The Roman Catholic View of Marriage

The Roman Catholic View of Marriage

People decide to get married to each other for many different reasons,

but many of them evolve around love and that they want to spend the

rest of their lives together forever.

Marriage is one of seven sacraments available for a Catholic to take.

These sacraments show a person commitment and love to the Church and

to God, it shows that they are a 'Whole' Catholic, if you know what I

mean.

Most of these sacraments take place during a mass, whilst celebrating

God.

The Marriage ceremony can be divided into different areas, to be

specific there are eight main areas and these are:

* The greeting

* The Sermon (Homily)

* The Marriage Ceremony

* The Marriage Vows

* Acceptance of Consent and the Blessing

* Exchanging of the Rings

* The Marriage Nuptial (Blessing)

* The signing of the Marriage Blessing

Before the Mass has even begun the priest welcomes the bride and

bridegroom and wishes them the best of luck. The Priest says this on

behalf of the congregation, this symbolises that the congregation are

with the bride and bridegroom and letting them know that they are

there to share the joy of the happy occasion. The congregation are

there, as is the priest, as witnesses to this sacrament.

During the Sermon the Priest will usually talk about what is meant by

a Christian wedding, he will mention the dignity of being married and

loved. He will also mention the responsibilities of marriage showing

that the couple are growing closer to God by loving each other.

This Sermon represents the responsibilities that a couple will have to

undertake during their mar...

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... and legally married.

There are other symbols that are associated with the wedding. Brides

traditionally wear a white dress with a veil. In the old days the

whiteness of the dress would symbolise the virginity of the bride that

she has reserved the greatest gift for her husband. However in modern

times this tradition has been forgotten about but there are some who

do follow this ancient tradition.

To some up all of the points above here are four brief bullet points:

* Marriage is a sign of God's love and the couple love and serve God

as they love each other.

* Marriage is a lifelong relationship ending only in death.

* Marriage is special; it is unique, exclusive and permanent.

* Marriage has the possibility of life giving and has the opportunity

of children and needs a lot of hard work with parenthood.