SAN DIEGO — Do you and your spouse plan to attend the fifth annual Diocesan Marriage Anniversary Mass?
The Office for Family Life and Spirituality hopes that your answer to that question is: “I do.”
“It is so important for us to take time every once in a while to just celebrate the gift of marriage,” said the office’s director, John Prust. “Fundamentally, that’s what this Mass is about.
“So often, we take marriage for granted as something you just do when you become an adult, but it’s so much more than that,” he continued. “Healthy marriages are critical to our well-being as individuals, families and as a society, let alone the Church.”
Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Pulido will celebrate this year’s Marriage Anniversary Mass at 11 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 15, at Good Shepherd Parish in Mira Mesa.
The Mass concludes National Marriage Week, which will be observed from Feb. 7 to 14, and serves to celebrate the incredible gift that marriage is. Couples will have the opportunity to renew their vows, whether they’ve been married for six months, one year, five years, or 55 years.
Registration is not required. However, those couples who are celebrating a silver (25 years), golden (50 years) or diamond (60 years) anniversary, are asked to give the Office for Family Life and Spirituality advance notice if they are planning to attend. They can call the office at (858) 490-8256. These couples will have reserved seating, and their milestone anniversaries will be recognized in a special way.
The Marriage Anniversary Mass is just one example of the types of events, activities and programs that the Office for Family Life and Spirituality offers to help couples experience enrichment and renewal in their lives together.
“The implication of marriage as a sacrament is that it’s a lived reality; it’s about living it day in and day out,” said Prust. “The validity of a marriage is intimately connected to how it’s actually experienced, how the couple is truly living out their vocation. As such, it is critical for married couples to constantly be growing in their relationship with each other and with God, recognizing that formation is a lifelong process.”
For more information about the Anniversary Mass, email jprust@sdcatholic.org.
