Marriage is about love, and love is from God. That simple truth tells us where to look for more wisdom about this powerful experience of marriage. God created and designed this most wonderful gift of love. He created us as well, and so designed us that we would want to fall in love with another person. Everything about us, our whole physical and psychological make-up, is designed to encounter and care about another special someone. Therefore, we are the most emotionally healthy, we are the most fully human, and even the most religious, when we deep love our partner. Love is what we are supposed to do! If we are in love, then the design of God for us is completed and fulfilled.
   
The fact that this experience is deeply pleasurable as well shows how much God loves us. He wants us to be happy. His "way" really leads to fulfillment, and that fulfillment comes through love. Love is God's gift to you and it is meant to be enjoyed! That experience is profoundly satisfying, and it makes a tremendous impact on our life. After all, no one can ever affect us as much as the one we love.

Why the Church Gets So Involved

We want your love to be the best. In fact, God Himself wants more than anything that your love for each other becomes the most important project you ever do in your life. No other work you do is more important. To love your partner with a special love, like God's love, is the best love of all. All of our Catholic faith is about that love. All our Catholic faith is learning and living that life and love of Christ.
    
Jesus Christ deeply affected people. Few met the Lord and stayed the same. Most were changed forever. Your love can affect other people also. People love to see people in love! When your family and friends see you on your wedding day and hear you declare your wedding vows, they will be very moved by what you do. On that day you will say your vows to God and His people (and they will love to hear it!). God knows your friends will be moved. After all, He ac-tually designed us to be moved and impressed in the presence of love.

That's why God asks engaged couples to announce their love in Church, in front of a loving community. God asks that the love He has given you, that you enjoy so much, be given as a gift to others as well. What you have received as a gift, give as a gift. That's real love! Your love just might create love in someone else who really needs it. Never doubt the power of your love to change the world around you! Never doubt the power of God to change the world through you.

Catholic Marriage Is Powerful

A Catholic marriage therefore has these two effects that make it different from other Christian marriages, (a) you feel the presence of God within you, and (b) the community feels the presence of God from you. Those two effects are also why Catholics call Marriage a SACRAMENT. A sacrament is a visible sign of the presence of God. After all, the presence of God is love. We see the two of you "in love" and so we see the visible presence of God. Our God is love. Therefore, the more you are in love, the more mature is your love, then the deeper is your real experience of God. That's why love feels wonderful. That’ is why we spend so much of our life around it. It's an experience of God Himself.

The people you know can actually get the same experience through you! After all, the world needs to see that love is real, that love is possible, and that God is real, through your real love for each other. Your natural love for each other, which includes all the day-to-day events of caring, understanding, forgiving, reconciling, planning, talking, listening, and even disagree-ing, is a most special sacrament of God and His Church. Of course, you're not putting on a show. Just being yourselves, just living your natural concern and care for each other, will be that special sign of God's presence. 

That is why the Church gets so involved in marriage and your relationship. Our community has a stake in your relationship. We want you to be as happy as possible and to be a full sign of God's presence among us.

Everything the Church asks of you is designed to enhance your happiness and your joy in marriage; for yourselves and for His Church. At first glance the requests may seem too much, and the paperwork may seem bureaucratic, but everything we do is for a lifetime of happiness for you, and Jesus showed us all how to get it. As Catholics, we pay close attention to His thoughts on relationships and commitment. These requests fulfill His ideas on commitment. As mature Catholics, we know where to look for wisdom, we know where to look for the truth about marriage, and it is the Lord!

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