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Marriage:
The Sacrament of Marriage is a covenant, which is more than a contract. Covenant always expresses a relationship between persons. The marriage covenant refers to the relationship between the husband and wife, a permanent union of persons capable of knowing and loving each other and God. The celebration of marriage is also a liturgical act, appropriately held in a public liturgy at church. Catholics are urged to celebrate their marriage within the Eucharistic Liturgy.
For information on planning a wedding at Nativity, please contact us at the church office at 901-382-2405 or susan.hunt@nativity.cdom.org
Information that you will need when you contact us:
– What dates are you considering?
– Have you contacted a Presider (priest or deacon to preside at your wedding)?
– Will you celebrate the Sacrament within a Mass?
– In what parish are you registered?
When you plan to have your wedding at the Church of the Nativity we offer some very special services as a part of your contract with us.
– A General Wedding Meeting will give you information on planning the music, selecting the readings, and forms for the florist and photographer.
– A Liturgy Planner will assist you in selecting the music for your wedding. The organist and cantor will be provided for you. Additional musicians will be booked by our staff.
– The Wedding Ministry will be available throughout your planning to answer questions. We will provide a Wedding Coordinator for your rehearsal. This coordinator will be present the day of your wedding to assist in any way needed.
– A copy– ready Wedding program will be prepared for your wedding which will include the music and other Liturgical guides for your guests.
“. . . From the beginning, the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Matt. 19:4b-6
God created man and woman out of love and commanded them to imitate his love in their relations with each other. Man and woman were created for each other. “It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him. . . . The two of them become one body” (Gn 2:18; 24). Woman and man are equal in human dignity, and in marriage both are united in an unbreakable bond.
By their marriage, the couple witnesses Christ’s spousal love for the Church. One of the Nuptial Blessings in the liturgical celebration of marriage refers to this in saying, “Father, you have made the union of man and wife so holy a mystery that it symbolizes the marriage of Christ and his Church.”