Would you agree that each community of religious and clergy are called to live a particular spirituality? I think most of us would. I wonder, however, if we have ever considered marriage in that same light. Do we realize that married persons also are called to live a particular spirituality?

For those of us called to the vocation of marriage, the sacrament of matrimony can be and should be a way to holiness with spirituality all its own — the spirituality of marriage. Since we cannot separate ourselves from the world like some of our religious brothers and sisters, we must learn to become holy through earthly things.

“It is a master stroke to shape married life in such a manner that we will become holy through it”, said Father Joseph Kentenich to a group of couples in 1961.

We can do this by imitating those in consecrated life and living a monastic piety. That doesn’t mean that we scoop up our families and go off to live in a cave! It does mean that while living in the world, we resist the pull to become of the world.

“And we, if we want to become holy; although we live in the world — it is a shame that we have to live in it — have to try in spite of it to kick the world away with one foot and to strut with the other foot a little bit into monastic life,” Father Kentenich said.

How is that done? It’s done by adopting a new outlook on life. We’ll dig deeper into that in my next post.

Categories: Blog

2 Comments

Mary DeTurris Poust · October 21, 2009 at 4:20 pm

Marge,
I look forward to hearing more from you on this. It is something I have written about and think about often. I feel it is a constant struggle to live in the world but not be of the world. I'm always looking for new ways to apply monastic teachings to family life. Not that I've been very successful at it thus far!
Thanks for some great food for thought.
Mary

Marge Fenelon · October 21, 2009 at 5:09 pm

Thanks, Mary.
I plan to take this stream of thought for as long as it has value for the readers – and me, since I'll learn along the way, too! 🙂 I'll be looking forward to reader input!
Marge

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