Monday, September 5, 2016

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 36



36.   We also need to be humble and realistic, acknowledging that at times the way we present our Christian beliefs and treat other people has  helped  contribute  to  today’s  problematic situation.  We need a healthy dose of  self-criticism.  Then too, we often present marriage in such a way that its unitive meaning, its call to grow in love and its ideal of mutual assistance are overshadowed by an almost exclusive insistence on the duty of procreation.  Nor have we always provided solid guidance to young married couples, understanding their timetables, their way of thinking and their concrete concerns.  At times we have also proposed a far too abstract and almost artificial theological ideal of marriage, far removed from the concrete situations and practical possibilities of real families.  This excessive idealization, especially when we have failed to inspire trust in God’s grace, has not helped to make marriage more desirable and attractive, but quite the opposite.



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