“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.” ― Thomas Merton
Responding to any vocation whether it is to the call to marriage or religious life has to be approached with copious amounts of prayer and discernment. When people ask me, “Aren’t you a little young to get married?” or “How do you know that Kurtis is the right guy for you to marry?” to simply say “I just know he’s the one” is not a good enough answer for me to give. My answer is, “I’ve been praying for my husband, whoever he may be, since I was sixteen years old, and in time, I honestly believe that God has sent him to me.” I would never be able to enter into the sacrament of marriage without being completely steadfast in my decision. Later after my fiancé had proposed to me, the reality hit, “I just said yes to marry him.” It was the best mixture of happiness, shock, and peace. It’s more than just being in love that is needed to build a marriage, but it’s also being completely open to life and trusting in God. It’s beautiful. The catechism tell us that, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”
I don’t want to marry my fiancé because we’d been dating for four years and marriage is just the next “expected step.” When we started dating it was with the intention of finding a potential spouse. We’ve both been called to this vocation and we’re blessed that God has brought us to this calling together. God is Good!
P.S: My prayers go out to all those who are out in this bitter cold for the March for Life!
Dear Leila 