~Mignon McLaughlin
Life is never exactly the way we think it should be, and so it goes with married life as well. You see, we all have expectations of others, especially of our spouses.
For most of us, the beginnings of our married lives together are sheer bliss. We are infatuated with one another, we aren’t looking for too much outside of our new lives together and we simply enjoy pleasing each other. Sadly, this doesn’t last forever, and as the relationship begins to change, we find our selves, from time to time, judging our spouse quite harshly, sometimes even wondering why we married this person in the first place.
Dwelling on the perceived negative aspects of another person, especially of our spouse, can easily become an obsession that leads us away from the marital commitment of “I do”, to the self-serving thoughts of “I won’t”.
In today’s Gospel (Mt. 19:3-12), the Pharisees approach Jesus and question him on the "lawfulness" of divorce, to which he replies,
“Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
He later goes on to say “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted."
We don’t have to look very far to see the effects of the break down of marriage and family in our society today. Sometimes the effects are as close as our own front doors. In a culture of instant gratification and personal satisfaction, the thought of patience and long-suffering with joy (Colossians 1:9-12) for the sake of another is seldom embraced.
But, real love entails sacrifice. We must be willing to give of ourselves and to compromise from time to time.
I have often heard it said that if we put as much effort into our marriages and families as we put into our careers and personal desires that we would find ourselves quite content. I believe this to be true.
O Dear Jesus,
I humbly implore You to grant Your special graces to our family.
May our home be the shrine of peace, purity, love, labor and faith.
I beg You, dear Jesus, to protect and bless all of us, absent and present, living
and dead.
O Mary,
loving Mother of Jesus,
and our Mother,
pray to Jesus for our family,
for all the families of the world,
to guard the cradle of the newborn,
the schools of the young and their vocations.
Blessed Saint Joseph,
holy guardian of Jesus and Mary,
assist us by your prayers
in all the necessities of life.
Ask of Jesus that special grace
which He granted to you,
to watch over our home
at the pillow of the sick and the dying,
so that with Mary and with you,
heaven may find our family unbroken
in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Amen.
Notes: A Family Prayer
