TOPICS:
One Heart, One Soul
May 20, 2026 / Written by: America Needs Fatima
How happy are married persons who can say, “We love each other for our ideas. We see only God and have become united to serve Him better.” Such is Christian love.
“We shall ask Christ, who sanctified marriage, to give us all the graces necessary for us. We pray with force but also with joy because we have great confidence in the future since both of us expect our happiness from God alone.”
After Holy Communion, which they both received on their wedding day, they begged God “to make their mutual love always affect their personal sanctification, to bless their home by sending them many children, to keep them, their little ones and all who would ever live under their roof in His grace.”
Sometimes, we hear it said that there are no examples of married persons living effectively according to the holy law of marriage as God prescribed it and Christ ratified it. There are many—more than one might think. Thanks be to God, there have been some in all ages. In the time of the early Church, Tertullian, believing his death to be approaching, wrote two books entitled Ad Uxorem, “To My Wife.” In the last chapter of the second book he gives an unforgettable picture of marriage. One cannot meditate on it too often.
He extols the happiness of marriage, “which the Church approves, the Holy Sacrifice confirms, the Blessing seals, the Angels witness and God ratifies.” What an alliance is that of two faithful souls united in a single hope, under a single discipline, under a similar dependence. Both are servants of the same Master. There is no distinction of mind or of body. Both are, in truth, one flesh; where there is but one body, there is but one mind. They kneel in prayer together, teach each other and support each other.
They are together in church, together at the Banquet of God, together in trials, together in joy. In complete liberty, they visit the sick and help the poor. Without anxiety about each other, they give alms freely, assist at Holy Mass and manifest their fervor daily without any embarrassment. They sing hymns and psalms, vying with each other to give God the most praise. Christ rejoices to see and hear them and gives them His peace. Wherever they are, Christ is with them.
“That is marriage as the Apostle speaks of it to us . . . The faithful cannot be otherwise in their marriage.” Oh, that we might fulfill this ideal in our marriage. We must pray for it, and really want it.
MARRIED COUPLE’S PRAYER TO THE SACRED HEART
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, King and center of all hearts, dwell in our hearts and be our king. Grant us by Your grace to love each other truly and chastely, even as You have loved Your Spotless Bride, the Church, and have given Yourself up for her.
Bestow upon us that mutual love and Christian forbearance that are so highly acceptable in Your sight, and mutual patience in bearing each other’s defects; for we are certain that no living creature is free from them. Do not allow even the slightest defect to mar that full and gentle harmony of spirit, the foundation of the mutual assistance in the many and varied hardships of life, that is the end for which woman was created and united inseparably to her husband.
Oh, Lord God, grant that between us there may reign a perpetual holy rivalry toward a life perfectly Christian, by virtue of which there may shine forth more and more clearly the Divine Image of Your mystic union with Your Holy Church, as You have deigned to print it upon us on the auspicious day of our being made one.
Grant we beseech you that our good example of Christian living may serve as a powerful inspiration to our children to conform their own lives to Your holy law. And, finally, after this exile, may we ascend into Heaven, where by the help of your grace for which we earnestly pray, we may merit to be joined with our children forever and praise and bless You through everlasting ages. Amen.
By Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. - As seen in Crusade Magazine November/December 2024
