Bishop Ray Browne said there has been significant changes in how people choose to marry over the past 10 or 20 years.
“Marriage is an enormous gift: a couple entering a life-long loving union, the birth and rearing of children, family life, the continuity of humanity from generation to generation, childhood, parenthood, grandparenthood and beyond,” he said.
“For most, despite all the challenges and the major things that can go wrong, marriage is a wonderful, life-long, fulfilling and loving union.
“Our faith is that it is not just our own doing – it is God’s will for us too, God is ever present and ever loving in the couple’s marriage and home,” Bishop Browne said.
He added that on their wedding day a couple asks for and receive God’s assurance and blessing and God blesses the journey they are setting out on.
The bishop said he humbly asks all parishioners to be faithful to weekend Mass and he queried how healthy numbers are joining in the celebration in each parish?
“Taking the time to join in the celebration of the Mass is a call to look at the bigger picture, of the meaning, motivation and purpose of all our lives as one week ends and another begins,” he added.
He said questions for people to ask themselves include:
Are they happy with the week gone by and ready for the challenge of the week ahead?
Do they trust in the presence of God, his love and care for us all and his call to love and care for each other?
Is it important that their children grow up with a sense of Sunday as the Lord’s day and a day of rest?
Have they that sense of Sunday in their own life?
“As parish communities and as people of faith, how can we promote both Sunday Eucharist and the Sacrament of Marriage in all our parishes?” he asked.