The three questions asked at the marriage seremony are 'Have you come here to give yourself to each other, freely and withpot reservation' this means is have you come here without a decision on your own and not come here because you were made too because the bride could be pregnant or it is an arranged marriage.
The second question is 'Will you honour and love each other for life' this means that you will love and respect each other forever and for life and you will not stop.
The third question is 'Will you accept children lovingly from God' this means that you will have children when you get married if there is an option to have them.
These questions mean that the couple will swear they understand the responsibility's of marriage
The vows are the most important part of the marriage and when they are said they should be lived and followed by to make it a successful and long marriage because you express your life to your partner this should make a bond between the two partners. The vows also mean that you should give 100% to your partner and the marriage and they will love each other even if anything happened to one of them.
The exchange of rings is a sign of love and fidelity that the partners have sweared to their selves as a life long and a permanent relationship. The ring is a token to each other saying that there love will never die.
The blessing to the couple is given after the prayer 'our father' the priest then says to the bride 'Let us pray for this woman give her love and peace, may her husband recognise that she is equal and her with him to the life of god, may he always honour her and love her as the Christ loves his bride the church, keep them faithful to one another and let them live examples of Christian life' this means that the husband should love his wife as a model of love that Christ gives to his people and that the marriage is all about faithfulness to one another.
Christian view on divorce is that you should not divorce ever and you should only have one marriage and stick to that one marriage, because when you get married there should be no room for divorce. Some divorces leave many parents and children with severe social and emotional problems.
But reasons why people divorce is because of illness and health because some partners will not be able to continue living with them, or they cannot stand seeing their partners while they are sick or in pain also people get divorced because people change, circumstances such as redundancy, alcohol addiction or drug addiction which causes stress which can change the whole marriage and their lives and the way they feel about each other.
The Roman Catholic Church is aware of the reasons for marriage breakdown because it knows that people sometimes don't talk to each other and sometimes one partner wants things that the other does not and this leads to arguing.
One partner might not take much notice of the other by being busy, say at work and the other person feels neglected, which all these things together lead to resentment. The Church also knows that loss of income causes arguments either by redundancy or unemployment because the church understands that a lack of money equals hardship.
The stains of one partner becoming disabled either mentally or physically can be a burden for the other partner whose live changes to that of carer.
The Church also knows that one partner eventually dies and so the marriage is no more.
An Annulment is a declaration that the marriage bond did not exist. For instance a marriage can be annulled is one of the partners has been forced to marry the other by family or due to pregnancy of to climb higher op the social ladder.
Annulment may be granted where two people go into a marriage with rose coloured glasses on and when they take them off it isn't what they thought. i.e. money troubles, children, sacrifices to be made for the good of the marriage to keep it going isn't easy if one partner is more selfish than the other one. Also if one partner decides not to have children but the other one does. One might want to have children to forfil there relationship but the other one might see having children as an end their career and their material possessions.
Sometimes when people are young they want to party and have fun but as they get older they will want to settle down, Mature and stay in
so one partner stays the same and the other moves on.
Work can be a big strain, working away from home or lack of income
can lead to neglect. Equally the loss of income and recharging your life style is not easy for either partner and leads to arguments.
Marriage is a sacrament but if you can show the above bonds do not
exist a marriage can be annulled.
I agree that sex before marriage should not be allowed because if you have sex before marriage it will start to get typical and when you come to get married it wont be any fun at all because it will be just the same as before you weren't married, so there is nothing to look forward to so there wont be any excitement in their personal life.
But if you want to live a steady life with your partner, it should be allowed so you can get use to what married life before you actually get married so you can be certain if you want to get married or not.
But some people could be engaged for 5 years so some people could not wait 5 years without sex.
Matthew Hudson
