Holy Matrimony

Marriage Preparation

Congratulations on your engagement! We are excited to help you prepare for the momentous occasion of your marriage in the Catholic Church. Please contact our parish no less than six months prior to the desired date of your wedding, so that there can be adequate time for catechesis and other preparation. 

From the Diocese of Rochester – Policies for the Administration of the Sacraments, 7:

“Two Sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to other that they do so. They confer a particular mission the in the Church and serve to build up the people of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1534).

“Mutual self-giving in the Sacrament of Matrimony is grounded in the grace of Baptism, which establishes the foundational covenant of every person with Christ in the Church. In accepting each other, and with Christ’s grace, the engaged couple promise each other total self-giving, faithfulness and openness to new life.” (Amoris Laetitia, 73).

“‘The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws.... God himself is the author of marriage.’ The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries…. ‘The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1603).

“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to 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.” (Code of Canon Law, c. 1055, §1).

Please contact the parish with any questions about your marriage or upcoming marriage preparation.