Not exact matches
So great and splendid is the educational ministry
of Christian parents that Saint Thomas has no hesitation in comparing it
with the ministry
of priests: «Some only propagate and guard spiritual life by a spiritual ministry: this is the role
of the
sacrament of Orders; others do this for both corporal and spiritual life, and this is brought about by the
sacrament of marriage, by which a man and a woman join in order to beget offspring and bring them up to worship God.
In chapters like «The Meaning
of Sex,» «Becoming a Singular Sensation,» «The Gift
of the Present Moment,» «Winning the Spiritual Battle,» and «Craving Heaven,» Eden describes God's design for human sexuality, why sex is reserved for
marriage, the importance
of modesty, how singles struggling
with loneliness and unrequited love can empower themselves through prayer and the
sacraments, and why shared values
with one's spouse are so vital for a successful
marriage.
The bulk
of this scholarly volume treats the distinctive and different ways that the Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican traditions adapted what the author identifies as the medieval model; the Catholic tradition,
with its insistence that
marriage constitutes a true
sacrament of the new dispensation, thus serves as something
of a foil for the book's extended argument.
Unfortunately, the present volume can easily leave one
with the impression that the movement from
sacrament to contract represents a progression
of marriage theory from shadow to light.
Though he devotes the first chapter to «
Marriage as Sacrament in the Roman Catholic Tradition,» Witte's analysis concentrates principally on the medieval centuries and concludes with some brief remarks on the marriage legislation of the Council of Trent
Marriage as
Sacrament in the Roman Catholic Tradition,» Witte's analysis concentrates principally on the medieval centuries and concludes
with some brief remarks on the
marriage legislation of the Council of Trent
marriage legislation
of the Council
of Trent in 1563.
He declares, in effect, the independence
of the Church not only in matters
of ordinary governance (
sacraments and the episcopacy) but also
with regard to schools, religious orders,
marriages, families, and sodalities.
Basically, what has happened
with CST is comparable to what has happened
with marriage and family: We spend a lot
of time talking about contraception and abortion and bioethical dilemmas, and unfortunately we must do so, given the gravity
of these evils and the obsessions
of our day — but as a result we can fail to see, or at least fail to communicate to others, the profound truth
of the
sacrament of matrimony, which is the foundation
of all the rules and prohibitions.
Since the book draws from the imagery
of the seven
sacraments — baptism, confession, communion, holy orders,
marriage, healing, and confirmation — stories that center around those experiences are much more likely to strike a chord
with where I'm at creatively
with this project.
(16) Countless relics,
with fraud... (29)
Sacrament of Marriage.
One thing that reinforces Osler's words here is the «one man and one woman» passage in the gospels where Jesus equates divorce and remarriage
with adultery, and does not go on to suggest that divorcees should be denied the
sacrament of marriage based on their sin
of adultery.
Corollaries to these notions were that embodied human beings are intrinsically evil and must undertake severe ascetical practices to «free» the soul from its carnal prison; that
marriage and the getting
of children is evil; and that the Catholic Church,
with its bodily
sacraments and its doctrines
of «the resurrection
of the flesh,» not to mention its rich and worldly ways, is a principle
of evil.
Of the seven
sacraments six were primarily for the laity: baptism, confirmation, penance (
with confession to the priest), Holy Communion,
marriage, and extreme unction.
Positively, he concerned himself
with the education
of priests in Italy, exhorted clergy the world over to aspire to what he set forth as the standard for the perfect parish priest, encouraged frequent, even daily Communion by the laity, urged that children be admitted to that
sacrament as soon as they understood the simple doctrines
of the Church, stressed Christian
marriage and family life, had the breviary reworked to make it more useful and to ensure the recitation
of the whole Psalter each week, and enjoined devotion to Mary.
Contrast this
with the genuine church teaching
of Pius XII: «This anti-Christian hedonism... promotes the desire to render always more intense thepleasure in the preparation and actualisation
of the conjugal union, as if in matrimonial relations the whole moral law could be reduced to the regular accomplishment
of the act itself, and as if all the rest, in whatever manner done, remains justified by the effusion
of mutual affection, sanctified by the
sacrament of marriage...» [11] In fact, it would be hard to distinguish Popcak's «One Rule for Infallible Lovers» from the kind
of reduction described by the Pope.
Furthermore, the
sacrament of marriage itself should hold a high place in the life
of the Church since it is the sacramental expression
of the relationship between Christ and the Church
with a view to the birth
of further sons and daughters for the Kingdom
of Christ.