The Mass and Marriage

Today I was thinking about the Mass and came to the conclusion that it is, in many ways, like a marriage.

Beyond the obvious one that they're both sacraments, one big one stuck out: you spend your entire life getting to know it. That is to say, the Mass is so complicated, so layered, that you can discover something new about it everyday for the rest of your life. Likewise, you can (and probably will) discover something new about your spouse all the time. It is an encouraging thought that some wells will never run dry.

As long as I'm talking about marriage (sort of) I am going to back track and make mention of another part of romance, or rather one's response to romance. We are, of course, to pray for our relationships, but too often it seems we spend our energy either praying on the one we are in or would like to be in (once again, my primary source is the masculine gender, and so this may or may not apply to you ladies). Instead, it seems to me, we should be offering prayer up for "My future wife/husband" (please select the correct gender to counterpart your own). This prayer takes away from the constant internal work of praying that "girl X" will start liking you and instead tells God "if girl X starts liking me I'll be happy but I'll be happier if my future wife is the one liking me" (of course, girl X may be the future wife in question, which would just compound the happiness).

Keep in my, God always has the best spouse for you in mind. It can't do any good to force the issue with the girl you think is cute when God has other ideas.