Unto That Glorious Adventure

What too many people seem to miss is that marriage is a sacrament.

That means it is a means of grace. It is one of the great seven. It is one of the gifts in which heaven is poured into our lives through the physical.

Because marriage is a sacrament it is sacred. If you trample on marriage you are trampling not just on your spouse or your future spouse or your kids. You are trampling on God’s gift to you through which you might receive the graces necessary for salvation.

Look at it this way. For most people marriage is their ladder to heaven.

If you knock down your ladder and break it apart how do hope to climb to heaven?

This is why the Catholic Church is against anything that breaks or soils marriage because when marriage is broken one of your main ladders to heaven is broken.

That’s why to trample marriage is mortal sin: because it leads to death.

What breaks marriage? promiscuity. prostitution. pornography. masturbation. artificial contraception. adultery. divorce. co habitation. fornication. sexual abuse. rape. domestic violence. domestic abuse. child abuse. abortion. all these things break marriage and more.

Furthermore, because marriage is a sacrament it is designed and administered by the church. There are rules that govern and control the sacrament of marriage just as there are all the sacraments.

You can’t have a valid Eucharist without a validly ordained priest, bread, wine and the proper liturgy.

You can’t have a valid marriage without fulfilling certain requirements which the church establishes.

This is the structure of the Holy Family. It is built from and relies on the solidity and purpose of marriage.

Break marriage and you break the family. Break the family and your break your ladder to heaven for the family is where you learn the difficult lessons of love, and if you can’t learn those lessons here with the people to whom you are closest where do you imagine you will learn them? If you can’t learn to give of yourself in loving service to your wife or your husband and your children where and when do you think you will learn these lessons and if you do not learn these lessons how do you expect to go to heaven for heaven can only be populated with people who have learned these lessons.

This is not arbitrary. It is logical. Heaven is for those who have become like Christ by his grace. To become like Christ is to have learned how to lay down your life for another. If you cannot do that in your marriage and family then when and where might you be able to do it?

So take more time to build the family. Take more time to build the marriage.

Your life may depend on it.

Your life DOES depend on it.

“This is the most realistic appearance of St Nicholas based on all the skeletal and historical material. It is thrilling for us to be able to see the face of this famous 4th century Bishop,” said Professor Wilkinson. The new image was unveiled at St. Nicholas Catholic Primary School. 

Benedict XVI, Midnight Mass, 25 December 2007

courtesy

https://www.facebook.com/BenedictForum.Gentiles?fref=nf

The Christmas season is a time of great joy for the Church. The Birth of Christ, of course, is cause for great rejoicing and merriment. The vestments worn are white, and our hymns speak of love and warmth.

Yet there are two feasts the Church celebrates during this season which may seem peculiar to some. These are the Feasts of Saint Stephen and the Holy Innocents. These may seem peculiar primarily because they are the feasts of Martyrs. Stephen is known to the Greeks as the Protomartyr, the first martyr, for he was the first to die for proclaiming Christ as Lord (as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles). The Holy Innocents are the young children who died by the decree of Herod who sought to kill the prophesied King to come (as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew).

It seems strange to commemorate two tragedies in the midst of the season of joy, but not so. These feasts of martyrs serve as reminders of the dangerous idea that Jesus is Lord. Therein is the true meaning of Christmas: God has declared war on all the powers of Hell, and here comes the great general Himself. Many will die for Him, many have already died for Him, and even He has died. But God’s mystery of salvation does not end with death. A martyr’s story does not end in death. Even in the midst of winter, in the Christmas season, we recognize the Paschal victory over death and darkness. Christ rose from the grave and we too will have life in Him. That is the promise to the martyrs and that is his promise to us.

Merry Christmas, everyone, and Happy Holidays.