{"id":540,"date":"2011-08-20T09:23:19","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T13:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=540"},"modified":"2011-08-20T09:23:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T13:23:19","slug":"the-sacrament-of-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-sacrament-of-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sacrament of Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A primary responsibility of priests is the celebration of the sacraments.\u00a0 Among them is the Sacrament of Marriage.\u00a0 Deacons can also witness<\/em> the Sacrament of Marriage.\u00a0 I use the word “witness” deliberately because it is the couple that celebrate the sacrament with each other.\u00a0 The priest or deacon serve as the official witness of the Church.\u00a0 The priest or deacon presides over the ceremony.\u00a0 (Please note if the wedding ceremony includes a full Mass, only the priest celebrates the Mass itself.)<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, I celebrated the marriage ceremony with one couple.\u00a0 Later this year, I will preside at three other weddings and there are weddings already being scheduled for next year (wedding couples should always contact the church\u00a0at least six months in advance, some churches require one year).<\/p>\n

Certainly the wedding itself as a sacrament is certainly important.\u00a0 Ultimately, it is God who provides the grace of the sacrament.\u00a0 The priest or deacon is an instrument of God’s grace.\u00a0 I always do my best to celebrate weddings with joy for the couple.\u00a0 To help me do that I like to do the marriage preparation work with the couples, meeting with them a few times.\u00a0 This serves two purposes.\u00a0 First, it helps me to get to know them (and for them to get to know me) so we are not strangers at the wedding ceremony.\u00a0 Secondly, I take it seriously to help make sure the couple is talking about the issues they may have to deal with in their marriage.\u00a0 The example I like to tell them is that before they get married they should talk about how many children they want to have.\u00a0 If one wants to have two children and the other wants twelve, they need to talk more before<\/em> they get married.\u00a0 If one says two children and one says three, they can work that out later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I think most couples have talked about the number of children they would like to have but some haven’t talked about finances or how they will work together to solve problems and challenges in their lives.\u00a0 I don’t tell them how to do this.\u00a0 I don’t have all the answers.\u00a0 I see my role as to make sure they have talked about and know where each other stand.\u00a0 Then, as a married couple, they can work together, two becoming one flesh.\u00a0 Some couples wonder why they have to do marriage preparation (especially with a priest who isn’t married).\u00a0 By time the process is complete, I think most couples appreciate its value.<\/p>\n

Marriage is meant to be a lifelong commitment.\u00a0 Unfortunately, a lot of marriages end in divorce.\u00a0 I hope what I offer in marriage preparation helps the couples.\u00a0 Ultimately, I pray that the grace God gives them in the Sacrament of Marriage leads them to a long life together.<\/p>\n

For more on marriage, check out my web page on “The Sacrament of Marriage.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A primary responsibility of priests is the celebration of the sacraments.\u00a0 Among them is the Sacrament of Marriage.\u00a0 Deacons can also witness the Sacrament of Marriage.\u00a0 I use the word “witness” deliberately because it is the couple that celebrate the sacrament with each other.\u00a0 The priest or deacon serve as the official witness of the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Sacrament of Marriage’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11],"tags":[80,79],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-8I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":541,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}