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Sacramental Marriage

I hate ironing, absolutely and without a doubt, hate it. Maybe the problem is that it is too easy and therefore mundane. There are so many better things I could be doing with my time. I think it is even safe to say that the task of ironing my husband’s clothes has caused me some of the worst angst in all our seven years of marriage. However, when my husband asked me ever-so nicely the other day if I might be able to iron a few of his work shirts for him, I realized if I didn’t I’d be passing on a huge source of love and grace.

My husband and I became acquainted through mutual activities and friends in high school. We developed a strong friendship and courtship in the last year, becoming officially engaged shortly after graduation. We spent long hours talking about God, our vocations, marriage, and babies. We were in love with each other, and in love with the beauty of God’s plan for marriage. What I’ve come to discover, however, is that our love is tested and strengthened by the seemingly insignificant details of every day life.

The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is one of the seven sacraments as it is a very special and obvious sign of God’s outpouring love and grace. With the priest, family, and friends as our witness, we signed a pact with God: to bring each other to Heaven. This path is not an easy path and requires extreme humility. Living as one, means that I must deny myself for the sake of my beloved. Waking up early to make him a lunch, carrying, birthing, and loving our children, and, alas, ironing clothes through prayers and not grunts, are simple ways I can live our marriage as a blessed and beautiful sacramental marriage.

This blog post is shared from my simplemama blog.

Tags: ironing, laundry, love, marriage, sacraments

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Comment by Erika Marie on February 8, 2010 at 11:17pm: I love to think that when we receive Holy Communion together at Mass, we are reconsecrating our marriage together like at our wedding.
Reconciliation is something we have a hard time getting to though which I hope to work on!

Comment by Vicki Kapron on February 8, 2010 at 11:03am: Isn't it wonderful that we have the GRACES of the sacrament to humbly walk each day
in this wonderful relationship we call marriage. The best thing we can do for our marriage is to frequent Holy Communion and Reconciliation often... get our weekly (at least) dose of
these graces goes a long way to live together as peaceably and joyfully as we can...
only with the grace and help of God!

Comment by Erika Marie on January 29, 2010 at 3:44pm: Thank you Kristin. It's funny I actually stumbled upon some great literature about marriage as a sacrament while I was on a retreat at a convent for discernment before meeting my husband! Until then, I didn't really understand marriage as more than a social contract.

Comment by Kristin Koglin on January 29, 2010 at 11:28am: Loved this post. It is something that I have come to realize more in my life (after converting). To think of marriage as one of the seven sacraments or even in terms as a vocation that we are called to do, has certainly changed my perspective, humbled me, and reminds me every day, that it is not about me. You said it beautifully. Thank you.

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