The Sacrament of Matrimony (Marriage)

"God created man and woman out of love and commanded them to imitate his love in their relations with each other. Man and woman were created for each other…woman and man are equal in human dignity, and in marriage both are united in an unbreakable bond."

United States Catholic Catechism for Adults, Ch. 21, p. 279

Marriage Preparation

Offered for both engaged couples and civilly-married couples seeking to be married in the Catholic Church. To begin the process, please attend a Marriage Registration night. On the registration night, couples will be given all pertinent information regarding the Marriage Preparation process.

Couples must begin the process a minimum of 9 months before their desired date.

Marriage is a Covenant

The Sacrament of Marriage is a covenantal union in the image of the covenants between God and his people with Abraham and later with Moses at Mt. Sinai. This divine covenant can never be broken. In this way, marriage is a union that bonds spouses together during their entire lifetime.

The love in a married relationship is exemplified in the total gift of one’s self to another. It’s this self-giving and self-sacrificing love that we see in our other model of marriage, the relationship between Christ and the Church.

The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life. (CCC 1661)

Marriage Reflects the Holy Trinity

We believe that God exists in eternal communion. Together, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in one being with no beginning and no end. Human beings, likewise, were created by God in God’s image for the purpose of communion with another human being.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (CCC 2205). The sacrament of marriage is “unitive, indissoluble and calls us to be completely open to fertility.” Christian marriage at its finest is a reflection of God’s self-giving love expressed between the love of two people.