Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Assignment: Marriage A01 Marriage is a commitment, a commitment of love between two people. This love between the couple reflects God's love for each of them, when they made their commitment of love for each other Holy in the sacrament of marriage. This commitment should be life long, 'till death do us part' and all Christian groups believe that divorce is not something God wants, and so should be avoided. In the Roman Catholic church and Orthodox church marriage is seen as a sacrament because the love of the couple mirrors the love that God has for each of us, it is also a sacrament because marriage between Christians is a sign through which God specially consecrates and blesses those being married and through which he gives them the special help of his grace to enable to be faithful to their promises. The church believes that marriage is itself meant to be a sign of love between Christ and his church. Marriage is made up of three important factors; permanency, exclusiveness and life giving. A marriage should be life giving because the couple should always be willing to have children, and bring new life to the world. This promise is shown in one of the three questions the priest asks; 'Will you accept children lovingly from God?' ...read more.

Middle

All married Christian couples should be aware of the teachings of Jesus, and the three important aspects of marriage mentioned in A01, 'permanency' 'exclusiveness' and 'life-giving' Marriage vows can be seen as practical and relevant, even for Christian couples today. The vows represent the permanence of marriage and marriages are meant to be permanent today. For example, "in sickness and in health" If one person in the couple becomes ill, they may have to depend on their partner for help through this time. Through saying these vows they are making a promise to do this, and they know that they should not break this promise. This example shows that the vows are still relevant for today. Christian couples need to live up to their wedding vows in everyday life. "for richer, for poorer" in times of financial difficulties the couple need to think about the vows they made to each other, in order to get through this time and by working together they will become stronger as a couple. As stated in A01 marriage is permanent, exclusive and life giving and a married Christian needs to live up to these three aspects of marriage. If he or she were to break one of these promises and have an affair or commit adultery, but did not mean it then s/he should be forgiven if they are sorry for what they did. ...read more.

Conclusion

Also in the 'Humanane Vitae' Pope Paul the 6th recommended that Catholic couples should only use natural methods of family planning, "Contraception is morally wrong" For many people marriage is a daunting thought, as they may find it hard to live up to the 'ideal' of marriage and not break the promises that they make. I therefore feel that sex outside marriage is a fulfilment of love for another person but without the pressures of marriage and sticking to the promises made and the 'ideal' of marriage, -this is only the case when the couple have been together for a long time but have not married. Overall I believe that sex is a special act showing the highest form of love for a person. This love can only be shown within a marriage. It is a way for the couple to express their love fully and into doing this they are strengthening their relationship in marriage. Also sex is for producing new life and I feel that a child should only be brought up into a stable family and therefore the parents need to be married to do this. Also I believe that if the couple are married then their love will reflect into the child's life and s/he will be greatly loved also. I feel that a child should be conceived naturally and nothing should be done to avoid that child being conceived, like contraception. ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Love Poetry section.