Theme · Catholic Wedding Readings

Sacrificial Love

When Jesus says "no one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends," he is describing the love that defines Christian marriage. The laying down is rarely dramatic; it is the daily, accumulated self-gift of choosing one's spouse over self, year after year. Paul's charge to husbands in Ephesians 5 — to love their wives "as Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her" — sets the standard. Colossians 3 names the daily virtues that flow from it. Choose these readings to set the marriage explicitly inside this Christ-shaped love.

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