OFFLINE WORKSHEET– FOR WORKING THROUGH THE LESSON ONLY.

DO NOT SEND IN!

Use this worksheet to work on the assignment at your own pace.

Once finished, fill out the online form with your answers and submit.
All assignments must be submitted online.
DO NOT submit the working form.
Thank you!

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

Practical Tips

For all assignments within the course: while many can be completed in 1-2 hours, we
ask that you allow yourselves ample time to work through them and discuss the
topics.
We encourage you not to rush and work on each assignment in several sessions. You
are preparing for a lifetime together in a covenant with God.

Feel free to use the offline worksheets to allow for more profound discussions
without losing your work.

Online, your work will be saved when you click "Next" or "Previous” after
completing a full page."
Also set aside time to review the Answer Key for this session. It will contain your
instructors’ personal feedback and the core of the assignment.

1) Pray aloud together at the beginning of each session. You may say the prayer
we give you or use any other prayer you’d like. Light a candle to symbolize the
presence of the Lord with you.

"When two or three are gathered in My Name, I am in their midst." Matthew 18:20

Lord, we believe you are here present as we gather in Your Name

to prepare for our wedding.
We ask you to lead this class and visit our hearts.
You are the source of all Love; we ask you to deepen our love for each other
and our love for you through these classes.
Send us your Holy Spirit to help us understand the beauty
and the richness of this Sacrament of your Church.
Amen
2) Print the set of questions from the offline worksheet, or save it on your
computer, to be able to work at your own pace without being rushed or timed-out.

3) Read aloud any passages of text included with this assignment.

4) Answer the questions together, as thoroughly as possible, on paper. It should

trigger many discussions between you! Then one of you will type your common work
in the online form to submit it to your instructors.

5) Write your secret “love letter" to your fiancé(e). We suggest you share these
letters only after completing the whole marriage prep course, or on your first
anniversary. It is a way for you to journal about what you learn, what touches you,
and to record deeper thoughts or feelings you hope to share your fiancé(e).

Please do not skip the "love letter." It’s an opportunity to grow closer to your future
spouse!

6) End the session by praying the Our Father together.

___________________________________________________________________

Before we go further, please write any comments, insights, or questions

about your previous answer key below.
It will allow us to connect with you in a more personal way, and to serve
your specific needs better.

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

Please do not use a dash at the start of any of your answers.

LIFE SKILLS IN THIS ASSIGNMENT:

In the Letter to the Ephesians, you will continue to understand your differences
as man and woman, and the way you should handle them. Men and women do not
perceive love in the same manner.

"The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between

themselves a partnership for the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the
good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant
between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a
sacrament." (emphasis added) Catechism of the Catholic Church #1601

NOTE: Please answer all questions in your own words, do not copy/paste from the
text.

1- What is a covenant?
"The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman…“CCC #1625
(emphasis added).

The Church recognizes baptisms in any Christian tradition provided they use water
and follow the Trinitarian Formula (“I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”).

If you are unsure, you can check this list of valid/invalid Baptisms.

Please let us know if you were baptized in the Trinitarian Formula:

- Both baptized in the Trinitarian Formula
- Her only baptized in the Trinitarian Formula
- Him only baptized in the Trinitarian Formula
- Neither baptized in the Trinitarian Formula

When is marriage valid? When is it sacramental?

- Catholic + Catholic = valid, sacramental marriage

- In a non-Catholic ceremony = Invalid
See more here.

2- If you are both baptized, what do you expect to receive from the
Sacrament of Matrimony?
If only one of you is baptized, what do you both expect to receive from this
ceremony?
(If one of the spouses is not baptized, then the marriage is still a Catholic valid
marriage in the canonical form, but not sacramental – see infographic).

His answer:

Her answer:

You are about to commit within the Catholic Church. You will either exchange the
Sacrament of Matrimony or receive the Church's blessing on your marriage. In this
session, we will explore the meaning of this commitment, the depth of a sacrament,
and the difference between Sacrament and blessing.

"And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mat.28:20b)
"There was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus
and his disciples were also invited to the wedding." (John 2:1-2)

The word sacrament comes from the word “sacred”

3- What does “SACRED” mean?

4- Using the following categories, list some things the Church considers as
sacred.

- Time:
- Objects:
- Places:
- People

5- Sacred signs communicate God’s presence in the physical world. Describe

a personal sacred sign in your own life. (It can be a time, a person, an object, or
a place)

His answer:

Her answer:

6- How do you define a sacrament?

7- Why is it so important to receive a sacrament?

These two very short video clips will introduce you to the Sacraments.
First, what are the Sacraments?
Secondly, what is God’s Grace?

8- List the 7 Sacraments of the Catholic Church as you remember them.

If you can, identify the sensible sign and specific grace for each.

A LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE EPHESIANS

(5:21-33)

Wives and Husbands

"Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself
the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their
husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over
for her
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his
wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ
does the church,
because we are members of his body.
"For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should
respect her husband.

9-Take some time to analyze and discuss this letter.

Describe your individual reactions.

What does it tell you about the relationship between husband and wife in
marriage?

How do you understand it for your own relationship?

What clues about communication does it give you?

His answer:

Her answer:

Watch this video clip on the sacrament of matrimony.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Read these excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church at the following link
and answer the questions in your own words (please do not copy the Catechism).
 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between
themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good
of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between
baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."
CCC #1601

10- What is Christian Marriage?

What’s wrong with gender ideology?

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The Celebration of Marriage:

“According to the Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually
confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent
before the Church. In the traditions of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or
presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses, but for the
validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary.” CCC #1623

11- Who are the ministers of Christ’s grace, or in other words, who gives the
sacrament of matrimony?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matrimonial Consent:

“The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman, free to contract
marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free" means:

 not being under constraint;

 not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law.” CCC #1625

12- Name the two requirements for a marriage to be a valid sacramental

covenant.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 “The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the
indispensable element that "makes the marriage." If consent is lacking there is no
marriage.” CCC #1626

13- What makes the marriage?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners mutually give themselves
to each other": "I take you to be my wife"—"I take you to be my husband. "This
consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming
one flesh." CCC #1627

14- What does the “consent” consist in?

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The priest (or deacon) who assists at the celebration of a marriage receives the consent of the
spouses in the name of the Church and gives the blessing of the Church. The presence of the
Church's minister (and also of the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an
ecclesial reality.

This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage
according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons converge to explain this
requirement:

 Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore appropriate that it

should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church;
 Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties
in the Church between the spouses and towards their children;
 Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty about it is necessary
(hence the obligation to have witnesses);
 The public character of the consent protects the "I do" once given and helps
the spouses remain faithful to it. CCC #1630-1631

15- What are the other requirements?

Why we can’t be married outdoors:

The marriage ceremony is not a private ceremony, but rather a public ritual. Its
proper place is in a church building, not outdoors, because it encourages those
gathered to participate fully in the liturgy.
The Sacrament usually takes place during a Mass, referred to as a Nuptial Mass, and
usually celebrated in the morning or early afternoon.
The church is the appropriate setting for a wedding because it is a place sanctified by
communal worship and the place where the sacrament of marriage is more
significantly symbolized. This ensures protection for the dignity of the sacrament.

Watch this video clip of an outside wedding (this is not a real wedding. The actors
are named Josh Covitt and Charissa Wheeler. They are not married).

Then let’s listen to Father Mike Schmitz more serious explanation.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Effects of Marriage:

"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."

The marriage bond

The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by
God himself. From their covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law,
even in the eyes of society. "The covenant between the spouses is integrated into
God's covenant with man: "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love."

Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a
marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be
dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their
consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a
covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to
contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.

The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony

"By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own
special gifts in the People of God." This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is
intended to perfect the couple's love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this
grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming
and educating their children."

Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a
covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters
Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony." Christ dwells with them,
gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after
they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject
to one another out of reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural,
tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on
earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
 How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church,
strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified
by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope,
one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one
Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one
flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.” CCC #1638 to 1642

16- Identify the two effects of the sacrament.

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The unity and indissolubility of marriage

“The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity and indissolubility of
the spouses' community of persons, which embraces their entire life: "so they are no
longer two, but one flesh." They "are called to grow continually in their communion
through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving." This
human communion is confirmed, purified, and completed by communion in Jesus
Christ, given through the sacrament of Matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the
common faith and by the Eucharist received together.

"The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal
personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved
affection." Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive.

The fidelity of conjugal love

By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is
the consequence of the gift of themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks
to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate
union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children,
demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between
them."

The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his covenant, in that of Christ to
his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony the spouses are enabled to represent
this fidelity and witness to it. Through the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage
receives a new and deeper meaning.

It can seem difficult, even impossible, to bind oneself for life to another human being.
This makes it all the more important to proclaim the Good News that God loves us
with a definitive and irrevocable love, that married couples share in this love, that it
supports and sustains them, and that by their own faithfulness they can be witnesses
to God's faithful love. Spouses who with God's grace give this witness, often in very
difficult conditions, deserve the gratitude and support of the ecclesial community.

Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes practically impossible
for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the physical separation of
the couple and their living apart. The spouses do not cease to be husband and wife
before God and so are not free to contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the
 best solution would be, if possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to
help these persons live out their situation in a Christian manner and in fidelity to their
marriage bond which remains indissoluble.

Today there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have recourse to civil
divorce and contract new civil unions. In fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ
—"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and
if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery"—the Church
maintains that a new union cannot be recognized as valid, if the first marriage was. If
the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively
contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as
long as this situation persists. For the same reason, they cannot exercise certain
ecclesial responsibilities. Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be
granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the covenant
and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence.

Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep the faith and desire to
bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests and the whole community must
manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated
from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptized persons:

They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the
Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community
efforts for justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit
and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace.

The openness to fertility

"By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the
procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning
glory."

Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the
parents themselves. God himself said: "It is not good that man should be alone," and
"from the beginning [he] made them male and female"; wishing to associate them in a
special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words:
"Be fruitful and multiply." Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family
life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are
directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator
and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.

The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and
supernatural life that parents hand on to their children by education. Parents are the
principal and first educators of their children. In this sense the fundamental task of
marriage and family is to be at the service of life.

Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life
full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a
fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice.” CCC #1644 to 1654

17- What are the three goods and requirements of Conjugal love?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and
Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the
core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together
with all [their] household." When they were converted, they desired that "their whole
household" should also be saved. These families who became believers were islands of
Christian life in an unbelieving world.

In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are
of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second
Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica. It
is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example . . . the first
heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the
vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious
vocation."

It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the
family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way "by the reception of
the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial
and active charity." Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and "a school for
human enrichment." Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love,
generous—even repeated—forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the
offering of one's life.

We must also remember the great number of single persons who, because of the
particular circumstances in which they have to live—often not of their choosing—are
especially close to Jesus' heart and therefore deserve the special affection and active
solicitude of the Church, especially of pastors. Many remain without a human family,
often due to conditions of poverty. Some live their situation in the spirit of the
Beatitudes, serving God and neighbor in exemplary fashion. The doors of homes, the
"domestic churches," and of the great family which is the Church must be open to all
of them. "No one is without a family in this world: the Church is a home and family for
everyone, especially those who ‘labor and are heavy laden.'" CCC #1655 to 1658

18- What is "a Domestic Church"?

This time in your "Love Letters:"

Did I realize before that marriage was such a great thing?
Am I ready to invite Christ in our marriage? How?

For assignment questions, please contact your instructors directly.

For all other questions, contact us

If you live in different states: please make sure to share your answers with your
fiancé(e) before submitting your combined work on just one form.

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