Marriage: Icon of God's Love

Happy Advent! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and/or friends! We hosted, and I'm happy that our home has almost returned to normal. I can't believe it's Advent, can you? Christmas is just a few weeks away! I took down our fall decorations yesterday afternoon but aside from our Advent Wreath, I haven't gotten anything else out. I want to get the Nativity put up this afternoon during naptime. Later this evening we're doing our gift exchange with my family because my sister V and her family won't be in town for Christmas. While it feels weird, Advent will be a little less hectic because of it! My sister S is ahead of the game and decorated her tree yesterday so we'll all meet at her house.

DH emailed this to me many months ago and it was hanging out in my inbox...

I love what Pope Francis has to say about marriage in this Wednesday audience, and especially his comment on plates from the paragraph below:

Marriage: Icon of God's love (full article)

"Married couples, thanks to the Sacrament, are invested with a genuine mission, that of making visible, starting with simple and ordinary things, the love Christ has for His Church . . . The plan inherent in marriage is a truly wonderful! It is expressed in the simplicity, and also the fragility, of the human condition. We are well aware of the many difficulties and trials there may be in the life of a married couple . . . The important thing is to keep alive the link with God, which is at the basis of the matrimonial bond. When a husband prays for his wife, and a wife for her husband, the bond remains strong; each one prays for the other. It is true that married life has many difficulties: work, there isn't enough money, there are problems with the children, and often the husband and wife become irritable and argue amongst themselves. There are always arguments in marriages, and at times even plates are thrown. But we must not be sad about this: this is the human condition. And the secret is that love is stronger than the moments in which we argue, and I therefore always advise married couples never to let the day draw to an end without making peace. There is no need to call in the United Nations peacekeepers. A little gesture is enough: a caress, see you tomorrow, and tomorrow we start afresh. This is life, and we must face it in this way, with the courage of living it together. Married life is beautiful, and must be protected.”

"At times even plates are thrown". Pope Francis, you make me laugh!

We haven't thrown any plates around here.... and hopefully Advent will be peaceful. :)