The Responsibility of Marriage

Do you ever think about what marriage means?  I do.  We were discussing this in the Women of Grace group I've been going to the past couple months and I thought it would be interesting to throw out there to the blogosphere.  Oh, and if you're looking for a Catholic women's study group program for church or just some friends, check out WoG.  It's really good!

One of the ladies mentioned that her future son-in-law had attended a wedding in which the priest gave a wonderful sermon about what marriage really was.  The part that stuck out to her son-in-law was when the priest told the man getting married that it was his duty to return his wife to God at the end of her life, pure and chaste, just like she was when God gave her to him.

Isn't that beautiful?!  Not only is it a reminder that spouses are supposed to bring each other to heaven, but also a reminder about the beauty of purity within married love!  I thought it was lovely.  Simply lovely.  Shall I find a reason to say "love" one more time?  No?  Okay.

The red jacket was a joke on me; he actually wore a very nice brown suit.
That's my mom's wedding dress, altered and fitted to yours truly *awwww*

Wouldn't it be amazing if more people knew that?  Knew that when they married, they were promising to love their spouse?  Not like them, but truly love them as Christ loves the church, as self-giving as possible, always seeking the good instead of the quick 'n easy.

What a different world we'd be in!  Bet there wouldn't be half as many divorces, and I also bet there wouldn't be as many "marriages made in haste!"  Not that I can talk - 15 months got us from "Hi" to "I do" but we covered just about every topic we could think of in those months, and I'd run out of marriage prep questions before we were engaged (I googled them as skype conversation topics haha! Worked great!).

If you could define the responsibility of marriage in a sentence or two, how would you do it?  What key point stands out to you?

Also, if your marriage was ever on rocky ground, what helped you either discern God's hand leading you out of it, or His hand helping you to fix it?  A friend of mine (not me, geesh, stop reading into everything!  women!) is in pretty bad straits with her marriage and at the rate it's going, I'll be surprised if it lasts the year.  Any words of wisdom or prayers for them would be most appreciated, as it makes my heart just ache to watch.

(Linking up with the Catholic Blogger Network for some good old Catholic fun!)