Am I called to Marriage?

When we come across people having trouble in their marriages, we wonder if we should dare to venture into Marriage - a big commitment! As young individuals, the question, “Am I Called to Marriage?” plagues our minds. During a conversation on this topic with our Youth Director, I thought there would be many other youth with this very question. This thought blossomed into a decision to invite an expert to provide us with answers to our question, “AM I CALLED TO MARRIAGE?”.... And so the Youth group of St.Michael’s Church, Mahim organised such a session on 18th April 2021. And who better than Fr. K. T. Emmanuel to provide us with valuable insight on this all-important question! This session - which was open to all youth of our Archdiocese - had 68 youth participate from different parishes.

Fr. K. T. began with the Bible verse from Gen 1:27, “God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female, He created them.” He went on to explain the Church’s understanding of marriage - man and woman must be treated equally as the woman was created from the ribs of man. She was not created from man’s head to be superior or from his feet to be suppressed by him; she was created from his side to be equal to him. He went on to highlight that, as per Canon Law 1055, marriage is a Covenant (agreement) between a man and a woman, it is a partnership for life, it is for the good of the spouse, for procreation and upbringing of children to be raised by Christ to the dignities of the Sacrament. He mentioned that qualities we should consider in a partner are good companionship, affectionate, understanding, intelligent, kind, interesting to talk to and dependable.

The Q&A session that followed was filled with a lot of questions from our young audience and Fr. K. T. succinctly answered each one. This session certainly made me look at marriage from a different perspective and made me realize the importance of this Sacrament for our Community and the world at large - Marriage is the foundation of a family; a good family helps raise good parents, good children which in turn builds good society and a better world.

On behalf of the youth of St. Michael’s Church and from the Diocese, I thank our Youth Director, Fr. Ashwin Castellino, for his support in organising this session. A big Thank you to Fr. K. T. Emmanuel for taking the time out of his busy schedule and sharing his knowledge and wisdom with us so we are well-equipped to make this all-important and monumental decision.