I Want So to Belong
O God, I want so to belong; teach me to accept. I want to be close; teach me to reach out. I want a place where I am welcome; teach me to open my arms. I want mercy; teach me to forgive. I want beauty; teach me honesty. I want peace; show me the eye of the storm. I want truth; show me the way to question my unquestionable convictions. I want joy; show me the way of deeper commitment. I want life; show me how to die.
It would be easier to pray
It Would Be Easier to Pray if I Were Clear O Eternal One, It would be easier for me to pray if I were clear and of a single mind and a pure heart; if I could be done hiding from myself and from you, even in my prayers. But, I am who I am, mixture of motives and excuses, blur of memories, quiver of hopes, knot of fear, tangle of confusion, and restless with love, for love. I wander somewhere between gratitude and grievance, wonder and routine, high resolve and undone dreams, generous impulses and unpaid bills. Come, find me, Lord. Be with me exactly as I am. Help me find me, Lord. Help me accept what I am, so I can begin to be yours. Make of me something small enough to snuggle, young enough to question, simple enough to giggle, old enough to forget, foolish enough to act for peace; skeptical enough to doubt the sufficiency of anything but you, and attentive enough to listen as you call me out of the tomb of my timidity into the chancy glory of my possibilities and the power of your presence.
What is Marriage? Marriage is the coming together of a man and woman who make a permanent and exclusive commitment to each other of the type that is naturally fulfilled manner and raising children together.
Liturgy:
Preferably The sacrament is celebrated during Mass, right after the Homily.
Introduction: During the introduction the couple pronounce their intention to marry each other.
Liturgy of the word: Liturgy of the word includes readings from scriptures
Liturgy of marriage: Liturgy of marriage includes the exchange and agreement.
Concluding rite: During the concluding rite the internal documents are signed and the parents or family pray over the couple
Who is the minister in the sacrament of marriage? The bride and groom are the real ministers of the sacrament, because their “I do's,” make them husband and wife. The priest or deacon is just an official witness for the Church — necessary, but still just a witness.
5 elements of a Valid marriage: The spouses were free to marry; they freely exchanged their consent; they intended to marry for life, be faithful and be open to children; they intended “good of each other,” and their consent was given in the presence of witnesses before an authorized church official.
Do Catholics believe in divorce? If a person was married validly and then divorced but never obtained an annulment, then that person is still married in the eyes of the Church. He or she cannot validly marry again in the Catholic Church.
What is an annulment in the Catholic Church? In the Catholic Church, a declaration of nullity, commonly called an annulment and less commonly a decree of nullity, is a judgment on the part of an ecclesiastical tribunal determining that a marriage was invalidly contracted or, less frequently, a judgment determining that ordination was invalidly conferred.
What is the difference between a divorce and an annulment? An annulment of marriage is a legal decree that a marriage is null and void.Annulments are granted when a court makes a finding a marriage is invalid. While a divorce ends a legally valid marriage, an annulment treats the marriage as if it never existed.
Impediments:
One or both parties is below the absolute minimum age of 16 for males and 14 for females.
Antecedent and perpetual impotence (not to be confused with sterility)
Being already married
The situation in which one party is a Catholic and the other has not been baptized (unless a dispensation is granted)
The man was ordained.
Either party made a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute.
Abduction with intent to marry is an impediment as long as the person remains in the kidnapper's power
Criminal: Bringing about the death of one's spouse, or the spouse of another, with the intention of marriage
Consanguinity, or close relationship by blood, even if the relationship is only by law
Affinity, or close relationship by marriage
Grounds for nullity:
A marriage may be declared invalid because at least one of the two parties was not free to consent to the marriage or did not fully commit to the marriage including:
Simulation of consent; that is, the conscious and positive exclusion at consent by either or both of the contracting parties of one or all of the essential properties or "goods" of marriage: a) exclusivity of the marital relationship; b) the permanence of the marital bond; c) openness to offspring as the natural fruit of marriage.
Deliberate deceit about some personal quality that can objectively and gravely perturb conjugal life.
Conditional consent, if the condition at the time of marriage concerns the future, or if it concerns the past or present and is actually unfulfilled.
Force or grave fear imposed on a person to obtain their consent.
A serious lack of the discretion of judgment at consent concerning the essential matrimonial rights and obligations to be given.
Psychic incapacity at consent to undertake the essential obligations of marriage.
The Way of Love 1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Catechism of the Church – Marriage
1659 St. Paul said: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church. . . . This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5:25, 32).
1660 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament (cf. CIC, can. 1055 § 1; cf. GS 48 § 1).
1661 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 thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1799).
1662 Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love.
1663 Since marriage establishes the couple in a public state of life in the Church, it is fitting that its celebration be public, in the framework of a liturgical celebration, before the priest (or a witness authorized by the Church), the witnesses, and the assembly of the faithful.
1664 Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of marriage; divorce separates what God has joined together; the refusal of fertility turns married life away from its "supreme gift," the child (GS 50 § 1).
1665 The remarriage of persons divorced from a living, lawful spouse contravenes the plan and law of God as taught by Christ. They are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic communion. They will lead Christian lives especially by educating their children in the faith.
1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.
HOLY ORDERS
What does Ordination mean? To incorporate someone into an order. In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, a man is incorporated into the priesthood of Christ, at one of three levels: episcopate, priesthood, or diaconate.
The Ordination of Bishops: Only one Sacrament, but three levels. The first Christ Himself bestowed upon His Apostles: the episcopate. A bishop is a man who is ordained to the episcopate by other bishops. Direct line from the Apostles: "apostolic succession." All episcopal ordinations must be approved by the Pope.
The Ordination of Priests: No bishop can minister to all of the faithful in his diocese, so priests act as "co-workers of the bishops." They promise obedience to their bishop at the time of their ordination. The chief duties of the priesthood are the preaching of the Gospel, administering the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the offering of the Eucharist.
The Ordination of Deacons: Permanent Deacons assist priests and bishops. Transitional deacons are men who intend to be ordained to the priesthood. The permanent diaconate was restored in the West by the Second Vatican Council. Married men are allowed to become permanent deacons.
Eligibility for the Sacrament: Only baptized men, following the example set by Christ and His Apostles, who chose only men as their successors. A man is called by vocation to Holy Orders. While the episcopate is reserved to unmarried men, the discipline regarding the priesthood varies in East and West.
What is the Form of the Sacrament? Imposition of hands on the head of the ordinandi and in the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate is being ordained.
Who is the Minister of the Sacrament? Only the bishop is the proper minister of the sacrament. The grace of sanctifying others that he receives at his own ordination allows him to ordain others.
What are the Effects of the Sacrament? Only once for each level of ordination. Once a man has been ordained, he is spiritually changed. He can be dispensed of his obligations as a priest or even forbidden to act as a priest (defrocked); but he remains a priest forever. Each level of ordination confers special graces, from the ability to preach, granted to deacons; to the ability to act in the person of Christ to offer the Mass and forgive sins, granted to priests; to the ability of ordaining others granted to bishops.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
Can a priest be married? Can a Bishop be married? Can a Deacon forgive sins? Which Sacraments can a Priest administer?
Catechism of the Church – Holy Orders
1590 St. Paul said to his disciple Timothy: "I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands" (2 Tim 1:6), and "If any one aspires to the office of bishop, he desires a noble task." (1 Tim 3:1) To Titus he said: "This is why I left you in Crete, that you amend what was defective, and appoint presbyters in every town, as I directed you" (Titus 1:5).
1591 The whole Church is a priestly people. Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the "common priesthood of the faithful." Based on this common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the Head in the midst of the community.
1592 The ministerial priesthood differs in essence from the common priesthood of the faithful because it confers a sacred power for the service of the faithful. The ordained ministers exercise their service for the People of God by teaching (munus docendi), divine worship (munus liturgicum) and pastoral governance (munus regendi).
1593 Since the beginning, the ordained ministry has been conferred and exercised in three degrees: that of bishops, that of presbyters, and that of deacons. The ministries conferred by ordination are irreplaceable for the organic structure of the Church: without the bishop, presbyters, and deacons, one cannot speak of the Church (cf. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Trall. 3,1).
1594 The bishop receives the fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders, which integrates him into the episcopal college and makes him the visible head of the particular Church entrusted to him. As successors of the apostles and members of the college, the bishops share in the apostolic responsibility and mission of the whole Church under the authority of the Pope, successor of St. Peter.
1595 Priests are united with the bishops in sacerdotal dignity and at the same time depend on them in the exercise of their pastoral functions; they are called to be the bishops' prudent co-workers. They form around their bishop the presbyterium which bears responsibility with him for the particular Church. They receive from the bishop the charge of a parish community or a determinate ecclesial office.
1596 Deacons are ministers ordained for tasks of service of the Church; they do not receive the ministerial priesthood, but ordination confers on them important functions in the ministry of the word, divine worship, pastoral governance, and the service of charity, tasks which they must carry out under the pastoral authority of their bishop.
1597 The sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by the laying on of hands followed by a solemn prayer of consecration asking God to grant the ordinand the graces of the Holy Spirit required for his ministry. Ordination imprints an indelible sacramental character.
1598 The Church confers the sacrament of Holy Orders only on baptized men (viri), whose suitability for the exercise of the ministry has been duly recognized. Church authority alone has the responsibility and right to call someone to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.
1599 In the Latin Church the sacrament of Holy Orders for the presbyterate is normally conferred only on candidates who are ready to embrace celibacy freely and who publicly manifest their intention of staying celibate for the love of God's kingdom and the service of men.
1600 It is bishops who confer the sacrament of Holy Orders in the three degrees.