Daily Gospel Reflection for August 13, 2021

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Many people said the first year marriage would be the hardest. I found myself pregnant, struck with a nasty bout of morning sickness, in a brand new state where I was essentially friendless. Add to that my and my husband’s immaturity and lack of knowledge about how to fruitfully argue, and it definitely made for a difficult year.

Shortly after we celebrated our first anniversary, the United States Supreme Court attempted to redefine marriage, and it sent me into a curiosity-driven quest to find out what, exactly, marriage is. At its most basic level, marriage is a thing. It requires a freely consenting man and woman and without those, you simply do not have a marriage.

When two people marry in the Catholic Church, it’s a sacrament and sacraments are sacred vessels of grace. There’s a reason Christ says in today’s gospel, “what God has joined together, let no one separate.” When a man and woman come together in marriage, their bond becomes an entirely new entity from which they can draw abundant graces.

It was the sacrament of marriage that guided my husband and me through that first year of marriage, rendering us stronger and more in love than we were as newlyweds. To this day, I find myself leaning on our marriage to pull me through many dark days. No one’s prayers over me are more intimate or healing than my husband’s. It becomes more and more clear to me that Jesus’ stringent mandates about marriage are for our benefit, our healing, our salvation.

Ponder:

Whose marriage, even if not my own, has provided healing in my life? How?

Pray:

Heavenly Father, Author of marriage, infuse your grace into marriages, especially those that are struggling. May marriages throughout the world be a sign of your life-giving love.

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To this day, I find myself leaning on our marriage to pull me through many dark days. No one’s prayers over me are more intimate or healing than my husband’s. #dailygospel

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