Transcript

From the beginning of my Christian life, I was taught and I was shown in the scripture that a true, valid marriage is indissoluble.

It cannot be dissolved, it cannot be broken.

That when we say, I do, it's, it's forever.

And so, I had the great grace at that time of entering into marriage with my wife with both of us having that understanding, knowing that reality.

That when we said, I do, there's no way to undo the I do.

And that was something that had, uh, that kept us, uh, together through thick and thin in so many ways, knowing that, that there was no exit from it, but that God would give us the grace, no matter what troubles we might have, to continue.

We live in a world today where, unfortunately, marriage as God designed it has been very watered down.

Even the definition is, is being changed, or attempting to be changed, and I am grateful that I'm part of a church that stands by the traditional definition of marriage as, as God designed it.

I'm also grateful that in being Catholic and being in a sacramental marriage, I'm receiving graces that are helping me be a better wife, that are helping my husband be a better husband.

And I, I appreciate that the church doesn't just view marriage as a contract, um, as a civil binding agreement.

I appreciate that it's a vocation, and for me, my vocation as a married woman is to get my spouse to heaven, as it is for him.

As I've been learning about the Catholic teaching on marriage, divorce, the indissolubility of marriage, I'm fairly certain now that had I known those teachings, had I been Catholic and understood what the church teaches and seen what's in the word of God from the Catholic perspective, I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be divorced now, and that the father of my children and I would still be together, or at least we would have had a very good fighting chance at saving our marriage.

And we didn't really ever expect to be divorced, but so many forces and unexpected pressures came down on our lives.

Without the grace that comes from the sacraments, and without the teaching to help us hold on and fight for our marriage, we, we just, we gave up.

We couldn't make it, and I, I'm In some ways, the teaching I'm receiving now has truly comforted me.

And that might sound strange because I'm realizing that, what if we had been Catholic?

But it's not really like that.

It's more a joy knowing that in God's eyes, that marriage is still alive.

And just that teaching alone has set me free from so much.

It's difficult to explain, but I, I really want to share that because it's so important, and I've also been able to share that with my children, and it's brought them tremendous peace knowing that mommy is happier, Mommy is more at peace, Mo- This is a settled issue for me.

I, I know my marital status now in a way that I, I really didn't know, and that's a gift to me from the church.

It re- It really is.

I don't know any other way to explain it, but I'm very grateful.

But one of the things I, I began to, to find in Catholic teaching about marriage and the understanding was the, the redemptive nature of marriage, that it's not s- something, a commitment you make and then you sometimes have to grit your teeth and sometimes celebrate, but that through the good and the bad times, part of what's happening is that, that God is working on you.

He's working on your soul.

He's cleaning, purifying you, and that he uses marriage that way, and that the, the troubles that come in marriage can either scrape you or scrub you.

They can scrape you and be abrasive and, and hurt, or you can let them scrub you like a good bar of soap to get cleaner, and that my main job for my wife was to help her to heaven, and that was her main job for me.

And that changed everything, to be able to understand that that's why God called us together.

When, um, Ivan made the decision to convert, um, and join RCIA class, I thought it was very interesting because he was very, um, he was very thoughtful in the process.

Um, he wanted to choose a, a, a specific church for many reasons, and I wasn't really sure of his reason until he told me one night that he wanted to find a church that he, um, can start RCIA, um, build a relationship with the priest, um, the deacons, and, um, the, um, the people in the community.

Um, one, for the fact that in the future, he wanted to also get married in that church and to also, um, baptize our future kids.

Um, so when he told me that, I just knew that it was, um, something that he was taking, uh, very seriously, and I, I truly appreciate that, um, for many reasons because I knew that he was making this decision, um, not just for himself but for us and for our future kids.

Um, so it was, um, a great experience, um, seeing him through that process, and, um, after he was baptized and, um, he converted, um, into the religion, um, I knew that it was gonna help us through our marriage.

Um, not only through the happy times but through the difficult times where we, um, had un- Um, uh, we had hard, um, decisions to make that, um, we were able to really come together and say, Let's pray about this.

Let's, um, let's leave it up to God.

Let's see what, um, God has in store for us in the future.

Um, it was very special for us, um, and I know that no matter what happens in our relationship, whether it w- is job or decisions with children, um, that we And, um, we were gonna be confident that, um, if we prayed together and that we stuck together and knew that God was gonna be there for us, that everything was gonna be okay.

Yeah.

Um, just to add to that, I think, I think it's, it's important to, to really, um, have the same common, uh, goals and, and, and our goal is driven now by, you know, being a Catholic, how the church teachings are.

I would say before, before I converted, uh, became, became a Catholic, that we have some conflicts.

Uh, we have conflicts that, you know, uh, one of, one of the, one of the mo- most common ones is that why do you have to come with you to mass every single Sunday?

And, and it's just something that, you know, uh, eh, these conflicts are all, uh, completely gone now because, you know, as part of, um, the Catholic community, we know, we know what, what we're supposed, uh, what we're supposed to do.

Um, and but, more to that is just having a common goal in terms of how to raise a family, how to treat each other, how to treat our parents.

Uh, as all of these add up together, it just makes our marriage life a lot, a lot more, a lot more better and it's just something that, you know, we, we, we can both agree on and we, uh, and have a lot less conflicts.

The Catholic Church is one of the only institutions, um, left that sees marriage as beautiful, um, and children as a blessing and openness to life as a God-given grace.

She's there, Mother Church is there to, to help me as a Christian mother to guide and instruct me, um, to give me parameters, and to help me lead other, lead other souls to Christ.

My husband and I have 12 children and the world thinks that we're absolutely crazy.

Sometimes I think that we're absolutely crazy.

But why would I listen to a world gone mad when I have the direction of Holy Mother Church and holy scripture and the lives of the saints?