New Marriage Rite Offers Much-Needed Catechesis

National Catholic Register ^ | November 13, 2016 | Daniel M. Garland Jr.

[BlessedBeGod]

COMMENTARY

The most conspicuous is the change of the name from the “Rite of Marriage” to the “Order of Celebrating Matrimony.” This new name is more in accord with the Latin original, but it also adds something to the title that is not found in the simple word “marriage.” Not only does “matrimony” convey greater solemnity than “marriage,” but the Latin matrimonium also means “the state of being a mother.” This new title, therefore, provides us with a significant opportunity for a much-needed catechesis on the very nature of holy matrimony. In the face of a secular culture that values sexual permissiveness, combined with a rise in single mothers, referring to matrimony instead of marriage highlights the Church’s teaching that motherhood, and the actions which lead to it, finds its proper place in the permanent union between one man and one woman. It has been more than a quarter of a century since the second edition of the Ordo Celebrandi Matrimonium was released. In that time, there has not been an English translation — until now. With the English translation also come significant changes...

[BlessedBeGod]

May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
the God who joined together our first parents in paradise,
strengthen and bless in Christ
the consent you have declared before the Church,
so that what God joins together, no one may put asunder.

Here, we have the sacrament connected through the patriarchs of Israel back to the first marriage in the Garden of Eden between Adam and Eve.