Inventing Marriage: One Year Bible Reading for July 9

 Today we read from these verses in the One Year Bible:

1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40
Acts 27:1-20
Psalm 7:1-17
Proverbs 18:22

Let's look at the Proverb. It's a good one! He who finds a wife finds a good thing - and receives favor from the Lord.

It's funny that in the wake of Roe V Wade, many women (in outrage!) are demanding that men take responsibility for their offspring. They've decided that they're not going to hook up with random men anymore because if they get pregnant, they won't be able to have abortions. So they're designing contracts that men have to sign to take responsibility for any children that come from their relationship. In effect, they're rediscovering marriage! 

Unfortunately, the type of marriage that they're inventing could be the loveless marriages that existed before the sexual revolution. People who literally hated each other but stayed married because society disapproved so strongly of divorce.

But there is a wonderful alternative! It's called a marriage full of love and mutual respect and confirmation! A marriage where both partners see their relationship for what it really is - an opportunity to help each other become saints. That's how St Therese of Lisieux's parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, saw marriage. And they were recently canonized as saints themselves!

So if you're struggling, either IN a marriage or looking for the right partner, maybe ask Louis and Zelie to pray for you. They know what marriage is about.

God, thanks for teaching us that marriage is a beautiful thing.