Marriage is a divine gift

December 10, 2015
Lenny Barretto
Daly City

Marriage is in decline and fewer couples are marching to the altar while unmarried cohabitation is on the rise.

In my opinion sacramental marriage is blessed by the church and by God. Marriage is the best arrangement for raising children. Children strengthen our marriage and bring us closer to God, and it gives us happiness and joy to have them in our lives.

I believe that marriage was and still is sacramental in that we confer the sacramental benefits on each other in the presence of the priest.

It is Christ’s mystical presence that makes the occasion sacramental. The vows taken “till death do us part” emphasize only the temporal nature of life on this Earth, but marriage has an external element that I believe is far more important.

The sacramental nature of a Catholic marriage confers an assurance that one’s spouse is not a result of random choice, but a gift, divinely chosen, and like divine gifts has in its nature the ability to draw one closer to its source in divine love – a love that is self-sacrificing. It is this self-sacrifice that differentiates a Catholic sacramental marriage.

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