News Item: : Our 14th Wedding Anniversary - Deo Gratias!
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Wednesday 27 April 2016 - 10:53:04

We give thanks to God for the fact that 14 years ago today we were joined before the Altar of God in Holy Matrimony. Please join with us today in giving thanks to God for this blessing and praying for the defence of true marriage in the Church and society.

Joy in the Truth

Bishop Athanasius Schneider has written in ''Amoris Laetitia'': A Need for Clarification in Order to Avoid a General Confusion: ''There is no true supernatural and eternal life without keeping the Commandments of God: ''I command you to observe His Commandments. I have set before you life and death. Choose life!'' (Deuteronomy 30, 16.19). There is therefore no real life and no real, genuine joy of love without truth. ''Love consists in living according to His Commandments'' (2 John:6). The joy of love is the joy of the truth. The authentically Christian life consists in the life and in the joy of truth: ''Learning that my children live in the truth, there is nothing that brings me greater joy'' (3 John:4)...

... St. Augustine explains the intimate connection between joy and truth. ''I ask them all whether they do not prefer the joy of truth to that obtained by lies. And they do not hesistate over this question any more than over the question of happiness. For the happy life is the joy of the truth, we all want the joy of the truth'' (Confessions, X, 23).''

The Church's Teachings are No Mere Ideal

We want to testify today to the great beauty and graces of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

The Church's true teachings on Holy Matrimony - received from Christ, handed on by His Apostles, and expressed with such pristine clarity in the Sacred Scriptures and a whole line of authorative documents like Arcanum Divinae, Casti Connubii, Humanae Vitae, Familiaris Consortio, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church - bring the joy and truth of New Life in Christ.

These truths cannot be reduced to a mere ideal. In truth they are the very essence of authentic marriage. They are the foundational bedrock of authentic living for spouses, the wellbeing of children, the strength of the Church and the health of society.

Again, Bishop Schneider expresses it so well, when he writes: ''Our Lord has taught us clearly what constitutes true love and the true joy of love: ''He that has My Commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me'' (John 14:21). When He gave man the 6th Commandment and ordered him to observe the indissolubility of marriage, God gave it to all men without exception, not just to an elite. Already in the Old Testament, God said: ''This Commandment which I have given you today is certainly not beyond your strength and reach'' (Deuteronomy 30:11) and ''if you want to, you shall keep the Commandments to remain faithful to His Will (Ecclesiasticus 15:15). And Jesus said to all, ''If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments.'' Which Commandments? And Jesus answered, thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery'' (Mt 19:17-18). From the teaching of the Apostles, we have received the same doctrine: ''For to love God is to keep His Commandments. And His Commandments do not weigh heavily upon us'' (1 John 5:4).''

Christ's Truth has Rescued Us and Given Us Life

By God's grace, it has been our experience as a married couple that rooting our lives in the revealed truths of the Catholic Faith has enabled us to become increasingly converted and to receive the graces and blessings necessary to grow through the many hopes, joys, disappointments and sufferings of this passing world. Without Christ and His grace, we had only darkness and sin; with Him, we have life and light.

As with all of the Sacraments which were instituted by Christ, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is an efficacious sign that makes actual the thing it signifies. This is why is makes no sense whatsoever to attempt to sunder Catholic doctrine from pastoral practice.

Rooted in the sublime teachings of St. Paul in Ephesians Chapter 5, the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches: ''For as marriage, as a natural union, was instituted from the beginning for the propagation of the human race, so was it subsequently invested with the dignity of a sacrament, for the procreation and education of a people in the religion and worship of the true God, and of Christ our Saviour. For when Christ the Lord would give some sign of that very close union which subsists between Him and His Church, and of His boundless love towards us, He made known the dignity of so great a mystery principally by this holy union of man and wife; and the extreme aptitude of the illustration may be understood from this, that of all of human relations no one is more binding among men than the tie of marriage, and by it a man and woman are united in the closest bonds of affection and love. Hence it is that the Sacred Scriptures frequently place before our eyes, under the similitude of marriage, this divine union of Christ and His Church'' (Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part II, Chapter VIII, Question XV).

In light of these beautiful truths regarding the very essence - rather than the mere ideal - of marriage, it becomes even more clear why things like cohabitation, sexual activity outside of marriage, contraception, IVF, divorce/'re-marriage'' and homosexual pairings offend against natural and divine law; whilst in some sense also obscuring, or even wounding, the efficacious sign that Holy Matrimony imparts to the world.

Chastity is both a gift of grace and a challenge to be engaged

In light of the fallen nature of mankind, chastity is both difficult and demanding. It is no less beautiful for all of that.

We must never forget that, whilst it requires great effort and self mastery, chastity is always primarily a work of God's grace.

Our Lord Jesus Christ requires that His followers be chaste. He also gives them the means to accomplish this chastity. Our part as Catholics is to co-operate with His gift of grace through prayer, fasting, charitable acts and receving the Sacraments worthily and with love. St. Philip Neri used to teach that chastity was not possible without Confession and the Holy Eucharist. We need to first receive divine love if we are to love ourselves and others with the love of Christ.

Who among us can claim to have been truly chaste? Before the purity of Our Blessed Lord, most of us are, in varying degrees, just like the woman who was caught in the very act of adultery. And yet, Jesus has not condemned us. But He has told us to sin no more. Knowing that we are made of clay, He has given us His sacraments, teachings and the other helps of Holy Church to help us to overcome our sins, receive healing and enter into a new life in Christ.

This is why the heretical notion of ''gradualism'' is so cruel and evil. Like most heresies, it locks us in on our own strengths - or rather weaknesses - and self-sufficiencies. It falsely suggests that we are OK as we are, that God demands no more of us and even that He will not help us.

Gradualism is a lie from the Devil that comes straight from Hell. Have no part in it; for it is a denial of both our nature as fallen human beings, with all of our concupiscent tendencies to sin and selfishness, as well as a denial of God's prevenient, accompanying and sacramental grace.

Many of us who grew to adulthood from and after the 1960's - 70's were indoctrinated with the ideals - or rather the lack thereof - of the sexual revolution. Even with the best intentions of parents and good priests, many of us imbibed these things from our teachers, the school curricula, the TV, the pop-industry and the enormous peer-pressure which surrounded us.

Truly we grew to adulthood in a veritable cess-pool of vice and sin. We were being formed in a bitter winter of immorality. We just did not know it at the time. And of course, it is much worse today. That Catholic parents, bishops, priests, schools and teachers have allowed themselves to be frozen into complacency in such a winter is lamentable. It is also a revealing sign of the true nature of the times through which we are now living.

In contrast to all of this, the teachings which Christ gave to His Church, both to safeguard and hand on, are the perennial spring time of true love. Like a lifeline, they rescue human personhood, dignity and the sexual faculty from this winter, with its degrading swamp of sin and selfishness, to set them as warming lights on the mountain-top of self-sacrifical love; a love which seeks the good of the other, even to the point of their eternal wellbeing.

All of this is Christ's gift to the Church and through Her to those who love Him. No wonder Satan and his minions want to destroy all of this in society and even in the Church.

Choose Life!

May we each make the choice for chastity today and resist all heresies against love, grace, goodness, beauty and truth. Let us ask Our Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Mother and St. Joseph to help us to receive the graces necessary to live with a pure heart; and to love God, our neighbour and our selves with charity and patience.

If any of us have fallen away from chastity in our beliefs, thoughts or actions, may we sincerely repent of this and begin again today to pursue holiness through Confession and Holy Communion in the state of grace. The words of Matthew 5:8 could be taken as a motto to keep us all on the right track: ''Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.''

Thanks be to God for the Harmony Between the True Teachings and the Authentic Pastoral Practices of the Catholic Church

We give thanks again for our 14th Wedding Anniversary and for all that we have received from Our Blessed Lord through His Holy Catholic Church. We thank the Most Holy Trinity, Our Lady, St. Joseph, our parents and each other for the beautiful gift of life and for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony that we have been blessed to share during these 14 years.

Please pray that God will continue to draw us into deeper conversion to His Love, that He will continue to protect and strengthen our marriage and that He will enable us to bear effective witness in the defence of True Marriage.

May the Holy Family - Pray for us! 

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1299 )