Thursday - 9th Week of OT 2017 - Spouses who pray together...

The last section of the reading from Tobit is one of the Old Testament passages which may be chosen for the celebration of the Sacrament Marriage. Tobiah and Sarah have just married and her parents have escorted them to the bridal chamber to spend their first night together. And before retiring for the night, Tobiah asks his wife to pray with him: together they ask the Lord to bless their union.

I am always happy when young couples request this reading for the marriage ceremony. Tobiah and Sarah provide a wonderful example for all newly married couples looking to start their marriage off on the right foot. For a good marriage is one where the spouses invite God to play an active role in their lives and to nourish and sustain them for the years to come.

The couple that prays together, stays together. Making time for prayer is not always easy. It isn’t true for single people, and more difficult when you add another person’s schedule into the mix. Once children enter the picture, spouses can become caught up with play dates, sports practices, music lessons, and the like.

In marriage communication between the spouses is a top priority, but communication also with the heavenly Father. Although they’ve only been married a few hours in our reading today, Tobiah and Sarah are already thinking like a holy couple: praying for God’s mercy to be upon them, that they be allowed to live together to a happy old age together, thanking God for his bountiful goodness and asking for his continued blessings.

So many families are for some reason embarrassed to pray together.  But family prayer, especially weekly Mass, is essential for holy marriage, for holy families. I tell young couples: Praying together will open up new vistas of intimacy, and will bring you the strength from God you will need for all of life’s challenges.  I promise, you will never regret the time you pray together, you’ll never regret saying yes to the obligation to come to Holy Mass every week.  But all of us regret the time that we do not give to God.

They look to God plan for marriage, to the joining of Adam and Eve to be partners for life: partners not simply in pursuing earthly plans, but partners according to God’s plan, that man and wife be made holy through the demands of married life.

As a celibate priest, I am constantly inspired by the example of our holy couples, and also concerned for our young people who do not place God at the center of their lives, who begin marriage preparation with little or no faith. If you have such a young person in your life, remind them once again about the importance of faith, help them to rediscover, or discover for the first time, the true presence of God with the Church.

We all look to the example of Tobiah and Sarah, the need to begin all of our endeavors and throughout all of our endeavors, beseeching God’s mercy, that we may serve Him faithfully, and be made worthy of our eternal homeland, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
- - - - - - - -

For Pope Francis and for all the bishops and clergy of the Church: that they will continue to lead us and guide us in Spirit and Truth and in the practice of love towards all.  We pray to the Lord.

For all engaged couples preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage, that sustained by God’s grace they may prepare rightly and chastely, grow in mutual respect, and love each other with true charity. We pray to the Lord.

That all newly married couples may always have a true and generous love for each other; may they receive the rich blessing of children, and may they know the constant support of their family and friends, and that all married couples, may be faithful to the Gospel in every dimension of their married life.  We pray to the Lord.

For the grace to develop a habit of prayer which will sustain us throughout the challenges of life.

That the sick, lonely, elderly, homeless, and all those experiencing trials or suffering of any kind may be strengthened by God’s love and know His comfort and peace.  We pray to the Lord.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.