“There will be an assault on the institution of marriage,” Santorum promised his audience. “Why? Because the left knows that they can’t really have government come in and take control of everything unless they destroy the family. Unless you destroy the family and destroy the Church they cannot ultimately be successful in getting socialism to be accepted in this country and that’s what their objective is.” –US Senator Rick Santorum, 17th International Week of Prayer and Fasting
The above quote from Sen. Rick Santorum offers us a dismal picture at best of what the future may hold for our country if things don’t begin to turn around soon. Without strong families we’ll begin to rot at our roots. Eventually, the entire tree will come tumbling down. Once that happens, everything will be lost because society can’t stand if the institution of marriage and family is not intact.
There are many — and thanks be to God for them — who are working hard on the legislative level to secure the preservation of marriage as we know it in Scripture. We need to back up their efforts, but we also need to make some efforts on our own. We need to live our marriages in heroic love, a love so strong and pure that it will radiate all around us. The preservation of the institution of marriage begins not in a courtroom, not in a political rally, but in our hearts and homes. I truly believe that if we live and love heroically, if we tirelessly strive to be examples of holy marriages, holy families, others will begin not only to see and understand the sanctity of marriage but they also will want it for themselves. How can anyone fight for something they have never experienced?
Consider this quote from a talk Father Joseph Kentenich, founder of The Apostolic Movement of Schoenstatt, gave to married couples in 1961:
“… If we think of modern married life, family life: Are there many happy marriages? We will always have to say: what is missing today, what is missing from the modern person is genuine, true love.”
It seems that Father Kentenich could be talking about today, couldn’t he? But, what does that look like on a practical level?
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