MARRIAGE:

A LIFETIME COMMITMENT
WEDDING
 A COUPLE MARKS THE END OF THEIR COURSHIP AND THE
BEGINNING MARRIED LIFE. IT UNITES THEM AS AND WIFE
AND BRINGS TOGTHER TWO FAMILIES. WEDDINGS ARE
MAJOR RITE PASSAGE AND SIGNIFICANT EVENT IN THE LIFE
OF A MAN AND WOMAN, FOR IT SIGNIFIES A TRANSITION
FROM THE WORLD AND CULTURE OF YOUTH TO THE
WORLD OF ADULTS.

 IT IS SERVES AS A PUBLIC AFFIRMATION OF A NEW

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WEDDING PARTNERS ,
INCLUDING THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO EACH OTHER AND THEIR
CULTURALLY PRESCRIBED TASKS AND ROLES.
3 ASPECTS OF WEDDING
 1. The personal Aspect :
 > the wedding has a symbolic significance as a union of two person and
their families.

 2. The legal or the Civil Aspect:

 > The legitimacy of the children bore from the marriage, and the protection
of property rights of husband.

 3. The Religious Aspect:

 > is a religious affair, the sacred expression of the marriage contract.
Symbols of MARRIAGE . . . .
 1. The WEDDING RING:
 signifies the couple’s lifetime commitment to each other. To be
always worn, it reminds the husband and
 wife of their untainted fidelity to each
 other
wherever they are, at all times.
 The Veil:

which is donned over the groom’s

shoulder and extends over the head of
the bride. Signifies the groom’s
promise before God and the Christian
community to protect and love his wife
as their future children. As head of his
family, the husband is the family’s
protector and defender against all
harm against all evil. . .
The CORD:
 Twisted once and slipped over the shoulders
 Of both groom and bride, points to the
 Couple’s ,marital identity as ONE.
 The ARRHAE:

Symbolizes the groom’s obligation to provide for the needs of his family.
The Bride’s acceptance signifies her commitment to help her husband in
this obligation through wise and prudent home management.
The Faces of Marriage:
A live – in Arrangement
> This type of marriage has the sense of a ‘A trial Marriage”. The couple do not feel ready to
commit themselves permanently at the present time but they ay take a farther step of the
relationship develops.
> It is one style that a man and woman live together bases on mutual attraction and
agreement.
> a kind of relationship with out strings that either may live permanently with the other. There
are no fixed obligations in this relationship and also no promise to care for the other partner
in case of serious sickness.

> For CATHOLICS and CHRISTIANS this type of marriage is not acceptable for it goes against
Moral Law.
 Marriage as a Contract
 > In this kind of relationship, the couple makes a public commitment to function as husband
and wife as well as father and mother. This contract is an agreement in which they bind
themselves to one another in terms of certain clear obligations but behind this contract is the
mutual love which the couple have for each other, a love which manifest itself in these promises
that they make one another.

 A. Obligations of Marriage as Contracts:

1. There is a promise of fidelity in which the vow is to center their love on the other exclussively,
having no partners.
2. There is vow or presence in which they promise to be “There fore the other in a continual and
permanent way”
3. A promise of mutual financial support
4. Give themselves to the raising of their children to fulfill all the responsibilities of good parents.
 Marriage as Covenant:
 > Covenant is basically an agreement. It focus on the persons entering into it and the
motivating factor that brings them together which is LOVE. This kind of marriage meant a
mutual giving of self in fidelity and love to the marriage partner.
 > This idea of covenant has a religious tradition, being rooted in the Hebrew experience of
their relationship with Yahweh.
 > A covenant Marriage involves faith in the marriage partner, there is an openness and
acceptance of the other for what they are, love between the couples with all its limitations and
strengths: thus, it is total and unconditional.
The Ends of Marital Covenant
( love covenant)
 The good of the Spouse:
 The essential of marriage is to form the persons, animated and foster both the natural and
supernatural good of the spouse. Conjugal love involves a totality of the elements : Sexual
Appeal, Instinct, Feeling, Affection and Aspiration of spirit and will.

 The Good of the Children:

 > Children are considered as Fruits. They are an extension of that lasting pact and witnesses
to the couples unwavering fidelity to each other. They are not considered as a burden or
threat to economic stability but as gift and crowing glory of marriage and married love.
Essential Property of the Marital-
Covenant
1. Unity or Exclusiveness: Faithfulness

2. Indissolubility or Permanence: Lastingness

3. Openness to Fertility: Fruitfulness

 Dimensions of Marriage:
 1. Process
 > This involves courtship and engagement. During this period, areas of compatibility are discovered
and explored. Personality meshing begins, and the condition for intimacy is developed.


 2. Act
 > The act of marriage is the formal recognition of the bearing of the community upon the couple,
and the reciprocal responsibility of the couple to communicate. God is invoked to honor the union and
to bless it.

 3. State
 > State itself a never-ending process of growth and sharing the interdependence of a healthy
marriage is not the lessening of individual, but the releasing of the often-stifled spring of love and
commitment that causes the society to endure. We become out fullest selves in marriage.
The family code of the Philippines provides the
essential and formal requisites in Marriage.
 1. Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and female, at least 18 years old and
not under any legal impediment to marry. If any parties are 18-21, written parental consent sent is
required.
 2. Consent fully given in the presence of the solemnizing officer. This meant that the consent of either
party should not have been obtained by fraud, intimation, or undue influence.
 3. Authority if the solemnizing officer. Among these authorized are incumbent members of the judiciary,
any priest, rabbi, imna, or minister of any church or religious sect. In case either or both parties to the
marriage are at the point of death the following may solemnize the wedding.
 A. Captain of the ship of sea or the pilot plane in flight
 B. Military commander of a unit who is commissioned officer, if the parties whether members of the
armed forces or civilians, are within the zone if military operations.
 4. A valid Marriage license, however the marriage maybe solemnized even without a marriage license.
Ex: Point of death, if the residence of the either party located is no means of transportation to enable
such party to appear personally, marriage of a man and woman who have lived together as husband
and wife for at least five years and w/o any legal impediments to marry each other.
 5. Marriage ceremony where the contracting parties personally declare before the solemnizing officer
in the presence of at least two witness of legal age that they take each other as husband and wife.
 How to prepare for a holy and happy
marriage.
 > they should be open with their parents and consult them in matters of love and marriage. On the other
hand, parents have the duty to advice their children especially in serious matters.
The choice of a partner in marriage should be based on the:
1. Same religion and same purpose in married life
2. Complementing character and tastes
3. Similarity of social conditions
4. Not too great difference in age
5. Mutual attraction and understanding.

When the decision to marry is made and the wedding date fixed, the couple should see the parish priest. He
will instruct them and examine them on christian doctrines particularly on the doctrines of the church
regarding marriage. Before wedding the banns will be announce in a prominent place in the parish of the
man and woman to be married. These banns should not be omitted except for serious reasons. Man should
attend the Pre-Cana seminar before the marriage.
Requirements for Marriage:
 1. Baptismal and Confirmation Certificates

 Marriage Bann

 Other requirements as prescribed by the state.

Effects on the sacrament of Matrimony
 The grace of matrimony which a husband and wife receive to love each
other their children unselfishly comes from the merits of Christ. They receive
the grace to make their love a reflection of the love of Christ for his bride,
the Church.

 1. An increase of sanctifying grace

 2. The help of God for husband and wife to love each other faithfully, to
bear each other’s faults: and

 3. To bring up their children properly.

 The Minister of Marriage
 PCP II Art. 421 states that the pivotal role the family plays in renewing Christian life and in
forming communities of the Lord’s disciples, in the family the various ministries in the church are
awakened and cultivated.
 As an evangelizing agent. A Christian family has four important tasks to reveal and
communicate the love of God by forming a community of persons, serving through the
procreation and education of offspring, participating In the development of the society and to
share in the mission of the church.
 The Christian family is called upon to take part actively and responsibility in the mission of the
church in a way that is original and specific. An intimate community of life and love at the
service of the church and society. (FC Art. 50)
 Among Filipinos, marriage is an affair not only to two individuals but also between two family
groups. The Christian family exercises this ministry through its relationship to Jesus as prophet.
SEX in Marriage
 Sex is BEAUTIFUL and SACRED. If done within marriage. It is physical
expression of the love between spouse joined in matrimony which is a
contract of total self-giving between one man and one woman, mutually
exclusive and for life.
 The purpose of marriage are the procreation and the education of children.
That is why every sexual act must be open to the possibility of a new life.
 The youth of today should be taught on the meaning and purpose of human
sexuality according to God’s plan. Instilling in the minds of our younger
generation the importance of self- Control and chastity will save them from
a lot of unhappiness in the future. Their freedom should be tempered with
the responsibility of building a family and bringing up children educated In
correct values.
 Pre-Marital Sex
 Societies vary from restrictive to very permissive in
pre-marital sex norms. The restrictive society allows
sex only within marriage. Permissive sex play outside
of marriage without moral implications is frowned
upon in Christian families.
 Co - Habitation
 Means, a joint living of a woman and man without the formal legality of marriage.
One major difference between this arrangement and marriage is that the latter takes
place with the assumption of permanency, while those who cohabit do not typically
enter into the relationship with this assumptions. (Hensin)

 In the Philippines, one type of co-habitation is the consensual marriage arrangement which is more or less
permanent relationship. The main motivate at which is presumably the avoidance of the imposed and
inconvenience of marriage ceremony. This arrangement is mostly practiced by lower class who started to
decide to live in as husband and wife.
 Contributing factors of extra Marital
Affairs in the Philippines:
 1. Dissemination by mass media of Western values conflict with traditional family
values.

 2. Presence of hotels and motels serving as hide-ways for lovers,

 3. Knowledge and easy availability of contraception devices and

 4. Increased permissiveness as a result of modernization.

Classifications of Extra-Marital Affairs
 1. Querida/ Number two, Kabit. Relationship which involves some
permanece, exclusiveness and economic support.

 2. The girlfriend relationship which implies more quality, freedom to date

other men and no economic arrangement

 3. The Party Girl or Fun Girl. Relationship which simply means occassional
good time for a free.

 4. The love affair. Which blossoms unexpectedly between business partners,

teachers and students boss and secretary. The incidence of extra-marital
affairs among wives is assumed to be less common due to the double
standard or morality.