Throughout the fluctuations of this pandemic, it is vital to take the time to strengthen the love that unites couples and families. This is why the Diocesan Centre for Marriage, Life and Family invites you to nurture the Flame (with a capital F) that has brought you together or to thank God for a couple dear to you on Sunday, February 14th, for World Marriage Day!

Because in good times and in bad, the Sacrament of marriage remains a real commitment from Christ to the spouses (and vice versa). He who wants to pour His Life in abundance on them so they can radiate His love and bring others to Him. 

This year, we also celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first wedding celebrated in New France (August 26th, 1621)! 

World Marriage Day

World Marriage Day, sponsored by the movement Worldwide Marriage Encounter, is celebrated annually throughout the world on the second Sunday of February. It honours husband and wife as the foundation of the family: the basic unit of society. It pays tribute to the beauty of their faithfulness, sacrifice, and joy in daily married life. In 1993, St. John Paul II imparted his Apostolic Blessings on World Marriage Day.

To honour the occasion, we invite you… 

• to Mass on Saturday, February 13th, 2021: A live-streamed celebration will take place at 5p.m., presided by Archbishop Christian Lépine at Mary Queen of the World, and will be available on the Diocese of Montreal YouTube channel: renew your wedding vows, receive a special blessing and pray for couples and families! Persons who are separated/divorced and wish to renew their fidelity to their vows are invited to do so. 
   
• to pray for all couples, including those who don’t know God, so that they may they hear the good news that He wants to help them love as they desire to love. 
   
• to plan a romantic occasion, as a couple or as a family, to celebrate the Love that has brought you together on your wedding day and to nurture or reestablish your connection with Christ! 
   
• to discover and share the following resources:

1.  A funny but profound video presenting an old married couple talking about their married life 
2. Why you should celebrate your wedding anniversary 
3. 6 Quick Tips for Handling Common Conflicts With Your Spouse 
4. 10 Ideas to Celebrate Valentine’s Day at Home 
5. 10 Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day as a Family 
6. A video presenting St. Louis & Zélie Martin (St. Therese of Lisieux’s parents), first to be canonized as a couple 
7. A novena to St. Louis & Zélie Martin
8. Prayer intentions for that special day
9. An example of the renewal of wedding vows
10. A link to the Marriage section on the diocesan website (including the Separation and Divorce tab) and a link to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal (for an annulment*)

On this World Marriage Day, let’s join our prayers to the prayers of the Universal Church, on earth and in Heaven, and ask God to shed his grace on all those who are united by the Sacrament of marriage so that they become visible signs of His infinite Love for each one of us! 

For more information about this special day, please contact the Diocesan Centre for Marriage, Life and Family (centreDMVF@diocesemontreal.org – 514-925-4300, ext. 206).

* The Church recognizes both the indissoluble character of marriage - indissolubility not being an imposed requirement, but a wedding gift from the Lord that makes achievable the desire to love forever - and the fact that at times, when certain essential requirements are not fulfilled at the time of the celebration, such a Sacrament might not be valid. In what is known as the process of annulment, the Church invites separated/divorced people to discern requesting the verification of the validity of their marriage.