Revitalize Your Marriage Vows

Picture above is of my parents renewing there vows at a 50th wedding anniversary Mass in the Diocese of Raleigh. Bishop Burbidge's homily on the gift of married love is well worth watching. See it here.


Hat tip to Eric for sending me this post...

From the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal daily letters...

Revitalize Your Marriage Vows

by Br. Louis Leonelli, CFR

Marriage is an amazing gift from God, a source of enduring joy for man and woman, the sanctuary of new human life, a school of holiness and laboratory of love. And yet this wonderful mystery, which reflects the love of the Trinity and the spousal love of Jesus for the Church, is under fierce attack and is sorely tried by forces at work in the culture. Too often marriages and families become casualties rather than conquerors in this battle.

What can be done to help marriages and families flourish, reach their full stature in Christ, and offer to the world a radiant testimony of abundant life, sacrificial love and authentic holiness even in the midst of struggle and difficulty?

One simple but effective step is for married couples to imitate the practice of many religious communities, and regularly renew the vows they made to God and one another. Our custom as Franciscan Friars of the Renewal is to do this every Friday at the beginning of our evening meal. The renewed strength and commitment that I receive from this practice inspired me to write something similar for married couples. I would like to encourage you as a couple to prayerfully recite this renewal of vows weekly at the dinner table in the presence of your children and any guests who may be present. Could I ask you to please also share this practice and our website with other families and couples you know?

This is one concrete way, in the midst of the onslaught of anti-marriage and anti-family forces, to put into practice the virtue of hope and the words of Jesus of which our Holy Father Pope Benedict reminded us in his recent encyclical, Spe Salvi (In Hope We Are Saved): "You will have difficulty in the world. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!" (Jn 16:33).

Thank you for helping to renew and protect marriages and families through your personal witness and by your prayers. Be assured of my prayers for you and all your loved ones, for it is through prayer that we unite in spirit to support one other. And may the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ help you to grow in peace, joy and love in your lives and in your marriages through the prayers of the most perfect of spouses, our Blessed Mother and Saint Joseph.

Br. Louis Leonelli, CFR
St. Leopold Friary, Yonkers, NY