The union of Our Lady and St. Joseph is really in its own league. Of all the married couples in history, this was the one to whom God entrusted His only Son. There can be no better testimony to the love, stability, and holiness of this marriage!
By Caitrin Bennett
May is one of my favorite months of the year. After many long months of rain and chill, May days are consistently warm and beautiful. The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing, and everyone is planning barbecues and beach trips. The Church dedicates the whole month of May to Our Lady and the first day of the month to St. Joseph the Worker, so May is also a great month to ponder their most exemplary marriage.
In my new book, Holier Matrimony: Married Saints, Catholic Vows, and Sacramental Grace, I introduce many married saints as examples for modern Catholics trying to make it to Heaven along the vocational path of marriage. However, the union of Our Lady and St. Joseph is really in its own league. Of all the married couples in history, this was the one to whom God entrusted His only Son. There can be no better testimony to the love, stability, and holiness of this marriage!
Modern society tells us that the best marriages are based on depth of feeling, passion, and sexual attraction, but the Holy Family shows us this cannot be true. Theirs was more than likely an arranged marriage, not based on emotional connection, and there were never any sexual relations between Mary and Joseph. Still, their union stands as the greatest example of Christian marriage of all time. We should all endeavor to model our marriages off of theirs, not by deepening our passion but in these three simple ways.
Model marriage
First and foremost, we can deepen our understanding of what God intended marriage to be. Marriage is a holy covenant, or family bond, between a man and a woman. A husband and a wife choose to enter into this covenant because they believe they can better glorify God in this life united together. They commit to serving God and His people as a team through parenthood, whether this is biological, adoptive, foster, or spiritual.
You can learn more about God’s beautiful plan for marriage in article 7 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, papal documents like Casti connubii, and in books like Scott Hahn’s First Comes Love or Forever by Bobby and Jackie Angel.
Second, strengthen your marital bond by praying for God’s grace. The intercession of spouses for one another and for their children is powerful, and praying together is so unifying for a family. As in all other Sacraments, God offers us His help, or grace, through the Sacrament of Matrimony. The specific graces of this Sacrament help us to be patient, devoted, and loving to our spouses. This is not a one-time thing, either. Grace is a superabundant source to which we can return time and time again as we strive together for holiness each day.
Our heavenly Father loves to give good gifts to His children, so keep on asking for more grace! Try a simple prayer like this: “God, by the grace of my marriage, give me more patience with my husband/wife today.”
Holy models
Finally, find some new holy models for your marriage. These can be living married people, but they can also be married saints praying for you and cheering you on from Heaven. Married saints span the history of the Church, from Jesus’ relatives Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah to very modern couples like the Servants of God Cyprien and Daphrose Rugamba, who were killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. You can meet these two couples and many more in my book, Holier Matrimony.
May God bless all of your marriages as you grow in devotion to our Blessed Mother and her most chaste spouse in this lovely month of May!
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