Editorial: Marriage season is here

Amid all the splendor of a northern Minnesota summer, don’t miss one of its most beautiful aspects: weddings. It’s the time of year many couples choose to begin their lives together. 

In our diocesan vocations prayer, alongside vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, and permanent diaconate, we pray so often at Masses for an increase in “holy marriages in our diocese.” Society is undergoing a crisis of marriage and family. But it’s also true that the sacrament of marriage brings hope to society. 

The communion of persons in a family is irreplaceable. It is the cradle of new life and a place where love, service, and virtue are learned. It is a profound source of mutual support. In terms of things individual human beings can do to help heal the world, embracing God’s call to the extraordinary ordinary vocation of matrimony has to rank high on the list. 

So as you go out to those weddings this summer, as you act as witnesses to those marriages, truly support them. Pray for the couples. Encourage them. Build them up. Be present to them. 

And if you are married, when you go to a wedding, let it be an invitation to recommit, to deepen your love for your spouse and any children. 

It’s something within all of our power that we can do for the better of the world around us.