NEW Online Marriage Formation Course
We no longer offer a weekend course. Hybrid courses are on weeknights or Saturdays. A new online course will be offered to engaged couples who are unable to participate in the in-person sessions due to irregular work schedules or not residing in Greater Vancouver. Please email mprep@rcav.org if you encounter an engaged couple who is in this situation.
Weekend Getaway Marriage Conference
The Archdiocese has partnered with Family Life Canada to offer their esteemed Weekend Getaway Marriage Conference (Whistler, Victoria & Kelowna) to our Catholic couples. Brochures will be delivered to your parish soon.
Please contact the Fr. Maciej at mwos@rcav.org to book an appointment AT LEAST 9 MONTHS before you plan to be married.
The engaged couple must attend a marriage preparation course – more details at rcav.org/m-prep
Marriage is a sacrament given to the Church by Christ. Christ did not create marriage after he became one of us, but he raised it to a new level. By participating in family life, by his presence at the wedding feast of Cana, and by his solemn declarations concerning the fidelity and permanence of marriage, Christ touched marriage with the grace of God in such a way that Paul could describe it as a great mystery “in reference to Christ in the Church” (Ephesians 5:32).
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Section 1601
“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.”
Section 1638
“From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament.”
Section 1639
The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises “an institution, confirmed by the divine law,…even in the eyes of society.” The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God’s covenant with man: “Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.”
Section 1641
“By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God.” This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is intended to perfect the couple’s love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they “help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and education their children.”
The Code of Canon Law states:
Can. 1055 §1 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life, and which of its own very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children, has, between the baptised, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.
§2 Consequently, a valid marriage contract cannot exist between baptised persons without its being by that very fact a sacrament.
Can. 1056 The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility; in christian marriage they acquire a distinctive firmness by reason of the sacrament.