Prelude
The best way to live out our earthly marriage is to model it after the heavenly marriage revealed to us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is the heavenly marital feast, where Christ feeds us with His very body and blood. This reality gives us not just the model, but the foundation for our lives as married couples.
Marriage is of vital importance for our world and our Church, and it is increasingly under attack in our culture. That’s why it is imperative for Catholic spouses to do everything in their power to repair, strengthen, and solidify their marital bond each and every day. Yet it is even more important to grow in our relationship with Christ through the Eucharist, precisely because this gives us the grace to perfect our earthly marriage. In each day of this retreat, we expand on one of the seven habits for strengthening our marital union and strengthening our union with Christ in the Eucharist.
Day One – Time is of the Essence
One of the first destroyers of a marriage relationship - as well as our relationship with God - is the lack of making and taking time for our spouse and for God. The first problem so many couples face in marriage is not falling out of love, but rather falling out of knowing each other. When couples get too busy to spend time together, they fall out of understanding what’s going on in the world of their beloved and lose sight of their needs. Similarly, our relationship with God is degraded when we give Him too little of our time each day and each week. The first habit calls for couples to purposefully make and take time for God and for each other on a regular basis (daily/weekly) in order to minimize losing sight of our beloved and their needs.
Our Relationship with Christ
The Eucharist is all about relationships: relationships with God and with others. At Mass, we partake of the Eucharist in communion with the whole Body of Christ: our friends and family as well as all of the saints and angels in heaven. We enter into this marriage feast to worship God and to give Him love, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. God calls us into union with Him and others through His Church so that we might find unity, peace, and a richness of brotherly and sisterly love. Outside of attending Mass, God calls us to spend time with Him in prayer. Why? Because God longs for us to be in relationship with Him for our own good. He is the source of all goodness and joy. He wants what is best for us, for our own sake. How great is that? So, are we willing to find time for Him each and every day? The reality is that many of us have too many excuses for not being able to give God as much of our time or attention as we should. We are so distracted by life and all that it throws at us that we rarely, if at all, find time to talk to Him during our busy day. Even at Mass, where we come to worship God and where He is most present in the Eucharist, we can find ourselves allowing our minds to wander off on many tangents that have little or nothing to do with building a relationship with Him. Are we willing to give Him more of our time, or only what’s left over at the end of each day or each week? This first habit of making more time is critical for deepening our knowledge of and love for, not only our spouse but also God. Imagine if we gave our spouse as much time as we give to God each week. Maybe 15 minutes each night, and one hour on Sunday. How good would our relationship with our spouse be? This deepening of knowledge and love for Christ, or lack thereof, will inevitably flow out into every aspect of our lives, especially our marriage and family life.
At Home Marriage Retreat 2023 con't
The best way to live out our earthly marriage is to model it after the heavenly marriage revealed to us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is the heavenly marital feast, where Christ feeds us with His very body and blood. This reality gives us not just the model, but the foundation for our lives as married couples.
Marriage is of vital importance for our world and our Church, and it is increasingly under attack in our culture. That’s why it is imperative for Catholic spouses to do everything in their power to repair, strengthen, and solidify their marital bond each and every day. Yet it is even more important to grow in our relationship with Christ through the Eucharist, precisely because this gives us the grace to perfect our earthly marriage. In each day of this retreat, we expand on one of the seven habits for strengthening our marital union and strengthening our union with Christ in the Eucharist.
Day One – Time is of the Essence
One of the first destroyers of a marriage relationship - as well as our relationship with God - is the lack of making and taking time for our spouse and for God. The first problem so many couples face in marriage is not falling out of love, but rather falling out of knowing each other. When couples get too busy to spend time together, they fall out of understanding what’s going on in the world of their beloved and lose sight of their needs. Similarly, our relationship with God is degraded when we give Him too little of our time each day and each week. The first habit calls for couples to purposefully make and take time for God and for each other on a regular basis (daily/weekly) in order to minimize losing sight of our beloved and their needs.
Our Relationship with Christ
The Eucharist is all about relationships: relationships with God and with others. At Mass, we partake of the Eucharist in communion with the whole Body of Christ: our friends and family as well as all of the saints and angels in heaven. We enter into this marriage feast to worship God and to give Him love, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving. God calls us into union with Him and others through His Church so that we might find unity, peace, and a richness of brotherly and sisterly love. Outside of attending Mass, God calls us to spend time with Him in prayer. Why? Because God longs for us to be in relationship with Him for our own good. He is the source of all goodness and joy. He wants what is best for us, for our own sake. How great is that? So, are we willing to find time for Him each and every day? The reality is that many of us have too many excuses for not being able to give God as much of our time or attention as we should. We are so distracted by life and all that it throws at us that we rarely, if at all, find time to talk to Him during our busy day. Even at Mass, where we come to worship God and where He is most present in the Eucharist, we can find ourselves allowing our minds to wander off on many tangents that have little or nothing to do with building a relationship with Him. Are we willing to give Him more of our time, or only what’s left over at the end of each day or each week? This first habit of making more time is critical for deepening our knowledge of and love for, not only our spouse but also God. Imagine if we gave our spouse as much time as we give to God each week. Maybe 15 minutes each night, and one hour on Sunday. How good would our relationship with our spouse be? This deepening of knowledge and love for Christ, or lack thereof, will inevitably flow out into every aspect of our lives, especially our marriage and family life.
At Home Marriage Retreat 2023 con't