Dear Parishioners, +JMJ
Given my experience of marriage preparation over the past 22 years of priesthood, I would suggest that we could do a better job teaching our children that their particular vocation is a means to get to heaven. If we choose the particular vocation God has created us for, that will be the best path to heaven for us.
I think everybody sort of gets this, when it comes to religious life or priesthood. People realize that somebody who enters a women’s religious order is striving to get to heaven. I think the same could be said of priesthood: people sort of know that a priest should be striving in a particular way to get to heaven.
But, when it comes to marriage – at least given my experience of quite a number of couples I have prepared for marriage – the thought of marriage as a vocation aimed at heaven seems not to be very common. But, it ought to be! (I don’t mean to deny that there have been some couples who have come to me for marriage prep and are thinking about holiness and their eternal goal.) Just as priesthood for a man who discerns it will be his primary means of sanctification and ultimate entry into heaven, so the sacrament of matrimony for a man and woman who discern it will also be their primary means of sanctification and ultimate entry into heaven. Marriage is not a compromised vocation, aimed only at earth. Marriage has as its goal getting both spouses to heaven, along with their children, who grow in holiness in part because of the holy love their parents live.
With this in mind, I’ve added a couple prayers to our family spirituality collection. They are prayers for couples in marriage preparation with me. We will use these prayers at the beginning of each of our sessions; and I am asking the couples in marriage prep to pray this prayer every day for each other. I hope it will raise their awareness of the dignity of marriage and it’s heavenly purpose. Please pray for all couples in marriage preparation!
Prayer for a Fiancée
In the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father in heaven, thank you so much for N., my bride-to-be. Thank you for all the beauty and other gifts you have given to her. Thank you for calling us together into the vocation of marriage. Please help me to love N. with a sacrificial, pure and holy love now and always. Please pour your wisdom into us as we prepare for marriage, so that we live it in a most beautiful way, according to your will. Empowered by your grace, may we help each other to eternal life with you in heaven.
Prayer for a Fiancé
In the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Father in heaven, thank you so much for N., my husband-to-be. Thank you for the man you have created him to be. Thank you for calling us together into the vocation of marriage. Please help me to love N. with a sacrificial, pure and holy love now and always. Please pour your wisdom into us as we prepare for marriage, so that we live it in a most beautiful way, according to your will. Empowered by your grace, may we help each other to eternal life with you in heaven.
[Both prayers end with the same following paragraph:]
Blessed Mother Mary, please cover N. and me both with your mantle of protection as we approach marriage. Please pray against any evil that could befall us, especially temptation to sin; and then pray for all of the positive blessings God can grant through your intercession. All this I ask, through Christ Jesus my Lord. Amen.
May you have a blessed Epiphany!
In cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Father Poggemeyer
