

Why does the Code of Canon Law detail conditions for getting married?

It ensures the validity of the Sacrament and the good of those seeking marriage.

How does adultery violate the unitive aspect of marriage?

It expresses a physical and spiritual unity that does not exist. It also violates the sacred bond of marriage that (at least) one of the persons has with another.

What is a vocation?

It is God's call regarding what he wants an individual to do with his or her life.

Why is the Christian home called the domestic church?

It is a community of grace and prayer, and a school of human virtues and Christian charity for the children.

What is Holy Matrimony?

It is a lifelong covenant, created by God, which joins a man and a woman.

What is disparity of cult?

It is a marriage between a Catholic and a non-baptized Christian.

What is a vow?

It is a solemn promise made to God in the presence of witnesses. Hence why witnesses are needed, both clerical and civil.

Why is the marital act eminently human?

It is an act of human persons that incorporates the mind, the will, and body.

How serious is the sin of separating the unitive and procreative meanings of the conjugal act?

It is gravely serious.

What is Humanae Vitae?

It is the 1968 encyclical of pope Paul VI, that reaffirmed the Church's constant teaching on contraception.

What is the vocation to marriage?

It is the call to make a complete gift of self to one's spouse and to one's children.

What is the unitive aspect of the conjugal act?

It is the complete and exclusive love between the spouses that unites them in body and soul.

What is the annulment process?

It is the investigation by the Church into whether a valid marriage took place.

What is the form of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

It is the vows of the spouses exchanged publicly.

What does conjugal mean?

It means join together.

What does ratification mean?

It means the couple's vows must be made in the presence of an ordained minister of the Church (deacon, priest, bishop) and two other witnesses (usually the best man and maid of honor).

Why does the Church teach that contraception is immoral?

It renders the conjugal act sterile. The couple, by a positive act of the will, intentionally removes the procreative mean of the marital act. By intentionally withholding the complete gift of self and refusing to accept the gift of the other in his or her totality as a human person, the couple distorts both the unitive and procreative meanings for which the marital act was intended.

What is marital love?

Marital love is the exclusive, lifelong covenant between a man and a woman, willed by God, which involves the whole person, body and soul, and which is ordered to the procreation and education of children. It is one of the most powerful expressions of divine and human love on earth.

How is the vocation to marriage a call to holiness?

Marriage is a vocation from God to pursue holiness throughout life with one's spouse and children.

What kind of preparation should a couple have before marriage?

Marriage requires preparation to understand one's responsibilities.

What are the three traditional vocations the church as recognized?

Marriage, the consecrated life in Holy Orders and/or religious life, and the celibate life.

Does with a separation or legal divorce mean the spouses are no longer validly married in the eyes of God?

No. They are still married.

Does the nature of marital love demand that every marital act have conception as its primary or explicit intention?

No. the spouses do not have to intend that conception occur in each marital act.

What are some situations that invalidate a marriage?

One of the partners may have been forced into the union, one may have intended to have no children, one may have had an diagnosed mental condition that makes consent impossible.

How is a ratified and consummated marriage dissolved?

Only by the death of one of the spouses.

The Wedding Ceremony

Spouses are supposed to love each other in the same way Christ loved the Church (loving self-sacrifice), and it is the in the sacrifice of the Mass that Christ's love for his Church is made manifest. Therefore, it is fitting that the spouses seal their commitment in Holy Matrimony by uniting the offering of Christ at Mass.

Why is it appropriate that a person suffering from a serious mental illness not be able to marry?

Such a person would neither understand nor be able to fulfill the rights and duties of marriage that are freely undertaken.

Why is the age requirement important?

Sufficient maturity is necessary. People are able to have children before they are old enough to be responsible for them.

What are the requirements for a dispensation to allow a Catholic to marry in a mixed marriage or in a marriage of disparity of cult?

The Catholic party declares he or she will do everything in his or her power to remove the dangers of falling away from the Faith and to raise the children in the Church. The other party is to be informed of these promises and both parties are to be educated about essential ends and properties of marriage, which neither party can disregard. Finally the marriage should take place in the Catholic Church.

What are some of the requirements for a valid sacramental marriage?

The Church teaches that there are requisites for a valid marriage, which includes the free consent of the parties, the use of proper Rite of Matrimony, and the lack of impediments (road block).

What is the connection between the Eucharist and Matrimony?

The Sacrament of Matrimony is most fittingly celebrated within the context of Holy Mass because the Mass is the perfect expression of God's love, a love that the spouses are called to live toward each other and the children with whom God may bless them.

What devotion does every person have?

The call to holiness.

In what sense is God's plan for each marriage a mystery?

The circumstances and events of each marriage are different and in some ways incomprehensible to us.

What is the conjugal act and it two purposes?

The conjugal act is the highest expression of marital love, and it two two intrinsic and inseparable purposes., the unitive and the procreative. The unitive purposes is the one-flesh expression of love between husband and wife. The procreative purpose is the generation of new life and its education.

What is the domestic Church?

The family is a domestic church in which children learn to live their Catholic Faith.

What is the relationship between the marital bond and the marital act?

The marital bond is not complete until the marriage has been consummated, that is, until the couple performs the conjugal act. A marriage that is not consummated can be annulled for that very reason.

CCC 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 (cf. CIC, can. 1055 § 1; cf. GS 48 § 1).

What is the matter of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

The matter consists of the words the spouses exchange, expressing their commitment, and their bodies given to each other in the consummation of their marriage in the conjugal act.

What is the matter, form and minister of Holy Matrimony?

The matter of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony consists of the spouses themselves. The form consists of the public vows of the spouses. The minister is the spouses themselves who mutually confer the Sacrament on each other.

According to CCC 1661, what is the model of how Christian married couples should love one another?

The model is the love that Christ had for the Church (loving self sacrifice). The sacrament of Matrimony gives the couple the grace to love this way.

What are some serious reasons for which spouses might postpone having children?

The physical or psychological conditions of ether spouse, the particular needs of the family and existing children, and the family's financial situation.

What happens when a validly married Catholic divorces and remarries?

The remarriage of a spouse who is validly married is a serious sin. Some spouses are called to heroic sacrifice in difficult situations. In some instances, separation or even legal divorce may be appropriate.

What is the connection between Jesus' restoration of marriage and the Institution of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

The sacrament gives a married couple the grace, or supernatural help, they need to live their marriage in the way that God intended from the beginning.

Who is the minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony?

The spouses administer the Sacrament to each other.

What is the goal of every marriage whether natural or sacramental?

The total gift of self to the other spouse.

How does premarital sex violate the unitive aspect of marriage?

The two have not completely given themselves to the other by uniting in a lifelong covenant.

What are the two aspects of the marriage act in marriage?

The unitive and procreative.

What change came over Adam and Eve as a result of their disobedience toward God?

The unity between the two and their union with God became disrupted, and rather than love in a selfless, self-giving way, their love became selfish, seeking the fulfillment of their own desires.

What is the special calling that God gives the vast majority of people?

The vocation to marriage.

What are some sins against marriage?

There are many sins that violate the unitive or procreative purposes of marriage.

What are the obligations and prohibitions for a person who has entered a second marriage while still validly married to their first spouse?

They may not receive the sacraments, except Reconciliation. They still have the obligation to educate their children in the Faith. In order to receive Eucharist, they must commit to complete sexual abstinence and go to Confession.

What do the graces of matrimony contribute toward this goal?

They provide the strength to make the gift of self possible.

What are some of the ordinary situations in married life that spouses are called to sanctify?

They sanctify the marriage union, the care and education of children, the effort to provide for the needs of the family and its security and development, and the relationships with other persons who make up the community in which the family interacts.

What should spouses in difficult marriages do?

They should seek all the human and supernatural help available to work through their difficulties.

What is God's greatest wish?

To give himself entirely to us and for us to give ourselves entirely to him in love.

What are, or should be, the fundamental goals of a Christian married couple?

To help each other get to heaven and to raise their children in such a way that they join them there someday.

If the Church declares that no valid sacramental marriage ever took place, the parties are free to marry?

Yes.