1. MARRIAGE—WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT…

2. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Your wedding is one day, while your marriage is a lifetime.
However…
Your wedding should reflect what you and your spouse understand your marriage to be.
So…
What does Holy Matrimony celebrate?

3. FOUR QUALITIES OF MATRIMONY
MUTUAL SELF-GIVING
Both spouses give of themselves freely to each other.
This involves giving without expecting something in return.
This is especially lived out in the couple’s sexual relationship with each other.

4. COVENANTAL FAITHFULNESS
Covenant: A relationship that cannot be broken because the two parties are bound to each other.
COVENANT ≠ CONTRACT
This is why Catholic marriages can’t have prenuptial agreements.
Even if one spouse is unfaithful?
Yes. Think of God’s covenant with us.
This requires permanence and constancy

5. BECOMING ONE’S REAL SELF
Marriage should allow someone to become the TOTAL person God’s called them to be.
A married person should become someone they never could have been w/o being married

6. CREATIVITY
Marriage should bring something into this world that never existed before
Think of the Trinity
This requires that a married couple is OPEN to bringing children into the world
This is also why impotence is an impediment to marriage (can. 1084)