Byline: Msgr. William J. King

9 min read

Sin

Concupiscence: Our Inclination To Sin

Msgr. William J. King

February 10, 2022 7:07 am February 10, 2022

9 min read

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9 min read

The mechanic at the repair shop explained to the frustrated vehicle owner that the wheels of his car were out of alignment. The mechanic asked if the driver had recently…

The mechanic at the repair shop explained to the frustrated vehicle owner that the wheels of his car were out of alignment.

The mechanic asked if the driver had recently driven through a pothole or perhaps had hit a curb. He explained that this could be sufficient to have forced the wheels out of alignment. All the driver knew was that it took a lot of work to drive straight down the highway with the car constantly pulling off center. Without constant attention and constant adjustment of the steering wheel, the car tended to drift off the road. “One big pothole can do that,” the mechanic informed the puzzled driver, “and after that, it’s almost impossible to go straight without constant correction.”

What’s true for an automobile is, in this sense, also true of the human soul.

Theologians have long attempted to explain humanity’s tendency to veer off course: one big sin (that of our first parents in the garden) and it’s almost impossible to go straight without constant correction. Keeping in mind that the New Testament word for sin is hamartia, a Greek word that literally means to miss the mark or to veer off course, we might say that after original sin it’s nearly impossible to stay on the “straight and narrow.”

Theologians call this tendency to sin “concupiscence.” The word concupiscence is defined as a strong desire, a tendency or attraction, usually arising from lust or sensual desires. It is, morally speaking, the tendency to go off course.

Concupiscence is understood as an effect of original sin that remains after baptism. The waters of baptism cleanse us of original sin itself, but concupiscence remains as a lingering effect. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death … as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence” (No. 1264, emphasis in original).

To use another analogy, medical research cautions that a severe sunburn early in life will render a person more susceptible to dangerous skin cancer throughout life. That early sunburn may heal fairly quickly, but its effects last through life, increasing vulnerability to cancer. Precautions must be taken to shield the skin from the damaging effects of the sun’s radiation, since there is a greater susceptibility to skin damage after that major sunburn.

Original Sin

Original sin — passed down through the generations of humanity — brought to our first parents the alienation from paradise, and with it all the effects of mortality: pain, illness, suffering, aging, death and decay.

Original sin caused a rupture, or break, in the harmony between body and soul that was part of God’s creation of man. In the original innocence of our first parents, there was perfect harmony: harmony with God, harmony with the surrounding world, harmony with one’s self. The decision to break away from God’s will also broke the original harmony in creation, and there has been tension ever since.

The first 11 chapters of the Book of Genesis reveal the growth of tension and discord: starting with the perfect harmony of the garden, through the first sin, then the sin of brother against brother, and it ends with the tower of Babel — a point in human history where no two persons could understand each other.

In the original innocence of our human nature, there was perfect harmony between body and soul. Since death entered the world as a consequence of sin, the separation of the soul from the body at death is a consequence of original sin. We profess our belief in the resurrection of the body, at which time soul and body will be restored to the perfect harmony that existed before original sin. Concupiscence is a symptom of the disharmony between soul and body, since the body and its appetites, or desires, wants to pull us a certain way, and the soul wants to cling to the higher things of God and grace.

In heaven, the harmony between body and soul will be restored, as will the harmony with God and the world around us. Sin will be no more.

The Sacrament of Baptism washes away original sin, yet there remain the effects of original sin. One of them is an innate tendency to be vulnerable to temptation, to be inclined to sin, to be predisposed to desires that do no honor to the grace of God.

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) taught that concupiscence “comes from sin and induces to sin.” Yet, concupiscence is not itself sin. Concupiscence makes us vulnerable to sin, but susceptibility to temptation is not sin. How we act in response to the temptation determines the rightness or wrongness — the sin. With constant attention, or more accurately with the acceptance of God’s constant outpouring of grace, the human person can be unaffected by this tendency to drift off course.

A driver who is attentive to the path ahead can constantly adjust for a misalignment in the car’s front end, keeping the car moving toward the goal of the driver. Indeed, the Council of Trent noted that concupiscence “cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ” (Catechism, No. 1264). It is prevenient grace that precedes our thoughts and actions, waiting for us when we are tempted by concupiscence to go off course. By availing ourselves of that grace, we are enabled by God to resist the tendency to sin and instead to stay on the morally proper course.

How Do We Respond?

The story is told of the priest who asked a man in the confessional, “My son, do you entertain evil thoughts?” The penitent quickly responded, “Oh no, Father, they entertain me!” It is concupiscence that makes our minds more vulnerable to thoughts that incline us to sin and to sinful actions, but neither concupiscence nor those thoughts are sinful in themselves. The morality is determined by what we do in response: to beg God’s grace to turn away from thoughts of sin is meritorious, but to offer no resistance and give in to immoral or disordered acts is the very definition of sin itself. Concupiscence corrupts the will to the point that we are tempted to conclude that something less than God will ultimately satisfy.

St. Thomas Aquinas taught clearly that concupiscence is a consequence of original sin. Once human beings made the decision to be unbound from the will of God, the harmony within human nature also became unbound.

Desires and appetites were no longer in harmony with the intellect or reason, and the two — desire and reason — fought against one another.

St. Paul understood this, and described it in his Letter to the Romans: “I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (7:23). As a result, St. Paul could write, “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want” (Rom 7:19). Even Jesus observed concupiscence in action when He said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt 26:41; see also Mk 14:38).

The prophets of the Old Testament understood this interior tension. Jeremiah asked the piercing question, “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Jeremiah understood human nature and spoke often of the stubbornness of their evil hearts (see 3:17 and many other passages), “evil thoughts” (4:14, RSV), and humanity’s “stubborn and rebellious heart” (5:23, RSV).

The psalms of David offer lament for sins committed as well as penetrating insight into the lived dichotomy between weakness and grace, the lusts of the flesh and the longing for holiness. “Sin directs the heart of the wicked man; his eyes are closed to the fear of God” (Ps 36:2). In a plaintive cry for God’s mercy, the psalmist acknowledges the dueling desires within him, and acknowledges, “I have been mortally afflicted since youth” (Ps 88:16).

Staying on Course

From the earliest reflection on life lived in relationship to God — the Book of Genesis — to the present day, the tension between good and evil is well-known. Whether presented as a life or death struggle in the psalms, or a comedic conversation with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, it is innately understood that we all experience concupiscence on a daily basis.

Have you noticed that the temptation to eat meat seems to be the strongest on a Friday in Lent?

That’s concupiscence at work, the body at war against the soul, each pulling in a different direction. Whether we entertain evil thoughts or they entertain us, that’s also concupiscence at work: the desires of the flesh are not in harmony with the desires of the soul.

While we cannot vanquish concupiscence in this life, we can open our lives to the grace of God that provides the strength to resist the weakness of our fallen nature.

Despite the choice of our first parents to “throw off the yoke of God’s will,” as St. Thomas Aquinas described it, we can today choose to take upon ourselves a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light (see Mt 11:30). The grace of God that goes before us and anticipates our weakness — prevenient grace — is ours if we but open ourselves to it when concupiscence tempts us off course.

Modern highways help drivers stay on course with painted lines and with a rumble strip when they veer out of the lane. In the moral life, prevenient grace and our free will to do what is right perform for us the same function, and if we veer off course, the rumble of conscience will gently prod us back.

Msgr. William King is a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg.

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8 min read

Sacraments

Making A Good Confession

Msgr. William J. King

January 6, 2022 3:26 pm January 6, 2022

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8 min read

A father watched his young son at work in the garden. Instructed to remove the weeds, the son eagerly took up the challenge, taking garden clippers and lopping off the…

A father watched his young son at work in the garden.

Instructed to remove the weeds, the son eagerly took up the challenge, taking garden clippers and lopping off the stems as close to ground level as he could maneuver. He assured his father that the weeds were gone, never to return, but the father knew better: without removing their roots the weeds would grow back.

Making a good confession of our sins is like weeding the garden of the soul. Most of us have the experience of assuring our heavenly Father that we have removed all the weeds, but unless we attack them at their roots, we’ll confess the same sins again and again.

It takes work to make a good confession. Focusing on behaviors and actions alone is like taking garden clippers to weeds: we may for a time cut off the parts we can see, but hidden within the soil of our behaviors the roots of sin are still growing. The real power of the Sacrament of Penance is unleashed when we expose the roots to God’s grace.

The Desire to Change

Making a good confession starts long before stepping inside the confessional. Even before making an examination of conscience we should examine our motivation. Do we really want to change? St. Augustine describes his tepid approach to change in the midst of his conversion. Realizing the excesses of his lifestyle, he prayed, “Lord, give me chastity,” and quickly aded, “but not yet!”

A good confession arises from a heart that wants to change. This is the very core of a good confession — firm purpose of amendment. A humorous spin on the Act of Contrition comes from a child who hasn’t quite memorized the words correctly: “Oh my God, I am partially sorry for having offended you…” If we’re rigorously honest, however, we might admit that the child is speaking the truth. St. Augustine recalled that as he determined to leave certain sins behind he could hear those sins calling out to him as if old friends were inviting him to spend some time together again. A good confession is the fruit of prayer to God, begging the grace to want to change, to want to leave our sins behind, to want to hand our sins to God and never seek to take them back.

How should you make a good confession? Start by spending some time in prayer, preferably before the Blessed Sacrament so as to be better protected against the snares and wiles of the enemy, the deceiver. In prayer, ask God to show you the roots of your sins, not just the external sinful behaviors. Ask God to shed light upon your motivations, the desire to sin, the reasons you make the choices that lead up to sin. It is one thing to ask God to show you your sins, but quite another to reach into the roots of your sins and eradicate the roots instead of the weeds.

Examination of Conscience

Next, make a good examination of conscience. That starts with an act of praise and confidence in God’s grace. Acknowledging that you are in the strong and loving arms of God, trusting that God will care for you and provide for you, thanking God for the blessings of His grace — all of this is a fitting start to prepare for a good confession. With confident trust and abandonment to God’s loving will it is easier to open your soul to God in the Sacrament of Penance; it is easier to want to change by first recognizing the good things that are part of total abandonment to God’s mercy and grace. In the hands of God who created the soil and planted the Garden of Eden, why would you do less than trust Him completely with the garden of your soul?

Having placed yourself in the arms of God, the next step is to ask God to lead you through a thorough examination of conscience. There are many formulas for an examination of conscience. Some are based on the Ten Commandments, and others on the beatitudes. Still others focus on the Precepts of the Church or the teachings of saints. They are found in missals and prayerbooks, websites and mobile apps. Any of these can be a tool by which God can shed light on sin and the motivations for sin. It can be confusing and distracting to switch among several forms for an examination of conscience when preparing for a good confession, so it’s best to pick one form and invite God to help you through it by the light of His grace.

Always approach the examination of conscience in prayer, and allow sufficient time for God to walk you through your sins, shedding His light on the roots of your sinful behaviors. Don’t rush. Many saints advise a daily examination of conscience in order to recognize patterns in behaviors and in the tendency to sin. A daily examination of conscience shows what circumstances, encounters, people, times of day, places and activities present the greatest temptations or vulnerabilities. Only by tracing patterns of emotion and behavior can we best recognize the roots of our sins as well as how to avoid sin in the future.

The best way to avoid sin is to avoid temptation. It is helpful as part of an examination of conscience to ask God to show you the steps that lead to sinful acts. Every sinful act starts with a temptation — ask God to show you where temptation lives in your daily life, and to show you the choices you made that led from temptation to sin. Again, pray for the grace to want to change those behaviors that lead to sin, or the roots will still thrive. Pray for the grace to want to remove temptation, the occasion of sin, from your life.

In the Confessional

Armed with more than a list of sins, but with a confident trust in God’s goodness, an understanding of the motivations and causes of the inclination to sin, and better knowing how the path leads from temptation to sin, you can now enter the confessional with an open heart, soul and mind.

In the confessional, do not allow the enemy, the deceiver, to disquiet you or diminish your resolve to make a good confession. Some of his tactics are to tempt you to worry that the priest will think less of you if you mention all your sins, or to tempt you to think that you cannot change, or to tempt you to think that you are not worthy of God’s mercy. Satan hates when someone resolves to make a good confession, and he will work overtime to lure the sinner away from God’s mercy. Recognize the source of these thoughts and ignore them, resolved to open your soul completely to God. Instead, pay attention to the Holy Spirit, who is prompting you toward the peace and joy and healing of the Sacrament of Penance.

It is astonishing how many people stay away from confession out of fear of forgetting what to say or do inside the confessional. This is also Satan’s deception, to keep sinners away from the wonderful mercy of God. Two things are essential to the fruitful celebration of the Sacrament of Penance: the penitent’s admission of sin that springs from a heart that wants to change (contrition and firm purpose of amendment), and the priest’s absolution. All the rest is secondary, and there isn’t a priest alive who won’t help someone through the celebration of the sacrament once they’ve stepped through the confessional door.

Once inside the confessional, remember that the priest is acting in persona Christi (“in the person of Christ”). Speak to Christ himself, baring your soul without fear of judgment, but instead with a hunger for mercy and grace. The priest is bound by the seal of the sacrament, so that nothing you say can be spoken of outside the confessional. No priest thinks less of a sinner who repents, but rather thinks highly of a person who simply trusts in God’s mercy.

Finally, take to heart the counsel of the priest and accept the penance he offers. He will invite you to express your contrition, the double-edged prayer that gives voice to sorrow for sins and the pledge of changing by God’s grace. The priest will absolve you from your sins in the name of the Church. With a lighter heart, walk out of the confessional with all your sins forgiven, a child of God whose soul is a weedless garden of delight.

Msgr. William King is a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg.

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2 min read

Sacraments

Complete Penance Before Communion?

Msgr. William J. King

September 2, 2021 7:50 am September 2, 2021

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2 min read

Through the centuries of the Church few things have seen more evolution than the actual practice of the Sacrament of Penance. In this beautiful sacrament, the penitent brings three things:…

Through the centuries of the Church few things have seen more evolution than the actual practice of the Sacrament of Penance. In this beautiful sacrament, the penitent brings three things: interior repentance, the verbal confession of sins, and satisfaction (a penance). The Church, in the ministry of a priest with proper jurisdiction, offers mercy through the verbal absolution of sins. These are what St. Thomas Aquinas called the matter and form of the sacrament — the elements brought by the penitent being the matter, and the absolution of the priest being the form.

In the first few centuries of the Church, confession and absolution were separated by time, and often by a considerable amount of time. Confession of sins was a rare occurrence and, in fact, some opinions stated it could be done only once during a person’s lifetime. After confessing one’s sins, a person fulfilled the penance given (often publicly) and then returned to the priest for absolution once that penance was completed.

Much has changed in how we celebrate the Sacrament of Penance today, but the need remains for a penitent to offer some satisfaction for sins as a means of self-denial and of positive action to repair harm resulting from personal sin. In the majority of situations we no longer need to return to the priest after completing our penance in order to ask for absolution. The priest does not withhold absolution until our penance is completed. It is understood that we will complete our assigned penance in a reasonable time after confessing our sins, unless we are truly prevented from doing so by illness or other reason.

Absolution, the forgiveness of our sins in the sacrament, is not given on condition that we fulfill the assigned penance. The effects of absolution are immediate and not dependent on completion of our penance or satisfaction. Even if we never complete the penance, our sins have been forgiven by God through the ministry of the priest. If a person simply forgets to complete the assigned penance, or cannot complete it for a good reason, there is no harm that results, and the person need not refrain from receiving holy Communion on that account alone. However, it would seem that someone who willfully refuses to offer satisfaction for sins through the assigned penance may be withholding an important element of the sacrament and ought to confess that a previous penance was never satisfied.

Msgr. William J. King is a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg,

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8 min read

Sacraments

A Look At The Eucharistic Prayers

Msgr. William J. King

September 1, 2021 2:36 pm September 1, 2021

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8 min read

The path from the Upper Room through the grove of olive trees to Golgotha may not be more than a few hundred yards, but it was neither a quick nor…

The path from the Upper Room through the grove of olive trees to Golgotha may not be more than a few hundred yards, but it was neither a quick nor an easy walk.

Similarly, the road to Emmaus was short on steps but long on meaning as eyes were opened to sacred Scripture and hearts were set ablaze in the breaking of the bread.

Each time the Church gathers at Mass we retrace the path of Jesus from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday. The path is not quickly trod. The Mass concentrates the path of three days into about an hour of intense meaning. The meaning is most significant when we become active participants, bringing our own fears, worries, joys, hopes, dreams and pains along with Jesus to the cross.

The center and core of the Mass, the Eucharistic prayer, transports us mystically to the hours from the lifting up of Jesus’ own heart to the Father to the moment of His death and resurrection. These many hours are condensed to a few paragraphs.

The apostolic Church called this part of the Mass the anaphora, from the Greek verb meaning “to carry back,” since each celebration of the Eucharistic prayer carries us back to the Upper Room with Jesus, to live anew the precious sacrifice of His own flesh and blood.

We lift our hearts to God most high; we accompany Jesus through the Last Supper and to the Cross; we plead for His mercies upon us; we acknowledge the glory that is God’s. These are the living memories of the Eucharistic prayer.

A Living Remembrance

When a family gathers for an important event — a baptism, first holy Communion, a graduation, a wedding, an ordination, a reunion, or a funeral — there is a shared experience: stories are told about family members and memories of the past, and after a hearty time of recollection there is a meal.

“Remember when …” so many of those stories begin. Stories are recalled about grandfathers, aunts, sisters, siblings. These are memories that forge a family’s identity and make them unique. In the past, fingers pointed to pages in a photo album, and today a smartphone screen is passed around. “Remember when …”

The Mass is a family gathering for an important event, where stories are told about our family’s past (the Liturgy of the Word) and then we share a meal (the Liturgy of the Eucharist), which in truth is so much more than a simple meal — it is the sacrifice that brings us salvation. At the heart of this family event is the Eucharistic prayer, the anaphora, or the canon of the Mass. These are the family memories of the last words and actions of Jesus, brought to life.

For the first millennium of the Church, the Eucharistic prayer was usually chanted so that all in the church could hear it clearly. In recent centuries the emphasis was placed on the notion of mystery, and so the priest prayed most of the texts quietly. The Second Vatican Council restored the more ancient practice so that in the ordinary form of the Mass the priest prays or chants the texts aloud.

At the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest, who stands in the person of Christ, invites the people to join with him in lifting our hearts to God. We begin the Eucharistic prayer by acknowledging together that it is right and just to give thanks to the Lord our God. We end it with a sweeping affirmation that all glory and honor belong to God in the Divine Trinity. What happens in between is nothing less than the miraculous act of our eternal salvation: the sacrifice in which Jesus is priest, victim and altar — the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So vivid is this memory to Christians that in the early Church the pagan Romans accused Christians of true sacrifice and of cannibalism.

We are asked to remain silent during most of this prayer as an act of profound reverence and contemplation. In truth, we should fall into stunned silence in awe of what is happening before us at the altar: God made flesh, offering himself as an atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, truly present in our midst! Much more than a passive experience of listening while the priest prays, the Eucharistic prayer invites us to open our hearts and our lives to the power of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. In the Eucharistic prayer, we lift up our needs and our petitions, and together with the priest we thank God, praise God, seek blessings from God, present our deepest selves to God for redemption and healing on the altar.

This is why the priest invites us at the outset to “pray, brethren, that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God, our almighty Father.”

A Memory Shared

The Roman Missal prescribes the liturgical rites of the Latin-rite Church, which is only one of more than 20 distinct churches within the communion of the Catholic Church. Each of these churches has its own form of celebrating the Mass. Though the outward form varies, there is only one reality of the Mass, only one Calvary, only one sacrifice. The various forms evolved from the cultural and linguistic uniqueness of various parts of the Christian world. Great centers of Christian history, such as Antioch, Chalcedon, Alexandria, Constantinople and Rome developed a particular ritual and unique language for the celebration of the Mass.

Even today these historical and cultural differences impress their character on each of the churches that make up the worldwide communion of Catholic churches. The Mass of the Latin-rite Church — whether in the official Latin or translated into English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, or any language — is markedly different in its externals from the Divine Liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, or the Mass of the Coptic Church, or of the Armenian Church.

Still, no matter the historical origin of the rites, every Mass celebrates the same reality: a living memory of the saving sacrifice of Christ in His flesh and blood.

The anaphora (Eucharistic prayer) of the Latin-rite Church is first recorded in a work entitled “The Apostolic Tradition,” attributed to Hippolytus of Rome, and which scholars traditionally accept as having been composed around the year A.D. 215.

It was written in Greek, which replaced the Aramaic-language prayers within a century after the ascension of Jesus. Greek remained the language of the Church, including the celebration of the Mass, until it was replaced by Latin in the Western Church — a slow transition that occurred from the mid-third century through the fifth century.

Today there are several Eucharistic prayers listed in the Roman Missal, but four are most commonly used. The others are for special purposes — Masses for reconciliation and for various needs. The second of the four principal Eucharistic prayers in today’s Roman Missal is nearly identical with the anaphora of Hippolytus. It represents the most ancient prayer of the Mass, predating what is traditionally called the “Roman Canon” by almost four centuries.

The other three Eucharistic prayers in the Roman Missal are of later origin, and they reflect the historical evolution of the anaphora, or canon, of the Mass in various parts of the Roman Empire.

Diverse forms of the Eucharistic prayer existed in common usage for centuries in different parts of the Christian world. The differences were not great, but there were variations in the words used and the order in which the parts of the canon were prayed. Historical names for rites such as the Mozarabic, Gallican and Ambrosian rites, or the Gelasian Sacramentary, may be familiar to some readers.

The so-called Roman Canon, which is listed first among the Eucharistic prayers in the Roman Missal, was compiled under the direction of Pope St. Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 604). He wished to make uniform the texts of the Eucharistic prayer throughout the Latin-rite Church.

Since then, minor changes have been made to the words several times, but it remains substantially the same.

The third and fourth Eucharistic prayers were composed following the Second Vatican Council.

The third Eucharistic prayer is greatly influenced by the Gallican and Mozarabic rites of centuries past, and the fourth draws its substance from Eastern sources, especially the fourth century anaphora of St. Basil.

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2 min read

Stewardship

What Is Collection Money Used For?

Msgr. William J. King

August 31, 2021 6:58 am August 31, 2021

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2 min read

There is a serious obligation for a pastor to report each year on how the offerings or tithings of parishioners and other donors have been used. The Code of Canon…

There is a serious obligation for a pastor to report each year on how the offerings or tithings of parishioners and other donors have been used. The Code of Canon Law urges pastors and other administrators of the Church’s goods to be “good householders,” and lists some resulting obligations (see Canon 1284). Among these is the responsibility to “draw up a report of the administration at the end of each year.” Transparency in financial administration and accountability to donors are important values in the administration of Church goods.

Canon 1287 requires that this annual report be given to the “local ordinary” (in most dioceses, the diocesan bishop) and also to the parishioners. This canon could not be more explicit about this: “Administrators are to render an account to the faithful concerning the goods offered by the faithful to the Church.”

Expenses can vary according to the size of a parish, its ministries — whether it has a parish school, for instance — and location.

That having been said, in almost every parish, as in most not-for-profit organizations, the largest single set of expenses is staff: wages and benefits for parish employees. Typically, the second largest set of expenses is funding for Catholic education: support for schools and programs of religious education for children and adults.

In many dioceses, a percentage of parish income is taxed by the diocese as a means of providing operating funds for the central offices and ministries of the bishop. Let’s not forget that it also costs money to turn on the lights; to operate heating and air conditioning; to keep water flowing; to maintain the buildings, grounds, and parking lots; to insure the parish property, pay any state or local taxes that are assessed; and even to provide hosts and wine for Mass.

Many parishes also use a portion of the weekly tithing or offering for charitable assistance outside of the parish. This is sometimes called “tithing the tithe” and takes the form of direct assistance to a mission project, or to another parish in need, or to a Catholic social service agency, whether nearby or far away.

It is also good stewardship for a parish to maintain savings in case of unplanned events — a leaky roof or equipment failure, for instance. Many parishes, if possible, try to put a bit of money away each year in savings for this purpose.

Rev. Msgr. William J. King is a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg.

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2 min read

Sacraments

How Long To Date?

Msgr. William J. King

July 25, 2021 9:02 am July 25, 2021

2 min read

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2 min read

Preparation for reception of any of the sacraments is a task taken seriously by the Church, especially if that sacrament involves a lifelong commitment. Think of the years of preparation…

Preparation for reception of any of the sacraments is a task taken seriously by the Church, especially if that sacrament involves a lifelong commitment. Think of the years of preparation required for priests before ordination, or even the lengthy preparation for children to receive first holy Communion. Surely, the life-changing commitment to marry another person should require adequate time to prepare, including sufficient time to get to know one’s intended partner for the whole of life.

The burden is upon the Church — especially the parish priest and the people — to provide formation to a couple on the meaning of marriage, its commitment, its holiness, its public witness and the sanctity of life that accompanies authentic Christian marriage. It is the responsibility of the Church to arouse and enlighten faith within the couple preparing for marriage. It is not the responsibility of the couple to prove their readiness or worthiness, a fact brought out clearly by Pope St. John Paul II in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio (see No. 68).

There is no specific period of time required or suggested by the universal Church for a couple to date or otherwise prepare for the Sacrament of Matrimony. Because culture affects how courtship and marriage are celebrated, this is something left to the various local conferences of bishops. This is spelled out in Canon 1067 of the Code of Canon Law. In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has outlined in general terms what this preparation should include, but leaves the specifics to each diocesan bishop. They do not specify a minimum time for preparation.

Most dioceses have established a preparation period for the couple to reflect on the lifelong commitment of marriage and its sacred nature, and to learn more about holy matrimony as a sacrament. The flip side of this preparation period is that the Church’s minister who will officiate at the wedding must gauge the readiness of the couple to enter marriage as well as their understanding of their commitment. This takes time.

In most places the minimum preparation period is from six to twelve months and includes a minimal amount of formal instruction and spiritual reflection by the couple.

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