According to Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr, a wedding is not a marriage. "No, a marriage is two lives held together by a covenant promise – to love, cherish, and be faithful to one another ... no matter what ... until death. And in the process, you discover each other’s idiosyncrasies and flaws and you learn to live together over time. And if you succeed in keeping the promise well, both of you will wind up as better persons in the end than you were when you first said “I do.” . Marriage is made to order to steal you from your selfishness.

In a sacramental marriage, God’s love becomes present to the spouses in their total union and also flows through them to their family and community. 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.