EDITORIAL: Marriage, identity and 'one flesh'

Still, I’m delighted to join our young friends as they celebrate their marriage. Research from across at least two decades confirms the blessing this marriage will provide, particularly if it produces children and this couple remains together to raise them. The sons will be less inclined toward violence and much less likely to go to jail, and the daughters will be less inclined toward promiscuity and much less likely to bear children out of wedlock. That’s only part of it. Research also shows children raised by their parents are safer and, on the whole, perform better in school. (This takes nothing away from the many single parents who are doing an exemplary job raising children, often under difficult circumstances. It simply attests to the fact most children benefit from the intact marriages of their parents.)

But marriage isn’t simply about the kids. Scripture,  history and human experience all point toward God’s design. “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ ... For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:18, 24). From the very beginning, women and men have needed—yearned for—the deep, intimate sense of knowing and being known only marriage offers.

But the longer I am married, the more I realize “one flesh” far transcends sexuality. As a matter of fact, if sex were the qualifier for “one flesh,” then rampant promiscuity has produced a race of mutants, whose aberrant oneness intermingles among multitudes. No, ideal oneness reflects a unity only attainable when two people so closely identify with each other they realize they are incomplete when they stand alone.

But we live in a society too quick to promote the individual.

Scripture verses for weddings | Memories by Christine scrapbooking

Continuing along with our own wedding scrapbook. This is by far my favorite page:)  For any Mass, there are typically two readings- one in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament. The Gospel is self-explanatory;) These are my favorite parts of each reading we picked for our ceremony.  I have no idea which Bible translation was used...sorry!

Pebbles

Notes on the text of the book of Genesis, with an appendix

New Proclamation, Year B, 2006--Easter Through Pentecost

New Proclamation Year B, Easter to Christ the King

A Mechanical Translation of the Book of Genesis, The Hebrew Text Literally Tranlated Word for Word