Pope Francis Speaks about the Beauty of Marriage

Pope Francis has asked people to pray throughout June for young people preparing for the life-long journey of marriage. “Getting married and sharing one’s life is something beautiful,” Pope Francis said in a video message published on June 1st. “It is a demanding journey, at times difficult, and at times complicated, but it is worth making the effort.”

In his video message, Pope Francis said that marriage is a vocation and “a conscious decision for the rest of one’s life that requires specific preparation.”

“And on this life-long journey, the husband and wife aren’t alone; Jesus accompanies them,” he said.

The prayer request by the pope comes after the marriage rate in the United States hit a record low in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic caused people to postpone marriage plans.

“In a secularized society that no longer believes in marriage, it is fundamental to proclaim the strength and power of the sacrament as a vocation and to show that family relationships can have a salvific value for people and be a path to holiness. It is a matter of concretely bringing Christ into the lives of families.”

Pope Francis said: “Please, never forget this. God has a dream for us —love— and He asks us to make it his own.”

“Let us make our own the love which is God’s dream for us.”