Catholic Diocese Of Joliet

Bishop tells his vocation story. Marriage is a vocation too. There are three things that should be present when considering a vocation. The person has to feel comfortable with the idea for being married. Other people have to confirm or affirm that the marriage is right and the person has to have the right qualities to be a spouse or parent in marriage. A young person has a chance to know what married life is like by living with their married parents. Parents can be a good example in their marriage and should reflect what married life is like to their kids. It’s important to pray to get guided by the holy Spirit to see if marriage is right for them.

Marriage is a charism from God. We respond in love and to give our lives by living our baptismal call. The call to the priesthood or marriage are concrete ways in which we go about loving God or neighbor. It is how we live out our baptism. People have to discern that they are called to marriage.

Marriage is a calling from God. God calls a particular man and woman to a marriage. The call grows out of our baptism. It is a fulfillment from our call in baptism.

The family is referred to as the domestic Church. It means the church at home. Jesus was born into a family. Christian couples are configured to Christ’s love for the Church. The communion of persons formed by the couple and their family is a microcosm of the Church. It draws its sustenance from the larger Church, the whole body of Christ, and reflects the Church to provide a summary of it. It is a communion of the virtues of faith, hope and love.

Couples model the Trinitarian love that the Church participates in and models too. Marriage is a form of giving and receiving of love and this communion reflects the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Marriage is a communion of love between co-equal people. Marriage is a participation and reflection in the life of the Holy Trinity.

The married couple share in their marital life their deep relationship they have with Christ in their baptism. Couples are called to be in imitation of Christ. The bond is unbreakable. There is still sin and human frailty, but there is an ideal of the covenant between Christ and the Church and married couples reflect that. Couples need to constantly claim the power of the sacrament. The Holy Spirit and Christ are present in their relationship.

Christ is at the center of the marriage relationship. Spouses are fortified for the duties of their marriage because they are infused with hope, faith and charity. The sacrament of marriage is a mutual sanctification that should lead to the glory of God. Union and transformation with Christ should occur within the marriage. It is a call to give oneself to one’s spouse as fully as Christ gave Himself to the Church.

Original sin has had negative consequences for marriage. There has been a rupture of communication between man and women. Through baptism, we are transformed into new life and elevates us to share in God’s divine life. Marriage is then elevated to the dignity of a sacrament. It is the permanent self giving of one flesh. When people are transformed by baptism and united to someone else similarly transformed, then the union of these two people results into something wonderful. Marriage, thus, is the visible embodiment of Christ’s love for the Church. Jesus is the spouse and takes the Church as His bride.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage, and he talks about living together without marriage. Research has shown that co-habitation can harm a couple’s chances for a stable marriage. Co-habiting has nothing to do with self giving love and sacrifice.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage, and he talks about divorce in this episode. There can be healing and reconciliation in marriage. Society makes it difficult when there is talk of "starter marriages." Couples in crisis can turn to the Lord for help and ministries offered by the Church that can help marriages. Divorce is not the solution for difficulties.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage, and he outlines some of the fundamental challenges that face marriages today, including contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce. Marriage is a union between men and women. Society for millennia has accepted that understanding of marriage, for the good of others and for the procreation of children. There is no philosophical argument that would allow for a same-sex marriage.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage, and he outlines some of the fundamental challenges that face marriages today, including contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce. Contraception is all about a self gift and doesn’t involve love, while openness to life means it involves two people and love. There are methods of family planning that are in accord with nature and gives the couple an opportunity to not involve drugs or other instruments that interrupt the natural relationship of the married couple.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage, and he outlines some of the fundamental challenges that face marriages today, including contraception, same-sex marriage, and divorce. The bishops want to help others and promoting marriage is good. Love has to be a blessing for others and that love is going to be expressed in giving birth to kids. Contraception is opposed to God’s plan and is not unitive and procreative.

Bishop Conlon talks about what is essential in the recipe for marriage. It starts with a man and woman. There has to be a commitment or consent. There has to be a decision to give themselves to each other. There should be an openness to having children. There has to be an ability to fulfill the commitment.

Bishop Conlon talks about the two purposes of marriage: Unitive (the good of the spouses - the love they have for each other) and procreative (the good of others - the continuation of the human race). Humans are geared toward relationships, union with others. There should be mutual giving and receiving in marriage. The spouses are true help mates.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage and this segment deals with the importance of marriage between a man and a woman. There is a uniqueness to a male and a uniqueness to a female that makes each different and yet they are also complimentary.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk marriage and that marriage should be between a man and woman and should last for life. It's a gift from God. It's a foundation for the family, and it's an important part of social life.

Bishop Conlon starts a series of talks about the gifts and beauty of marriage between a man and a woman. He will specifically be focusing on a recent U.S. Bishop's Pastoral Letter on marriage, called "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan." He said that marriage is a great blessing from God, and that's the attitude the bishops wanted to say in their pastoral letter. He will talking about marriage as a natural gift and as a supernatural gift (as a sacrament) in the next upcoming podcasts.

Bishop Conlon continues to talk about St. Augustine and passages from the saint's book, "Confessions." He finishes the series on the saint by talking about the concept of memory.