Blessings on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Catherine, who wed today, the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena
“Be who God
meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
So said St Catherine of
Siena whose festival day this is. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man
and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their
deepest and truest selves.
Many people are fearful for the future of today’s
world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its
shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every
continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every
wedding day should be, a day of hope.
In a sense every wedding is a royal
wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new
life together so that life can flow through them into the future.
William and
Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so
loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
In
the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to
each other.
The spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves.
Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual
life in which we discover this: the more we give of self, the richer we become
in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true
selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are
seeking to bring one another into fuller life.
Continue reading William and Catherine, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wed
Archduke Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Hapsburg, 98, died July 4, in his sleep at his home. His Imperial Highness was the eldest son of the last Austian-Hungarian emperor, Charles I. The Empire, ruled by the Habsburg family since the 13th century disintegrated following World War I.
