By EMMALEE ITALIA
Contributing Editor
Celebrating the sacred union of husbands and wives, World Marriage Day Feb. 11 and National Marriage Week Feb. 7-14 will recognize their sacramental commitment with special blessings and resources to help couples strengthen their relationships.
The theme for this year’s World Marriage Day and National Marriage Week is “Love Beyond Words” – the permanent, faithful and fruitful love in a sacramental marriage is truly beyond words.
“Last year we combined our World Marriage Day efforts with the launch of ‘The Wedding Survival Guide for Catholics – 44 Strategies to Survive Wedding Planning and Thrive in a Catholic Marriage,’ and the Encouraging Catholic Weddings (ECW) initiative,” said Peg Hensler, associate director of Marriage Ministries and NFP for the Diocese. “This year we are building on the ECW initiative with our Encouraging Catholic Weddings video series – 17 short videos on the benefits of Catholic marriage and Catholic wedding planning – and our social media graphics.”
These items are available on the diocesan web pages: www.dioceseoftrenton.org/encouraging-catholic-weddings-for-families and www.dioceseoftrenton.org/ecw-resources-for-parishes.
Although there are no diocesan-sponsored WMD activities or events planned for 2024, a complete set of parish resources and married couple resources are available at www.dioceseoftrenton.org/world-marriage-day, www.dioceseoftrenton.org/world-marriage-day-for-parishes and www.dioceseoftrenton.org/world-marriage-day-for-couples.
“Parishes are encouraged to honor married couples in various ways during Saturday and Sunday liturgies on February 10 and 11,” said Hensler. “We encourage parishes to consider the entire month of February to be a month for marriage.”
An outgrowth of Worldwide Marriage Encounter – an apostolate aimed at helping couples make good marriages even better – World Marriage Day began in 1983, and is marked every second Sunday of February across the country. Its purpose is to highlight the beauty of marriage and to honor married couples for their faithfulness and sacrifices. In 1993, WMD received an Apostolic Blessing from Pope John Paul II.
Launched in 2010, National Marriage Week USA is part of an international event seeking to mobilize individuals, organizations, and businesses to strengthen marriage in communities and influence the culture. The Secretariat on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offers a full set of resources to bishops, priests, deacons, married couples, and lay men and women to help celebrate and live the great gift of married life. As an initiative of the USCCB, its website ForYourMarriage.org was launched in 2007 as part of the National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage to communicate the meaning and value of married life for the Church and society.
For more Catholic marriage resources, visit https://www.usccb.org/topics/marriage-and-family-life-ministries and https://www.foryourmarriage.org/.
World Marriage Day 2024