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The Sacrament of Marriage


            Each of the seven official sacraments - Baptism, Confirmation, The Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing, Marriage, and Holy Orders - is a celebration of a passage from one kind of life to another. As sacraments, we seek the new life that comes from sharing our life with others. We join with the church past and present in making Christ present in the world. Because these rituals celebrate and bring about God's loving action in the world, they also provide support and spiritual nourishment for Catholic Christians. Sacraments are communal events, which seek ways to involve the whole community. Gerard Manley Hopkins reminds us that, "Christ plays 10 thousand places" - they are central moments and privileged ways of encountering God through Christ.
             A sacrament is described as "a reality imbued with the hidden presence of God." One of the major sacraments is Marriage, life in itself and the Catholic tradition of each of the other six sacraments embodied within. The sacrament of marriage celebrates a couple's commitment to share their life together and to reveal God's love to each other and others through their marriage relationship. The husband and wife themselves are the primary symbols in the sacrament. They are also ministers, because the sacrament of marriage is not simply the wedding ceremony but the couple's marriage, "communion of the whole of life." Another important symbol is the faith of the community that witnesses and gives ongoing support to a couple's marriage. Using symbols to communicate emotional, spiritual, or intellectual experiences is a universal human characteristic. Unlike signs, symbols have more than one meaning and often evoke powerful, emotional responses. Symbols can help us to see beyond the surface of things and to search for deeper meanings. Symbols serve as doorways to understanding the sacred.
             Marriage is seen as a sacrament because it is a human reality in which God can be met.


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