The wedding ceremony starts by the priest welcoming the bride and groom on their special day. Then the congregation are welcomed and asked to join in in the ceremony. In the sacrament of marriage there are three questions asked. These questions are asked to prove the couple's true love and faith in each other.
The first question asks the couple ‘do you freely and without reserve, to give yourself to each other in marriage?’
The second question asks the couple if they are ready to honour each other for the rest of their lives.
The third question asks the couple if they are ready to accept the gift of children lovingly from God and bring them up to continue Gods work of creation. This basically asks the couple if they pursue in Gods gift of sex and child is conceived then the couple should accept it as a gift from god and not pass it up.
The main part of the sacrament and mass are the marriage vows. This is where the couple offers each other the sacrament of marriage. This is done through the exchange of vows. The bride and groom will join hands and the relative of the bride gives the bride away to the groom. The bridegroom makes his vows first. This is the actual moment that the sacrament is made, and the couple turn to each other and say.
“I (name) do take thee (name) to be my lawful wedded wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part." After this the priest who represents the church then accepts a mutual consent from the bride and groom and says.
"You have declared your consent before the church. May the lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessing. What God has joined let no man put asunder"
After the vows, the exchange of rings takes place. The groom must put the ring on the third finger of the left hand on the bride and say, "take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity in the name of the father of the son and the Holy Spirit". The rings are used as a token of their promises to each other.
After the mass, the signing of the marriage register comes next. This takes place, as there are civil requirements for a marriage. The bride, groom and an authorized priest or registrar must be present at the marriage ceremony and sign the register.
Explain the main problems that face a Christian family in today’s society.
What is this essay about?
This essay is about a Catholic way of life, starting with marriage and continuing with the family and the many problems that couples may face.
The Catholic Church teaches that the parents should be married and they have the sacrament of marriage to help them in family life. Marriage should be based on Christian love; therefore it is a permanent, faithful and life-giving relationship.
According to the Catholic Church an ideal Christian family is two parents and their children.
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A family may face a lot of problems. Sometimes it is harder for a catholic family to resolve some of these problems because of their religion and the teachings of the church.
One of the problems that would be more difficult for a catholic family is if one of the adults has an affair. This is harder for a catholic family to resolve because not only is it breaking the vows that both the husband and wife took on their wedding day. Marriage is supposed to be exclusive and by sleeping with another man/woman you are breaking that vow. This may be hard to overcome because Jesus taught that divorce and adultery were both wrong. The Catholic Church says that couples that are having difficulties can separate but cannot remarry in the Catholic Church. This is because the Catholic Church does not believe in divorce.
Another problem that families face is children. There are many problems that come under this section because some families are physically unable to have children and others find it hard to cope with kids. The Catholic Church think that one of the most important reasons to get married is that couples can have children. As I have already said a lot of couples are unable to have children due to a number of different reasons, but the most common one is infertility. As I also said there are other reasons that children are problems is that if the couple are not ready for a child but the woman falls pregnant. This is also a hard problem to solve because the Catholic Church do not believe that abortion is right because it takes away the life of a human being.
The last problem I am going to suggest that would be hard for a Christian family could face is disagreements within the household. Whether it is between child and parents or husband and wife. Some of these disagreements may be larger or smaller than others but in many cases they may all be overcome through talking. However this may be hard in some cases where there might be a tense or hostile atmosphere, in which case this problem may become worse and even lead to others such as separation of parents or arguments over children, alcoholism, and domestic violence. These problems are serious and may take a lot of effort from everyone involved to overcome. The Catholic Church recommends this, as they believe that by allowing these problems to grow you are breaking the life-giving ideal of marriage.
All of these problems can cause a family to break down due to different reasons. One reason why families may break up is not because of the actual problems but maybe because the family members don’t talk through the problems and just let them mount up.
In what I have written for this essay and in my research for this essay, I have found out that families have many problems, some bigger than others but no matter how small or big the problem actually is, the family can still break up. I have also learnt that to resolve problem you will need to talk to somebody about them. Also, I have learnt that for a catholic family to resolve their problems, it is a lot harder because of all the bible teachings and the church expectations.
