To the Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
“The man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery. But I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.” — St. Paul to the Ephesians 5: 31-32
This “great mystery” of spousal love, the spousal love of Christ for His Bride the Church, and the spousal love of husband and wife joined together by our Triune God, manifest to the world that God is indeed with us. Wherever God is, there is mercy, there is truth.
Because of this great mystery of love and of life that flows from the marriage bond, the family is “the first and vital cell of society and the Church.” Where marriages flourish in virtue, the Church teems with life and society becomes a civilization of love.
For this reason, preparation for marriage is held in profound respect within the Church. Families themselves sense the serious obligation to prepare the next generation to enter into marriages that are healthy, joyful and life-giving. In recent times, the Church has done much to assist families with their role in preparing the next generation for this sacred vocation. John Paul II recognized nearly 30 years ago that more extensive marriage preparation programs were needed. In his apostolic exhortation, The Role of the Family in the Modern World, he said, “…the changes that have taken place within almost all modern societies demand that not only the family but also society and the Church should be involved in the effort of properly preparing young people for their future responsibilities. The Church must therefore promote better and more intensive programs of marriage preparation, in order to eliminate as far as possible the difficulties that many married couples find themselves in, and even more in order to favor positively the establishing and maturing of successful marriages” (FC 66).
