SPIRITUALITY OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE

 Spirituality is the living of an adequate response which the human person 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:

(a) It is the daily call and response.  While all the beings in this world 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 to be a response. In the case of persons this call is specific to each one and it manifests itself in different ways. In marriage it is the call of God given to a man and women mediated 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 is become 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 this ascetism of self-denial which makes their human love become the symbol of divine love.

(c) The acceptance of the cross as an expression of their covenantal love. The married couple will have to accept the differences of each. This is an integral part of the true love. This will be the cross that they have to experience daily. This does not characterize each one as the cross of the other. The cross is in the effort to relate to the other. But if they dedicatedly accept this cross and live it in fidelity , the relationship will result in an experience of the resurrection, giving them a lasting joy and happiness.

(d) The spirituality of sexual union. Sexual union at married couple is an expression of their love for one another in its highest form. If is done in a spirit of genuine love and not in a hedonistic spirit it will become the sacrament of the creative love of God. It will build up their communion in such a way that it will grow into genuine personal relationship lasting even unto death , continually experienced even when physical sexual pleasure becomes diminished. The presence of the spirit of God who is the real source of happy life is fully operative in the lives of such couple.

Mutual forgiveness

 An integral part of marital spirituality. We all belong to a sinful world, a world in which vengeance grows seven fold. But Christ has introduced us into a world in which forgiveness grows without limit. Living together with our differences which at manifest itself as alienation, we tend to offend or hurt one another. If it is the love of Christ that has united the couple in the married life, the element of mutual forgiveness must be an integral part of their life together. God has forgiven us all; it now remains for us to forgive one another in order to complete the redemptive work of Christ. The redeemed Christian family will be one in which this horizontal forgiveness and reconciliation is constantly operative.

Building up a Community of love.

 The love of the couple should overflow into their children. But care should be taken to make sure that it is a shared. love. The selfless love which bound the couple together now makes itself felt in the family through the selfless love towards their children and the selfless love of children towards one another.

Love nourished by prayer

 Communion with Christ who initiated the couple into the Trinitarian family must be nourished by a life of prayer which should characterize their life together. 

An atmosphere of love nourished by daily prayer which keeps alive the divine presence in their midst is a very important means to build up a Christian family.

Christian marriage is located within the great mystery of the union of Christ with the Church (Eph.5:32). 

The sacredness of marriage comes from the fact. The content and dynamics of this Mystery is God's love translated into human love. The heart of the sacrament of matrimony is precisely here.

Catholic Morality in Human Relationships

 Introduction

When married love is  lived in its most authentic nature, it is expressed in all life situations, becoming a witness, proclaiming and realizing the Kingdom of God: "It is in married and family love... that the Christian family's participation in the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of Christ and his Church finds expression and realisation. Therefore, love and life constitute the nucleus of the saving mission of the Christian family in the Church and for the Church"(Familiaris Consortion [FC].50). The conjugal love of the spouses is fully expressed in fatherhood and motherhood, the fruit of their love, which makes them co-responsible for the gift of life, by protecting, developing, educating and evangelizing: "Christian couples are, for each other, for their children and for their relatives, co-operators of grace and witnesses of the faith. They are the first to pass on the faith to their children and to educate them in it. By word and example they form them to a Christian and Apostolic life"

Catholic morality is about life

Our Lord Jesus said, "I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly.>>(John 10:10). Faith & baptism give us new life in Christ.That life involves far more than simply following a set of rules. It is about living as free human beings not tied down by any bandages and making LOVE our fundamental option.
Morality is a call to recognize our dignity as men and women who have received a free gift of new life in Christ. We must live accordingly. Our Lord Jesus himself clearly taught us the first principles of Catholic morality: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.>>
(Mt 22: 37-40)

JESUS CHRIST THE KING