Tag: marriage

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother.” | Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes. Guide me, Lord, in the way of your commands.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (10:1-12, today’s readings)

But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

As Jesus teaches the crowds, some Pharisees approach him and ask, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They are testing him with this question. He responds by asking, “What does Moses command you?” They answer, “Moses permits a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” Jesus explains that because of stubbornness, Moses allowed divorce but that from the beginning, God created humans as male and female, intending for a man to leave his parents and become one with his wife. In responding this way, Jesus calls us to a deeper understanding of marital commitment, fidelity, and the need for grace in overcoming the challenges that couples may face in every marriage. As Sirach says in the first reading, “A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds.”

God, thank you for the gift of marriage, a sacred covenant you established by your divine will. What you have joined together, no one should separate. Jesus’ teaching reminds spouses of the commitment they make to each other and the importance of working through challenges. Give me the grace to understand that marriage is a reflection of your love for the Church as married couples embody patience, kindness, and humility in a union that gives all glory to you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“So they are no longer two but one flesh.” | Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 10:2-16)

But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Out of love during creation God made man and woman and joined them together. From the same source of love, the sacrament of marriage is God’s means of consecrating man and woman in the truth of his name. Jesus publicly responds to the Pharisees’ question about divorce and then privately says to the disciples, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” One divorce or millions of them do not and cannot negate what God has made holy in the sacrament of marriage. “He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated,” Saint Paul says, “all have one origin.” In union with God and through him, we have no power to break what God makes holy.

God, help me put aside any willfulness that gets in the way of seeing your perfect plan for me today, even if that brings suffering. You have given me every good gift and every great gift, especially in the redemptive sacrifice of your Son and in the sacraments. I wonder at suffering and am easily misled in grasping its purpose, believing that it is something to be rejected rather than received. “For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist,” says Paul, “in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.” Guide me, Lord, in the ways of your Son toward everlasting union with you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

From the responsorial psalm: “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD. I long to see your face, O Lord.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 5:27-32)

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.”

Describing the radical action needed to preserve purity and avoid sin, Jesus goes on to refer to Jewish law in relation to divorce before explaining how to go further and deeper with this issue than external practice. “But I say to you,” Jesus says, “whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Jesus speaks to the sanctity and permanence of marriage, challenging the accepted Jewish law. He teaches the significance of avoidance of lustful desires and upholding God’s standard of marriage as a lifelong commitment. By saying “unless the marriage is unlawful,” Jesus refers to unions that were determined to be invalid in the first place, the basis for Catholic teaching on annulments. In speaking to the disciples, Jesus teaches them about the need for purity, faithfulness, and the preservation of marriage that God has joined together.

God, thank you for the gift of sacramental marriage. A sacred union before you and before the Church, it is meant to last a lifetime as a covenant between a man and woman and a visible sign of your unconditional love and grace working through them. Instituted by Christ, it is a continuous sign of his presence throughout a couple’s lifelong journey toward holiness as witnesses to your love. The same selfless love Christ offered in his suffering and death models for married couples the gift of self in laying down their lives for each other in his name. Pour out your grace, Lord, on sacramental marriage, and make it a means of glorifying your name.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

“The Lord our God is Lord alone!” | Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

From the Gospel acclamation: “Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 12:28-34)

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

In response to Jesus’ words, the scribe recognizes the kind of love that is “worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” and commends Jesus. “You are not far from the Kingdom of God,” Jesus says to the scribe. With the words that begin “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!” Jesus prays a daily prayer of the ancient Israelites, still recited today, the Shema . With God as Lord alone, it is possible to say what Jesus says next. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The right ordering of God first affirms the inseparability between sincere love for God and love for neighbor. As Sulpician theologian Adolphe Tanquerey said: “Fraternal charity is indeed a theological virtue . . . provided that we love God Himself in our neighbor . . . that we love the neighbor for God’s sake. Should we love the neighbor solely for his own sake, or because of the services he may render us, this would not be charity.” How is God calling us into a genuine, wholehearted love that transforms our relationship with him and our interactions with others?

Father in heaven, you are the source of all love, and you loved us first. For the sake of your glory, Lord, show me how to love you and to love my neighbor. Keep me in your care. The daily trial of loving one another puts into sharp relief the realization that you are God, the source of love, and I am not. In the prayer of the psalmist, I ask for your guidance: “Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior. Teach me your ways, O Lord.” Saint Norbert, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

From the responsorial psalm: “To you I lift up my eyes who are enthroned in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters. To you, O Lord, I lift up my eyes.”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark (Mk 12:18-27)

Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and put this question to him, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. So the second brother married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. At the resurrection when they arise whose wife will she be?”

The Sadducees question Jesus about the marriage obligations brothers have to each other after death. Although they don’t believe in resurrection after death, they ask Jesus because they are trying to trick him. Although the scenario the Sadducees propose has almost no chance of ever happening, the real tragedy is the complete lack of trust the Sadducees have in God’s providence and love. Jesus simply confronts them with the Scriptures and the power of God. “When they rise from the dead,” he tells them, “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. . . . He is not God of the dead but of the living.” In his response to the Sadducees, Jesus affirms the reality of the resurrection despite the limits of human understanding, and he stresses the need to have steadfast faith in God’s promises.

God, help me strive today to live a life that leads me to heaven. I can’t conceive what heaven is like and fail to comprehend eternal praise of your name through the redemptive gift of your Son. But let me trust in what Jesus says about the resurrection, that we will be like angels and that you are the God of the living. “You are greatly misled,” Jesus said to the Sadducees. Give me the grace not to be misled by the limits of human understanding but instead trust completely in your infinite goodness and mercy. Saint Boniface, pray for us!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 19:13-15)

Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

The commitment of the Israelites to the LORD in the first reading echoes in the Gospel passage as the children come willingly to Jesus to be blessed. Just as Joshua and his household commit to serving the LORD, Jesus suggests that the Kingdom of heaven belongs to “such as these,” the ones who come willingly to be blessed by him. Jesus lays his hands on the children and blesses them before he departs. This act of blessing signifies his love and care for children and his his desire for them to experience God’s welcoming embrace and goodness.

God, help me understand today’s Gospel. To remain childlike in faith means to be unafraid of the experiences that life teaches. If Jesus had sent away the children, would they have grown up to be cynical in the presence of holiness and learned to scoff at the alleged goodness of persons? Help me put aside any experiences I have had that prevent me from approaching you with the same complete trust that a child approaches you. Doing this is not to return to a former state of life, an abandonment of an adult understanding of the world and its responsibilities, but to put aside anything that would prevent me from coming to you for every need and to receive your blessing.

From the responsorial psalm: “Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the Kingdom.” Lord, let me come to you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 19:3-12)

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.”

In today’s readings, God’s mercy throughout the ages is pronounced first by God himself and then by Jesus in the Gospel passage. Speaking through Joshua, God said to the Israelites: “I gave you a land that you had not tilled and cities that you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.” Like the land the Israelites had not tilled and the vineyards they did not plant, the sacrament of marriage is a gift of God to spouses. In the Gospel, Jesus responds to the question posed by the Pharisees by saying that because God made us male and female, a man leaves his mother to be joined to his wife, and the two are made into one flesh. In responding to their question about Mosaic Law, which allowed for divorce, Jesus directs the Pharisees to the original intention of God for marriage, a sacramental gift of his mercy, a sacred bond that reflects the union of Christ and the Church.

God, help me understand the fullness of the gift of the sacrament of marriage. In that covenant is a reflection of the love and unity between Christ and the Church. No human law or authority can dissolve the marriage bond, which you yourself have established. Help me trust in your mercy for the tragedy of marriages that end in divorce. Help me be a witness of hope to those whose marriage has been compromised or debilitated or brought to an end through divorce. Just as you gave the Israelites all they needed as they journeyed to the land of milk and honey, give me what I need for this day to be a witness to your love and mercy.

From the responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.” Stay with me, Lord; rouse me when I forget you.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.