I have been thinking about marriage a lot lately in preparing several couples and seeing this preparation come to fruition in Holy Matrimony. I have also been preparing to present a Worldwide Marriage Encounter experience at the end of October. I truly love and am inspired by the Church’s teaching on marital love and the blessings flowing from this love. Ministering in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter community has shown me the deep and profound lived experience of so many wonderful men and women who share this bond through the joys and sorrows where the become signs of the great sacramental grace God shares with us. It has been a support to my priesthood helping me to be a better (I pray) priest and man.
I love the writings of Pope St. John Paul II and our current Holy Father Francis have shared with us on marriage. I am inspired by the words of the Second Vatican Council in their teachings on marriage especially in Gaudium et Spes; The Church in the Modern World. When I was recently searching for something on Marriage I was surprised to discover Dear Newlyweds: Pope Pius XVII Speaks to Married Couples. Pope Pius XII sat on the chair of Peter from 1939 to 1958 during some of the very darkest times in world history. I was fascinated to discover that just as St. John Paul II had weekly audiences as he taught was to become what is now called the “Theology of Body,” Pope Pius did something similar with marriage, calling together young married couples to talk and teach about the joy and grace God offers, through the Church, for their marriages.
I was reminded by Pope Pius Xii in one of the first brief sections of how the liturgy of the Mass and the Rite of Marriage are two of the most instructive teachings for what marriage is and how we are called to live life. He writes, “All this takes place with a solemnity at once grandiose and simple: the bride and groom are kneeling before the altar of the Lord; they are in the presence of men, witnesses as well as relatives and friends and in the presence of God who, invisibly surrounded by the angels and the Saints, validates and sanctions the obligations solemnly vowed.” (p. 8)
The grandeur of the Sacrament is such a wonder and joy. The simple act of a man and woman speaking the prayerful words of the vow, becoming a covenant, a sign and symbol of the love the Trinity in the world where we are called to be a witness to the breaking in of the Holy Spirit into the lives of this new untarnished Sacrament of love. Sometimes we can forget amiss the many details of life and the pondering of what comes next what we witness daily in the Sacraments we live and are in the world. We listen without hearing, we watch without seeing, we quickly walk by without participating in the great gift God lays at our feet. We know the truth of this when we are intentional in our actions in the blessing we receive and share.
And then as the newly married couple waits in anticipation of the reception of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity or our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharistic feast, we pause for a moment…we break the pattern so that we can hear, see and participate in a blessing.
When I was able to celebrate and witness the marriage of a cousin several years ago, one of the attendees noted to me at the reception, after Mass, how often the liturgy mentions the openness to life in accepting children. She had listened and heard the good news of life that is promised by God in and through the grace of the Sacrament. Pope Pius XII teaches, “There is an important detail in the liturgy of the holy mass: after the Pater Noster, the priest, turning toward the bride and groom, invokes the divine blessing upon them in a prayer which touches the innermost fiber of their hearts and overflows with moving wishes for the future.” (p 8)
What beautiful and moving prayers are offered to the newly married couple when the community prays over the husband and wife pouring out the love of God in the powerful words of blessing. We hear these words prayed in part of the nuptial blessing:
“Look now with favor upon these your servants,joined together in Marriage,who ask to be strengthened by your blessing.Send down on them the grace of the Holy Spiritand pour your love into their hearts,that they may remain faithful in the Marriage covenant.”
God is so very good in offering us this wonderful gift of participating in His creation and witnessing the love flowing from the most Sacred Heart of His Son into the world through the man and woman joined in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
God Bless
Fr. Mark
If you wish to read the several options for the Nuptial Blessings you can check them out on the website listed below.
https://www.catholicchurchesofncc.com/staff/list