Tag: marriage

When a marriage ends, the pain is palpable. It feels as though someone has died. Every first feels like a last: The first time we slept apart. The first time it hit me that we’ll never have children together. The first time we talked on the phone without saying I love you.

Unfortunately the fight over just the definition of marriage is not over. I think it is obvious that it is only a battle that has been won. Just look at voter’s rights, abortion rights and other issues in which the fight will seemingly never end.

We have become an increasingly polarized nation with people sitting in their own camps, unwilling to budge in any direction because they are “right.”

Earlier this week, I came across a post on The Christian Left’s Facebook page that raised the issue of ‘easy divorce.’ I was pleasantly surprised, as this is a topic that liberal/progressive Christians tend to avoid. It was not surprising that within less than two hours The Christian Left had apparently received so much push-back (in nearly 400 comments) that they posted a new status with some backpedaling.

This week our writers took a look at marriage and examined its definition.

Pastor Eric Blauer wrote, "Marriage is a sacred circle of death and resurrection, one that should be entered with fear and trembling as much as passionate intoxication and longing communion."

The human consciousness evolves and so, therefore, do relationships.

The whole idea of marriage was to ensure that a couple, man and woman, could procreate and thereby extend the size and power of a particular tribe or even religion.

What is marriage? From a Catholic perspective, marriage is a covenant relationship between one man and one woman reflecting the covenant between God and human.  Like the divine covenant, marriage ideally creates and sustains a bond that is eternal, always faithful and fruitful.

This weekend I added an event to my calendar for Feb. 14. And it reminded me that I’ve spent most Valentine’s Days alone. It got me to thinking about a book we read for a monthly book group called all about love: "New Visions" by Bell Hooks.