Marriage is a vocation to holiness.

Marriage is a practice common to all cultures of all ages. It is, therefore, a natural institution, something common to all humankind. At its most basic level, marriage is a union between a man and a woman for the purpose of procreation and mutual support and love.

There are four elements common to natural marriage throughout history:

1. It is a union of opposite sexes between a man and a woman.

2. It is a lifelong union, ending only with the death of one spouse.

3. It excludes a union with any other person so long as the marriage exists.

4. Its lifelong nature and exclusiveness are guaranteed by covenant.

In the Catholic Church marriage is elevated by Christ Himself, in His participation in the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), to be one of the seven sacraments. A marriage between a baptized man and a baptized woman, therefore, has a supernatural element as well as a natural one. The Catholic Church insists that marriage between the two baptized Christians, as long as it is entered into with the intention to establish a true marriage in accordance with the Church's teaching, is a sacrament.

The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church.  It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church, the grace of the sacrament that perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on their way to everlasting life (CCC 1661).

The Union of Christ and His Church
This sanctifying grace helps each spouse to help the other advance in holiness, and it helps them together to cooperate in God's plan of redemption by raising up children in the Faith.

In this way, sacramental marriage is more than a union of a man and a woman; it is, in fact, a type and living symbol of the divine union between Christ, the Bridegroom, and His Church, the Bride. As married Christians, one male to one female, open to the creation of new life and committed to their mutual salvation, we participate not only in God's creative act but in the redemptive act of Christ.

A valid Catholic marriage results from four elements:

1. the spouses are free to marry;

2. they freely exchange their consent;

3. in consenting to marry, they have the intention to marry for life, to be faithful to one another and be open to children; and

4. their consent is given in the presence of two witnesses and before a properly authorized Priest or Deacon in a sacred Catholic space.
   
    

Prayer for an Engaged Man and Woman