​The last time I wrote I focused on the basics of marriage: order of priority God-spouse-children; marriage is a partnership of mutual submission and responsibility; availing of the sacraments of the Church for a stronger marriage; seeking the good of the other.
 
In my 30th year of marriage, having raised five children with my husband and now enjoying life as grandparents, I look back and am seeing the hand of God working amidst joy and pain, abundance and scarcity, health and sickness—all of which give strength to the marriage.
 
Struggles are a beautiful part of marriage. Each struggle provides an opportunity for the couple to deposit into the bank of relationship greater patience and forgiveness of each other. The ability of the couple to cope with marital challenges is sharpened. Joy is readily experienced.
 
Easter joy is not possible without welcoming struggles and going through them. With God present in marriage there is no struggle bigger than God that God cannot provide an abundance of grace for. Struggles lead to an Easter experience where God becomes a presence of constant providence and a solid source of strength.

​​Copyright © 2016 Easter Almuena
All rights reserved.
​​​

 

The beauty of the teaching of the Church on marriage can be seen in the image of a married man and woman walking side by side and hand in hand. They walk in the same direction towards Christ.
 
In that image, we see friendship and love. In that image, we see partnership and a mutual self-giving of each to the other. In that image, we see a nurturing of the two as one, watered by grace through the sacraments of the Church.
 
This image is not far from what the Church teaches us.
 
“Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21).
 
The scriptures “Wives be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22) and “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her” (Ephesians 5:25) create a balance of “mutual submission.”
 
In the partnership of a married man and woman (Canon Law 1055 §1, 1057 §2), friendship blossoms as each spouse learns to move in a unique complementary way of giving and receiving, keeping in mind the good of the other (CCC #2333). As in a tango, marriage becomes a set of beautiful movements.
 
​Copyright © 2016 Easter Almuena
All rights reserved.
​​