Week 6
Day 4

    Listen:

Weddings

Blessing on a Marriage

[A blessing on a marriage is a worship service conducted by a priest. It involves a recognition by the couple before the Lord that they wish to become one in the eyes of the Lord and seek His blessing on their marriage. Wedding rings are dedicated as tokens of the husband’s and wife’s desire for an eternal conjugial union.]

“The human conjugial and religion go together at every step. Every advance and every step from religion and into religion is also an advance and step from the conjugial and into the conjugial that belongs to and is peculiar to the Christian man.”

To the question, “What is this conjugial?” [the angel] said, “It is the desire of living with only one wife. And the Christian man has this desire according to his religion.” (CL 80)

[Conjugial] love in its steps goes hand in hand with religion, and religion, because it is the marriage of the Lord and the church, is the initiament and ingrafting of this love. (CL 531)

Where there is no religion there is no conjugial love, and where this is lacking, there cold is present. Conjugial cold is the deprivation of that love.... Consequently, conjugial cold is also the deprivation of the state of the church or religion. A very evident confirmation of this may be drawn from the common ignorance at the present day concerning love truly conjugial. Who at this day knows that the origin of conjugial love is deduced from this source [namely, from religion]? Who at this day is willing to acknowledge this? And who at this day will not wonder at it? This is due to no other cause than the fact that though there is religion, there are no truths of religion; and what is religion without truths? (CL 239)

That of the internal causes of cold, the first is rejection of religion by both partners. (CL 240)

That of the internal causes of cold, the second is that the one has religion and the other does not. (CL 241)

That of the internal causes of cold, the third is that the one has one religion and the other has another. (CL 242, see also HH 378; AC 8998)

That of the internal causes [of cold], the fourth is falsity of religion. (CL 243)

I was once wandering through the streets of a great city seeking a place of lodging; and I entered a house where dwelt married partners who were of different religions. While I was ignorant of the fact the angels spoke to me and said, “We cannot stay with you in this house, because the married partners there are in discordant religion.” They perceived this from the internal disunion of their souls. (CL 242)

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