1. Matrimony
What Does Matrimony Celebrate?
• The sacrament of Matrimony is considered an encounter with
God
- It celebrates a couple’s covenant to share the rest of
their lives together and reveal God’s love to themselves
and everyone around them through the relationship of
their marriage
• There are four concepts that emphasize the rich, sacramental
quality of a marriage bond
- Mutual self-giving
- Covenantal faithfulness
- The becoming of one’s real self
- Creativity
Mutual Self-Giving
• God is revealed whenever human love or friendship is
present
• Matrimony has been seen as a way of showing God’s love in
human terms
- The marriage relationship symbolizes how God relates
to us in the most vivid way
- No matter how imperfect a marriage is, it is still
sacramental
A Symbol of God’s Gift of Self, Freely Bestowed

2. • Marriage is known to be a symbol of God’s total gift of self
to human beings
- For Christians, specifically, the equal sharing of love
between a husband and wife help us comprehend Jesus’
loving gift of self through his death and Resurrection
• Giving yourself to the commitment of marriage is only given
through freedom and it implies that we recognize that we can
give more to another person and deserve their respect in
exchange.
A Countercultural Vision
• The Christian vision of marriage counteracts the trap of
consumerism with its emphasis for partners on the free gift of
self to each other
• Matrimony asserts no amount of material possessions can
ever bring hope and joy that two people can feel when they
freely and generously love each other
“A Communion of the Whole of Life”
• Sexual intercourse is meant only for marriage because it
exemplifies the total sharing of a whole committed life
together as one
• Only a loving sexual relationship can happily express the
communion of husband and wife
Covenant: More Than a Contract
• The contract of marriage grew the idea to focus on the
concept of marriage as a covenant
- Modeled on the Covenant between God and the Chosen
People or between Christ and the church

3. • In theology, a covenant is the community of personal
partnership between God and humans, established by God’s
unconditional free love, for the salvation of human beings
- In a covenant, God and humans are bound to each other
through promises of love and faithfulness
Covenantal Faithfulness: Images for Today
• Our culture sends us many messages about what love, married
life, and family life should be like
- Movies, TV shows, and romance novels often show
unrealistic portraits of intense and passionate
relationships that real-life marriages seldom achieve
- Comparing marriage to God’s Covenant is not intended
to place a burden on couples – presenting a divine ideal
not humanly achievable
- It is meant to present a model of fidelity that can help
couples build their relationship and make it more loving
Permanence
• God is faithful to the Covenant forever, and the permanence of
his love for the people is mirrored in the permanence of a
marriage bond
- This is reflected in the martial fidelity ( “until death do
us part”)
Constancy
• Fidelity implies the ability to love through all the ups and
downs of life
- This level of faithfulness requires a constant concern
for each other’s well-being day-in and day-out
- It represents a couple’s commitment to grow together in
supporting and caring for each other

4. Loving confrontation
• Fidelity also includes caring enough about the relationship to
confront problems honestly and struggle through them together
- It assumes the spouses believe in each other’s inherent
goodness even when certain traits are annoying or
hurtful
Lived values
• Fidelity includes actively living out values and priorities
Becoming One’s Real Self
• A marriage covenant is a commitment freely and gladly given,
a sign to the world of the love that sustains life
- A couple that gives themselves in the marriage is
marked with deeper sensitivity and a stronger identity
- Part of the paschal mystery
• A couple blessed by the grace of the sacrament of Matrimony
can believe that god has given them each other as the means to
their own salvation
Living Out the Sacrament
• The sacrament of Matrimony is not just celebration on the
wedding day
- It is the couple’s sharing the whole of their life together
- The wedding ceremony celebrates and affirms the
sacrament
The Husband and Wife as the Primary Symbols

5. • The husband and wife are the primary symbols of Matrimony
- In Roman Catholicism they are the ministers of the
sacrament
- In Eastern rites the priest or bishop is the minister of the
sacrament
• All acts of love the couple performs are “rituals”
- The most powerful love ritual is sexual intercourse
• It symbolizes and brings out the physical and
spiritual union in marriage
The Community as a Symbol
• The community is at the wedding to celebrate the man and
woman’s love and let them know they will help the couple be
faithful to the commitment they are making
• The community itself is a symbol of Matrimony
Common Elements of Matrimony Rituals
• There are 3 possible rites for the sacrament in the Catholic
Church
- the rite for celebrating Matrimony during Mass
- the rite for celebrating Matrimony outside of Mass
- the rite for celebrating Matrimony between a Catholic
and an unbaptized person
• Common to the 3 possible rites are these elements
- the liturgy of the word
- the consent (vows)
- the blessing and exchange of rings
- the nuptial blessing
- the final blessing
A Gradual Increase of Church Involvement

6. • The early church recognized marriages of baptized persons as
sacred undertakings
- Christian rejection of divorce and infidelity contrasted
with the practices of non-Christian Romans of the time
• The church eventually got more involved since couples presented
themselves to their bishop after the wedding to receive the bishop’s
blessing
• The church became the most stable force in marriages and rites in
the period of the 7th-11th centuries
• By the 12th century, typical marriages took place in front of the
church building
A Tradition of Marriage’s Permanence
• The church has always maintained that any valid marriage is
permanent and cannot be dissolved
- A man was sometimes allowed to divorce and remarry
if his wife was unfaithful to him
• The reverse did not hold true
An Unequivocal Teaching
• Saint Ambrose reiterated Jesus’ teaching that marriage could not
be dissolved under any circumstances
- Saint Augustine, one of Ambrose’s students, taught that
divorce and remarriage was prohibited for men or
women
• By the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic church re-
emphasized that the marriage bond is permanent
Annulment Versus Divorce
• Catholic church has recognized that there are cases in which a
marriage blessed by the church was never valid

7. - There are several reasons for this
• Either or both of the partners had not entered
willingly
• Had been dishonest about their intent
• Had been unable to make a permanent
commitment
• If this is the case a person can choose to annul the marriage and
have the possibility to remarry
- An annulment is not the same as a divorce
• A divorce dissolves a marriage that once existed
• An annulment declares a valid marriage never existed in the first
place