What marriage means to Catholics

Marriage:

... is a sacrament that woman and man give to each other and they then become the living sign of the sacrament,
... is a natural institution that has served the needs of society by producing and educating their children, our new citizens,
... is the domestic church where the great gift of the faith is passed on from generation to generation,
... is a blessing of mutual love and intimacy between a man and a woman,
... is a healthy, safe and very successful setting for the long years of development and information needed by children to become mature, contributing adults,
... is the key institution that ensures the continuation of the human race and the prosperity of a nation,
... is a wholesome healthy model for relationships that we should hold up to our children and grandchildren as an example,
... is an encouragement to individuals to be aware of their place in the mainstream of humanity, their heredity and their self worth,
... is an institution that has endured and given stability to people for millennia in spite of disasters, wars, plagues and the interference of secular rulers,
... is a contributor to the meaning of life, care for others, glimpses of immortality and a perspective beyond the self,
... is a vocation for a man and a woman, not just relationship, involving self giving, a path to sanctity and the responsibility of dedicated parenthood.

As the tragic conflicts continue in various areas of our world, let us intensify our prayer for God’s precious gift of peace:

God of peace and harmony, your Son walked this earth in a land we now call holy.

Hear our prayers for the peoples of the Middle East.

Let your justice rain down from the heavens and peace spring forth from the earth.

Give wisdom to political leaders and the strength of will to negotiate a lasting settlement that brings concord to all people.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
forever and ever.  Amen

SERENITY  PRAYER

„Lord give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.”

VATICAN CITY, JAN 23, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, Benedict XVI participated in a congress organized by the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum." The event is being held in the Vatican's New Synod Hall on January 23 and 24, and its theme, taken from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, is: " ... But the greatest of these is love."

In his address, the Holy Father made frequent reference to his first Encyclical, "Deus caritas est," which is due to be published on Wednesday, January 25.

"The cosmic journey in which Dante, in his 'Divine Comedy,' wishes to involve the reader," the Pope began, "ends before the eternal light that is God Himself, before that Light which is, at the same time, 'the love that moves the sun and the other stars'."

The God Who appears in Dante's central circle of light "has a human face and, we may add, a human heart. Dante's vision shows the continuity between the Christian faith in God and research based on reason; ... at the same time, however, there appears a novelty that goes beyond all human research: ... the novelty of a love that impelled God to assume a human face, to take on flesh and blood. ... The 'eros' of God is not just a primordial cosmic force, it is the love that created human beings and stretches reaches out towards them."

"The word 'love,' is so overused today," the Pope continued, "that one is almost afraid to pronounce it. Yet, ... it is the expression of a primordial reality, ... and we must retrieve it, ... so that it may illuminate our lives. ... This awareness is what induced me to choose love as the theme of my first Encyclical. I wanted to try and express, for our own times and our own lives, something of that which Dante encapsulated in his vision."

Faith should become "a vision-understanding that transforms us," said the Holy Father. "I wanted to highlight the centrality of faith in God, in the God Who assumed a human face and a human heart. ... In an age in which ... we are witnessing the abuse of religion even unto the apotheosis of hatred, ... we have need of the living God Who loved us even unto death. Thus, in this Encyclical, the themes of God, Christ and Love are fused together as a central guide to the Christian faith."

"A first reading of the Encyclical could perhaps give rise to the impression that it is divided into two parts with little in common between them: a first theoretical part discussing the essence of love, and a second part covering ecclesial charity and charitable organizations. Yet I was interested precisely in the unity between the two themes, only if seen as a single thing can they be properly understood. ... On the basis of the Christian image of God, it was necessary to show how man was created to love, and how this love, which initially appears above all as 'eros' between man and woman, must then be internally transformed into 'agape,' into the giving of self to others."

"On this basis, it was necessary to clarify how the essence of the love for God and for others, ... is the core of Christian life, the fruit of faith." Then, "in the second part, it was necessary to highlight that the totally personal act of 'agape' can never remain a purely individual issue, rather it must also become an essential act of the Church as community; in other words, it also needs the institutional form that finds expression in the community activity of the Church."

The Pope concluded: "The ecclesial organization of charity is not a form of social assistance, a casual addition to the reality of the Church. ... Rather, it is part of the nature of the Church, ... [and] must in some way make the living God visible. ... The spectacle of suffering man touches our hearts. But charitable commitment has a meaning that goes well beyond simple philanthropy. It is God Himself Who encourages us from within our most intimate selves to alleviate misery. ... It is He Himself Whom we carry into a suffering world. The greater the awareness and clarity with which we bear Him as a gift, the more effectively will our love change the world."

Over the last few years, many scholars of different Christian denominations have given very weighty natural law argument against euthanasia and physician assisted suicide. What we mean here by natural law is argumentation from human reason which does not rely on revelation from Scripture or Tradition, and so can reach all people, believers and non-believers alike. Their arguments are about what we know of ourselves as human beings and also to the social consequences that would follow from legalizing euthanasia and/or physician assisted suicide.

These arguments are quite sufficient to convince any non biased reader of the grave moral wrong and social tragedy involved in legalizing direct killing of the innocent. You can have confidence in the logic and facts of these arguments and your own common sense as you urge their members of parliament to vote down any proposed law to legalize euthanasia and physician assisted suicide.

However, Catholics do also rely on revelation for their own convictions in these matters. We know that God is the Author of life and we ourselves are only stewards of this great gift. We acknowledge that only God knows whether a person is better off alive or dead. Judgements of this kind are beyond the power of human beings. Directly to kill an innocent human being for his or her own proposed good (and this is precisely what is involved in euthanasia and physician assisted suicide) is to claim to have this knowledge - quite literally to make gods of ourselves. The sacred mystery of human being's life is thereby reduced to some THING, something that can be disposed of by us. May Almighty God save us from this overweening (arrogant) pride!

  The Monstrance

Waiting for each tender soul
To come and stay a while
Is Jesus Christ our saviour Lord,
Our source of truth, not guile.

He bids us come and stay with Him;
An hour would be blest.
Three apostles once were asked,
But chose instead to rest.

Who knows what graces you’ll receive?
Only the Giver knows!
His love can warm the coldest heart
Where only selfish shows.

Come and visit Him today;
Leave your cares behind.
You’ll find that He’s replaced them with
His gentle peace of mind.

As explained recently in the Vatican’s Doctrinal Note on Catholic Participation in Political Life, Catholics need to speak with or write to their members of parliament when actions are proposed that would harm family life and undermine the natural and moral order, both of which are foundation or a stable, healthy society. In reaction to the current government’s proposal to redefine marriage, The Ontario Bishops, in their letter on marriage explain that on an issue as important as marriage, Catholics have an obligation to ensure that the political representatives understand that “to equate same-sex unions and marriage in law is to undermine marriage and harm the common good.”

The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws… God himself is the author of marriage. The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this greatness is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.

The matrimonial covenant, by which a man an a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of sacrament.

Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than “the family of God”. From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers ’together with all their household’. When they were converted, they desired that ’theirs whole household’ should also be saved. These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world.

The Catholic bishops of Canada have made it clear to the federal government that we are firmly committed to the maintenance of the common law definition of marriage as “the voluntary and lawful union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others” and to the sacramental nature of that union.

From recent announcements, it would  appear that the federal government is ready to abandon that concept of marriage in favour of some other. The bishops of Ontario are opposed to this federal initiative. In the coming months we will be asking you to join us in defending marriage as it has existed for millennia.

Marriage and family are fundamental institutions which contribute to the common good in terms of the formation of children, loyalty, faithfulness and responsibility in our society. Marriage, as we have known it, cannot be allowed to slip quietly away.

The Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops

O Holy Spirit, divine Spirit of light and love, I consecrate to You my understanding, my heart and my will, my whole being for time and for eternity.

My understanding be always submissive to Your heavenly inspirations and to the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church, of which You are the infallible Guide.

May my heart be ever inflamed with love of God and of my neighbour; may my will be ever conformed to the divine Will, and my whole life be a faithful imitation of the life and virtues of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and You, Holy Spirit, be honour and glory forever. Amen.

St. Pius X, pope, June 5, 1908

The Poor

When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt to justice.

Pope St. Gregory the Great: Rule for Pastoral Care

In Ontario at this time, are we paying these debts to justice? Why do we have homeless people on our streets? Do you know what percentage of our children are classified as poor? Is it acceptable to you that so many people need to make use of food banks? Would you believe that there are people in this province with no income at all? Those are choices that we, the people of Ontario, have been making.

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