CCC 1601 : “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”

The bond between the spouses by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive. The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself. Christ is the source of the grace of the sacrament of Matrimony. Christ dwells with the spouses, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ” and to love one another with supernatural, tender and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb. (CCC 1638, 1639 and 1642)