ON THE COVER:
Wedding rings symbolize
married life, which "has a unique nature and value as vocation" (Inside
ML, page 4). This issue focuses on the sacrament of marriage and ministry
from a variety of perspectives. |
From
Inside
ML: When we talk about vocations, the first image that pops into our
collective mind is rarely that of married life. We have been conditioned
to elevate the ordained and religious life as being “true” vocations; everything
else is secondary or subordinate. We revere the celibacy to which few are
called over the chastity to which we are all called regardless of our way
of life. In all of this we risk reducing married life to a means of producing
more of the faithful, more priests, more religious. In reality, married
life has a unique nature and value as vocation. As the foundational family
unit, it is at the root of community life in which “all members of the
family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way
‘by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness
of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity’ (Lumen Gentium 10).
Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and ‘a school for human
enrichment’ (Gaudium et Spes 52 §1). Here one learns endurance
and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous — even repeated — forgiveness,
and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one’s life”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 1657). In short, marriage is the
first example of Christian living. (More) |
