Reflection #4 from Fr. Nagel

Call to Sacred Married Life

Dear Race for Vocations Participants,

Thank you for your commitment to pray for and Race for Vocations. I can only imagine how God is working in and through you. Among the call to vocation from God is the beautiful vocation of Marriage. Our world, country and Church has seen a brokenness of sacred married life. It is time to reclaim the sacredness and permanence of married life! As you train in these days ahead, let us pray for the rebuilding of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony and for those who are being called or are already living this plan of God. Let us Rise Up with the Risen Christ and bring the Good News to all the world about God’s awesome plan for Sacred Married Life!

A message from Pope Benedict XVI to the Young Adults of America

“Dear young people, finally I wish to share a word about vocations. First of all my thoughts go to your parents, grandparents and godparents. They have been your primary educators in the faith. By presenting you for baptism, they made it possible for you to receive the greatest gift of your life. On that day you entered into the holiness of God himself. You became adoptive sons and daughters of the Father. You were incorporated into Christ. You were made a dwelling place of his Spirit. Let us pray for mothers and fathers throughout the world, particularly those who may be struggling in any way – socially, materially, spiritually. Let us honor the vocation of matrimony and the dignity of family life. Let us always appreciate that it is in families that vocations are given life.” Pope Benedict XVI, Papal Visit to America – April 2008


Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 1601, 1643-1644, 1646-1648

ARTICLE 7 - THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
1601 "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."84
V. THE GOODS AND REQUIREMENTS OF CONJUGAL LOVE
1643 "Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them the expression of specifically Christian values."152
The unity and indissolubility of marriage
1644 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."153 They "are called to grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving."154 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.

Questions for contemplation in prayer and while you train:
Marriage is a Sacrament; a visible sign of our invisible God. How so?
Did you know that the ultimate mission of marriage is to help get your spouse to heaven? How does this change your vision of marriage in our world?
In your eyes, who do you know that is a living example of married love? What do you see in them that you desire in yourself?
Why does the Church call marriage a “vocation?”
The world tells us that it is OK to live with someone outside of marriage. Why does the Church teach that a couple should only live together within the bond of marriage?

Check out the website: http://www.archindy.org/
* See Office of Family Ministries (under “Offices”)

A Vocations Prayer
Gracious and loving God, Your people are longing to hear your word. Send laborers into your harvest - women and men on fire with your love: Dedicated single people - who incarnate your presence in their daily lives, whose availability enables them to respond to a diversity of needs. Married couples - whose relationships serve as a sign of your fidelity to your people, whose love overflows to their children and neighbors. Ordained Ministers - who gather the prayers and longing of your people who serve as a channel of your presence through the sacraments. Religious sisters, brothers, and priests - whose life in community foreshadows our eternal unity in Christ, whose service brings your life to the world.May each of us respond with courage and generosity to our particular vocations, and may the Church recognize the Spirit's call to men and women of good will, trusting in your abundance to answer all our needs.
Amen.
(USCCB)

Let us all continue to Run the Good Race!

Father Rick Nagel
Associate Pastor, Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church
Director of Young Adult Ministry & Associate Director of VocationsArchdiocese of Indianapolis
cell# 317.697.0981
rnagel@archindy.org

"I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith." II Timothy 4:7

"The Glory of God is man fully alive." St. Ireaneus