Yet it is adults who make a marriage, not children. When I interviewed the Dalai Lama a few years ago , the celibate monk lectured me first on the perils of masturbation and then on my relationship. “Too many people in the West have given up on marriage,” he said. “They don’t understand that it is about developing a mutual admiration of someone, a deep respect and trust and awareness of another’s needs.”
Many of the elderly people I have interviewed over the past 20 years have felt more passionately about marriage than anything else in their lives. The 89-year-old Duchess of Devonshire, the last surviving Mitford sister, said: “The perfect marriage is about companionship and friendship, but we don’t give it a chance to flourish. The middle part can be very difficult, but in my generation often those who were miserable for a bit ended up as close as can be.”
And this is the work of the Gospels how exactly? How much time and energy will go into this and at what benefit to huma souls?
Rugbyplayingpriest, I think you’ve advanced the ball on the wrong pitch.
Marriage is a school for holiness.