While the church seems to be trying to determine during marriage prep if the couple can be trusted, most brides- and grooms-to-be are ascertaining whether they trust the church, says newlywed Madison Chastain.
Young Voices: Last month, I decided it would be essential for me to wed myself. This wouldn't be a thought experiment; it would be a marriage. And there would be a ring, flowers, an outfit, vows.
Scripture for Life: Family relationships are often complex, complicated and ever-changing. Families today are diverse. Power relations within families are also diverse.
I am in my late 70s, but it has only been recently that I have begun to experience grace arising from the worst kind of pain, from the depths of pain, and in the death of two of my children.
Young Voices: The Spirit arrived in the place I least expected her — at the kitchen sink after a long day, stilling the restlessness and healing the brokenness of my heart.
Soul Seeing: Miracles come to everyone, but we're so preoccupied with thoughts of what we want and how we want it and when we want it that we don't recognize them. They may as well never have happened.
The Peace Pulpit: In the Gospel lesson, it seems so clear that Jesus, almost in a harsh way, says that there is no such thing as divorce and being remarried. Yet, if you look at how Jesus acted, it doesn't come across the same way.
The Catholic Church must reach out to couples living together without being married, Pope Francis told those involved in family ministry in the Diocese of Rome.
Distinctly Catholic: When Pope Francis first issued Amoris Laetitia, I commented that as important as the text was, what really mattered is the texts it would spawn. We now have the first such text in English, from Fr. Lou Cameli.
