Deborah Van Kroonenberg from the office of evangelisation and catechesis has kindly shared a report on the Mass for Marriage, which took place on the 17th June at our diocesan Mother Church, St Mary and St Boniface Cathedral.
‘Our Second Annual Mass for Marriage was celebrated by Rev Jonathan Bielawski, Delegate for Evangelisation, in the Cathedral of St Mary & St Boniface on Saturday 17th June 2023 at 12 Noon, the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The organist Robert Osmond provided us with suitable hymns and music to help us remember (or anticipate) our wedding days and Lyn, the Cathedral Pastoral Assistant, sang the psalm for us as well as providing organisational help. The Cathedral sisters made beautiful floral arrangements to add to the sense of nuptial celebration.
The Marian feast day was a perfect day to celebrate marriage. The first reading from Isaiah 61 bringing in the theme of the exultation of the bridegroom ‘wearing his wreath’ and the bride ‘adorned in her jewels,’ followed by the same theme of exultation in Hannah’s words from 1 Samuel 2:1,4-8 and the Gospel from Luke 2:41-51: the finding of the child Jesus in the Temple, with Mary storing up the events of Jesus’ life in her heart.
Fr Jon gave an encouraging homily for those in all stages of marriage and family life, reminding us that married or single, marriage is God’s gift to us all and that the Church supports us in this vocation, which involves the spiritual life as the natural life of the Church and the couple.
We prayed for all married couples. The total years of married life of those who sent in Anniversary dates exceeded 1,015 years (and eight months of marriage for one recently married couple). There were couples celebrating golden weddings, one couple had their fifty-first anniversary on that day and three couples had already celebrated sixty years of marriage. At the reception following the Mass it was these ‘Diamonds’ who presided over the cutting of the wedding cake. I hope we will be able to have a Mass to celebrate marriage again next June and that more married couples and families will join us.
If you would like to learn more about the resources available for married and engaged couples please contact Deborah at deborah.vanKroonenberg@prcdtr.org.uk