Saint Gertrude Parish - Lasne
The Bible abounds with families, generations, love stories, and family crises, from the very first page, where the family of Adam and Eve enters the scene, with their attendant violence but also with the enduring strength of life (cf. Gen 4), to the last page, where the wedding of the Bride and the Lamb appears (Rev 21:2, 9). The two houses that Jesus describes, built on rock or on sand (cf. Mt 7:24-27), are a symbolic expression of many family situations, created by the freedom of their members, for, as the poet wrote, “every house is a lampstand.” [5] Let us now enter one of these houses, guided by the psalmist, through a song that is still proclaimed today in both Jewish and Christian wedding liturgies: Psalm 127 (128).
Blessed is the one who fears the Lord.
and walks according to its ways!
You will feed yourself by the work of your hands:
Happy are you! Happiness is yours!
Your wife will be in your house
like a bountiful vine,
and your sons, around the table,
like olive trees.
This is how he will be blessed
the man who fears the Lord.
From Zion, may the Lord bless you!
You will see the happiness of Jerusalem
every day of your life,
and you will see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel!
Extract (§8) from the APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
AMORIS LAETITIA
FROM POPE FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS
TO THE PRIESTS AND DEACONS
TO CONSECRATED PERSONS
TO CHRISTIAN SPOUSES
AND TO ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON LOVE IN THE FAMILY
From a Christian perspective, from the very beginning, God instituted and sealed the union between the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve ( Genesis 1:26-27 ). The vocation to marriage is inscribed in the very nature of man and woman, as they came from the hand of the Creator. For the Church, Christian marriage is therefore the union of a man and a woman who plan to love each other for life and desire to start a family. Marriage rests on five pillars:
• the unity of man and woman,
• freedom of consent,
• fidelity to the commitment,
• the indissolubility of the bond,
• the fruitfulness of love.
It's a sacrament .