God's Desire for Marriage -- Part I

This is a talk that we gave at the St. Thomas Aquinas Society Conference God is Calling You By Name on August 3, 2007. I will post it in multiple parts for ease of reading.
An audio CD of the talk can be found at Holy Family Resources.

God's Desire for Marriage -- Part I
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part II
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part III
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part IV
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part V
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part VI
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part VII
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part VIII
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part IX
God's Desire for Marriage -- Part X

...

Christine:
Let us tell you a little bit about ourselves. We met at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas in 1993. We were instantly smitten and quickly fell in love. Two years later we were married and our first baby was born the next year. We have been married 12 years (on Sunday as a matter of fact) and have been abundantly blessed every other year or so with a new baby, with our eighth due in just a few weeks (I am pretty sure you noticed that detail- please say a little prayer for me that I do not fall as I try to exit this stage.)

James:
We made a Marriage Encounter weekend in 1998, and it set us on the road to becoming the Catholic couple that God is calling us to be. We learned new tools for communication and for keeping our relationship vibrant. This getaway weekend gave us the opportunity to reconnect and rediscover the romance. We began presenting weekend retreats and were selected to serve as Leadership for Southern Colorado Marriage Encounter from 2004 to 2006.
The story of Marriage Encounter began in Spain where, in the 1950's, a priest by the name of Fr. Gabriel Calvo began developing a series of conferences ending in questions that encouraged husbands and wives to become more open and honest. The first conference was held in 1962 with 28 Spanish couples.
The Marriage Encounter movement in the English-speaking world began in August 1967 at the close of the Christian Family Movement conference at Notre Dame University, where a Mexican couple and an American Missionary priest from Mexico presented the encounter program to seven American couples and a few priests and nuns.
It has spread rapidly to countries in other continents, thanks to the work of Father Chuck Gallagher together with a number of married couples who enriched the movement by beginning to organize "marriage encounter weekends" for couples and priests. American team couples were sent to Belgium, and later to England, and then on to more and more countries to the point where there are now 90 countries that have experienced the weekend. It includes 1.25 million people, with a growth rate of some 200,000 per year.
Marriage Encounter emphasizes the beauty of belonging totally to one another. Marriage Encounter teaches that marriage is a joyous celebration of God's plan for men and women, shared with the person chosen to be loved.

Christine:
So if God is calling us, what is He calling us to? It is our firm belief that God calls each of us to give of ourselves, to serve the Church and the world, and to gain sanctification. God is calling us all to Heaven.
As children we were taught that we would achieve sanctification through dedication to our vocation. Since James and I are called to the vocation of Marriage, we would like to talk to you today about what it means for God to call us by name through the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Marriage has a profound impact, not only on married people, but on ALL people in the world. The cornerstone of society is the family, and the foundation of the family is the relationship of a husband and wife. When marriages are made better, stronger, and holier, then all the members of the Body of Christ will be made better, stronger, and holier.