Marriage is the intimate union and equal partnership of a man and a woman. It comes to us from God who created male and female in His image, so that they might become one body and might be fertile and multiply (Genesis - Chapters 1 & 2).

In seeing Marriage between two baptised persons as a sacrament, the Church is saying that the couple’s relationship expresses in a unique way the unbreakable bond of love between Christ and his people.

In Marriage God’s love becomes present to the spouses in their total union and also flows through them to their family and community. By their permanent, faithful and exclusive giving to each other, symbolised in sexual intercourse, the couple reveals something of God’s unconditional love. The Sacrament of Christian Marriage involves their entire life as they journey together through the ups and downs of marriage and become more able to give to and receive from each other. Their life becomes sacramental to the extent that the couple cooperates with God’s action in their life and sees themselves as living “in Christ” and Christ living and acting in their relationship, attitudes and actions.

Sacraments bring grace to those who receive them. Grace is a way of describing how God shares divine life with us and gives us the help we need to live as followers of Christ. In Marriage, the grace of this sacrament brings to the spouses the particular help they need to be faithful and to be good parents. It also helps a couple to serve others beyond their immediate family and to show the community that a loving and lasting marriage is both desirable and possible.

At St Anthony's Parish the Sacrament of Marriage is By Appointment

Contact the Parish Office on 02 4683 2230 for further details and to make a booking