Family

Decalogue for marriage preparation

The ten key points that can be gleaned from reading the pastoral guidelines published in June 2022, which take into account the wealth of situations that families are currently going through

José Miguel Granados-July 20, 2022-Reading time: 2 minutes
marriage preparation

Translation of the article into English

Once you have read and studied in depth the Catechumenal Itineraries for Married LifeFrom its reading, it is possible to extract a decalogue of key ideas from this document of which you can find an extensive summary here.

1- The purpose of preparation for marriage in the Church is the conjugal sanctity: to form marriages capable of evangelize our society.

2- The grace of the sacrament leads the spouses to take the awareness of the efficacious presence of Christ in their communion of married life and love.

3- The greatness of vocation of Christian spouses requires a serious and prolonged ecclesial work, with a formative approach attractive, all-encompassing, deep and intense.

4- The proper way to gestate a Christian marriage is a "...".catechumenate". or itinerary of faith, in which the future spouses will accept the divine gift and assume the protagonism of its preparation process, guided and accompanied by the pastors and by other members of the Church who have been duly prepared.

5- Training for mature spousal love presupposes a continuous training process, at various stagesfrom the preparation remote in childhood and youth (in the family, parish, school, movements and ecclesial groups), up to the next and immediate to the celebration of the sacrament (of at least one year's duration), which will be extended after contracting the sacrament in the married life (especially in the early years).

6- The Church must instruct and be close the bride and groom on their way to marriage, with a style that is positive, encouraging and testimonial from trust and dialogue sincere; it is also necessary to prayer and community, with the appropriate sacramental celebration of the sacrament of Eucharist and the Reconciliation. In this way, future spouses will be able to welcome the Gospel of marriage and the family with hope and live it within the ecclesial community.

7- The good news of Christian marriage is to be transmitted in a gradual process of purification and growthwith mercy and prudence. In this way, the candidates to the married state will be able to assimilate the blessing of the sacrament, overcoming with the opportune aids the possible shortcomings and limitations and improving couple's communication.

8- It must be ensured that the bride and groom understand the meaning, purposes, characteristics and benefits of the marriage according to God's plan of creation and redemption. They will then be able to choose it in a conscious and mature manner, in an exercise of reflection and discernmentavoiding the cultural confusions of some widespread erroneous ideologies.

9- The affective-sexual education of the heart by means of the human and Christian virtue of the chastity, ally of loveas well as the reasoned explanation of the doctrine of the responsible procreation, will allow us to understand and assume with joy the beauty of the meaning of the human body in its masculinity and femininity as a call to interpersonal communion.

10- Adequate and permanent ecclesiastical preparation and accompaniment is guarantee of the fulfillment of the divine promise inscribed in the conjugal vocation. In this way, the conjugal covenant can bear fruit in the fruitful joy of Christian homes, for the glory of God and the extension of his kingdom in our world.

La Brújula Newsletter Leave us your email and receive every week the latest news curated with a catholic point of view.