The day of our wedding, is the day where we say yes to our union of love before God and before men, it is a transforming moment in our journey of life. We can say that in some way the history of the human being is divided into before and after getting married as it is that moment when we stop being a single being, a single person, to become a single being and three people. What are those three people? The husband, the wife and God. That is God's plan for marriage. God created us man and woman so that uniting us in one flesh in mutual love and sealed and united in the love of God, our marriage is the reflection of God's Love on Earth. In other words, we become the image of the Holy Trinity in this world.
Without a doubt, saying yes to the vocation of marriage is one of the most important steps -if not the most important one- that we will take in our life. The implications for the couple, the family they will form, society and the Church are enormous. Therefore, when we prepare our wedding, we must be clear about what this truth implies. Otherwise, we run the risk of thinking that marriage, the Sacrament, is reduced to the planning of our wedding day. Today there are many who devote more time, effort, attention and even stress to find the most beautiful church, the most beautiful dress, the most elaborate reception place, the most colorful flower arrangements, the most elegant food, the best photographer and more professional and endless things and expenses to make sure that our wedding "is the best".
But there are few times when couples think about the most important thing. Few are the couples that focus on the time they will invest in a good marriage preparation, in a deep conversation about how we are going to lead our family and spiritual life, what are the values under which we will govern our life together and that of our children, how we will practice and encourage our faith; In short, how are we going to make God the center and the rock on which we will base our marriage and family? It is sad to see how many couples spend without measure and spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars planning their wedding, but they are not waiting for the Church to ask them for a day or two of marriage preparation, when it has been demonstrated that couples who experience a good marriage preparation reduce drastically the incidence of divorce and enjoy more healthy and happy marriages. It is impressive to see how many couples are united simply by passion, by not feeling that they are without a partner (like their friends), to fill the emptiness of loneliness or to have someone to serve them, without having a clear concept of what marriage is really about, according to God's plan, or what true and mature conjugal love implies: a total love, free, faithful and fruitful.
We often notice that when couples begin to live the reality of daily life, when they face the process of adapting two lives with different pasts and backgrounds, when they realize that conjugal love demands sacrifices and it is not just enjoying company and benefits, when they realize that mature love involves not selfishly seeking one's own good but the good of the loved one, many end up separating and even divorcing, thus reducing the Sacrament to little more than an experiment to find a happiness that is vain and passing. Let us therefore try during the time of our nuptial engagement to focus on what really matters. Let us seek to understand the true meaning and commitment of this union, to commit ourselves to this wonderful vocation of life that is marriage, created and designed by God for the happiness of the spouses and the continuation of human life. Remember ... The wedding lasts a moment, the Sacramento ... all life!
1. Go through the Parish Office (Tuesday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) to set a date and coordinate an appointment with the Father.
Secretary: Margarita Reyes (787) 752-2410
Pastor: Padre Jan D. Krol, CSMA