LITURGY OF MARRIAGE CELEBRATION.

Like other sacramental rites, marriage now takes place within the Mass. Since it is a sign of the covenant between God and humanity and since the Eucharist is supremely the renewal of the covenant,the appropriateness of this arrangement is obvious. Besides it is very meaningful to integrate the mutual self-gift of the couple into the self-gift of Christ to the Church. A mixed marriage with the baptized person is normally celebrated outside Mass,although it could be celebrated during Mass with the permission of the local ordinary.


Marriage being a sacrament of the church it is celebrated in facie ecclesiae, that is , in the presence of the official minister of the Church. In the Latin Church, it is ordinarily understood that the spouses,as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. Therefore the couples are the ministers of the sacrament of Matrimony in the Western Church. In the Eastern liturgies the minister of this sacrament is the priest or the Bishop who, after receiving the mutual consent of the spouses,successively crowns the bridegroom and the bride as a sign of the marriage covenant.

The presence of the official minister of the church is necessary for the validity of the marriage. We can distinguish four aspects of the reality of Christian marriage as it is presented in the Rite of marriage of the Roman Rite:

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a) Marriage is a celebration of the Church.

The introductory rites put in evidence the fact that the relationship between the couple is, through the sacramental celebration, entering into the wider relationship of which the Church is constituted.. The Parish community rejoices on this happy occasion because through the celebration of marriage the love relationship that exist in the community is going to be expressed by two individuals in terms of their self-gift.The introductory dialogue expresses the content of their mutual dedication and their commitment to fulfill the conditions of marriage: freedom,indissolubility, fecundity and to take up their responsibility as spouses and parents.

b) Marriage is a covenant act.

The consent which they exchange after the liturgy of the Word is not a mere legal contract , but a covenantal act
by which both of them enter into into each other's gamut of relationship. It is an expression of their total and unconditional belonging to one another.The terms of this covenant is there human love purified by selfishness and satisfied in self-gift. Grounded in Christ's mystery this intimate community is made holy by the presence and action of the Holy Spirit. The word of God which they have listened to will be the interpreter of their lives henceforward and not their ideology or their likes or dislikes.

c) Marriage as an act of consecration

The nuptial blessing that is imparted to the newly wed after the doxology is an act of consecration. The covenant
is ratified by God  by the action of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Church. The reality of marriage is fully inserted into the history of salvation .It recalls to mind the first blessing pronounced by God on Adam and
 Eve ; all the other blessings that are pronounced on the couples in the course of time are a renewal of that blessing. Henceforward,the relationship between the newly wed people will be regulated and actualized in the spirit of this ratification effected by the Holy Spirit.

d) Marriage as a fruitful union

This is the content of the final blessing given by the priest.The exchange of consent made fruitful by the blessing has now to become a reality in their daily lives.This fruitfulness has the following expressions: they give life to new members in the Church, they themselves grow in selflessness and those bear witness to redemptive union of Christ with the Church; they build up Christian families which are the domestic Church units which constitute the Church in a locality.Thus the newly wed go into the wold to live their alliance ratified before the altar. They become witness of the union of Christ with his Church.

The new rite of marriage translate into ritual the basic theological elements of the sacrament of matrimony. Through its celebration they receive the grace to live their commitment throughout their life.Marriage becomes
not so much their initiative as a response to the call which the Lord has made to them in his Church.

SPIRITUALITY OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.

Spirituality  is the living of an adequate response which the human persons are expected to give to the
call of God moved and led by the Spirit of God. Seen in this light spirituality of married life has the
following characteristic:

It is a daily call and response.

a)While all the beings in this world are created by God with a specific
pattern of behavior called natural law, the human beings are called
into existence personally by God. Life is, therefore, a call and response.
This is given at every moment and hence every moment ought to be a
response. In the case  of persons this call is specific to each one and
it manifest itself in different ways.In marriage it is the call of God given
to a man and woman mediated by each other. The life of the married
people will therefore be conditioned by each other. They respond to God
through their mutual love. They make their life meaningful by this mutual
daily response.

b)The human love becomes the sacrament of the love of God.They manifest
their response to God by their love for one another. By the sacrament of
matrimony each becomes a grace to the other. Their human conjugal love
becomes consecrated love. This will not  take place automatically.
Since they carry with them their belonging to sinful Adam and Eve, they
have to be constantly struggling to keep their love for one another free
from selfishness. It is asceticism of self-denial which makes their human
love become the symbol of divine love.