Father John Gerard Hillier

Have you ever considered the fact that all priests, bishops and consecrated religious men and women first lived as members of the lay faithful, often as teenagers seeking to discern the vocation in life to which God was calling them, before they were ordained or consecrated to God?

Article 125 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series Paragraphs 1638-1642 This section of the Catechism begins: “From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament” (ccc 1638).

Article 124 - Catechism of the Catholic Church Series Paragraphs 1621- 1637 Like some of our readers, my parents were married prior to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Although faithful Christians, however, my mom and dad were not permitted to exchange vows within a Nuptial Mass at my mom’s home parish, the Cathedral Church, because my dad had not yet converted to the Catholic faith. Instead, because my dad was a Methodist, my parents were married in a back chapel near the sacristy (reserved for those in “mixed marriages,” which means marriages between Catholics and Protestants, and “disparity of cult marriages” between Catholics and non-Christians). This, of course, was a compromise to what the Catechism calls “the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful [that] normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ” (ccc 1621).

Statistically, it would seem that not many people who respond “I do” to the wedding vow “until death do us part” really mean what they say. Yet, a general survey among faithfully married couples or new widows or widowers would seem to confirm that the glue that kept their marriage together was their faith in Christ and the promise they made before God on their wedding day. This promise is summarized succinctly in the opening paragraph of this section of the Catechism.