(1601) “The matrimonial covenant by which a man and a woman establish between 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”. (cf. Cod of Canon Law, can. 1055, Gaudium et Spes 48,1).
“Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and become attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh?” (Mat. 19: 4-5); see Gen 2: 18...23-24.
The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives the grace to love each other with the love with which “Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life “
“Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love. (…)
Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. (…)
The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called [the domestic church’, a community of grace and prayer, as school of human virtues and of Christian charity.”
CCC # 1601, 1660, 1661, 1662, 1664, 1666.
