Couples have unique opportunities to celebrate their love during this Marriage Week (Lent)
This year’s National Marriage Week, which will be celebrated from Feb. 7-14, offers unique opportunities for couples since it ends on both Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday.
Brian Caldwell, the Archdiocese of Newark’s director of family life ministry, said couples should take advantage of the specialness of this year’s Marriage Week ending with the celebratory day of love, Valentine’s Day, but also falling on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, a holy day of prayer and fasting.
“Couples should be encouraged to renew their commitment to and love for one another,” said Caldwell, who pointed out that Saint Valentine is a figure of both faith and love because he was martyred for keeping the faith and, by many accounts, marrying couples in secret. “And since it is the beginning of Lent, they could also look at how to grow in holiness together during the upcoming Lenten season.”
The theme for this year’s celebration of National Marriage Week is “Love Beyond Words,” which recalls the self-sacrificing love in marriage that is rooted in the wedding promises that couples make in matrimony, according to the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. This self-sacrificing love is also mirrored in the story of Jesus’ sacrifice for us all.
The Archdiocese of Newark’s website has resources for couples such as at-home retreats, a video series on fortifying couples and families, and podcasts to access during National Marriage Week or anytime. Caldwell suggested that couples should consider exploring these resources as a way of strengthening their marital bond.
“They can consider how to pray together more or find some new way to enrich their love as a couple, like attending a marriage enrichment retreat, for example,” Caldwell said. “There are even self-paced retreats they can explore as their own busy schedules allow.”
And for those struggling to ‘give something up’ for Lent, “they can be reminded that Christian married love is sacrificial,” Caldwell said.
Each year, National Marriage Week USA and World Marriage Day provide an opportunity for the Catholic Church to focus on and celebrate the vocation to marriage and family life.
National Marriage Week USA launched in 2010, is part of an international event seeking to mobilize individuals, organizations, and businesses with a common purpose to strengthen marriage in communities and influence the culture. Please visit NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org to learn more.
World Marriage Day was started in 1983 by Worldwide Marriage Encounter.
Blessing to Magnetize True Love
May your life be filled with the blessings of love.
May the spiritual bond that unites you
with your soulmate draw you closer.
When you find one another, may your lives be enriched.
And may you be connected to body, mind, heart, and soul.
May your two lives soon be joined.
And May God bless your union in all ways.
Click here for more Valentine’s Day prayers.
Featured image: The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is seen in a file photo at sunset as a couple kiss near Villa Borghese in Rome. (OSV News photo/CNS photo, Paul Haring)
