February 1 to 14 is National Marriage Week.
Share with your students three graces of married life and what they think each grace means. (See pages 122-123 of Your Christian Vocation for more information.):
- Married couples are given the grace to love each other unselfishly.
- Married couples are given the grace to strengthen their unity and the indissoluble bond they have made with one another.
- Married couples are given the grace to lead each other to holiness.
Then take the students through the following activity:
Write each of the following questions, focused on the graces of the Sacrament of Matrimony, at the top of a sheet of butcher paper, leaving room for students to write responses under the question (if your class has more than twenty students, you may wish to make a duplicate set of questions on butcher paper, so that you can divide the class into six groups rather than three):
- How can a married couple perfect their love?
- How can a married couple strengthen their unity?
- How can a married couple grow in holiness?
Hang the butcher paper on the walls around your classroom. Organize the class into three groups, giving each group a different colored marker. Send each group to one of the three stations, where they will stay for approximately three minutes, writing responses to the question on the paper. Encourage them to be concrete and specific. After three minutes, have the groups move to the next station. Repeat this process once more. Then allow an additional three to five minutes for the groups to revisit all the stations, writing comments and questions on their classmates’ responses. The different colored markers will enable you to track which responses, comments, and questions came from which group.
Reconvene the class back at their desks. Pose the following questions for discussion:
- Which of these questions was easiest to answer?
- Which was most challenging?
- What is the most interesting response from another group that you saw on any of the papers?
Remind the students that the three stations correspond to the three graces of married life. In and through the sacrament of their marriage, God gives couples the grace to perfect their love, to strengthen their unity, and to grow in holiness. Explain that these three tasks overlap and are interwoven in the daily fabric of married life. Conclude by asking each student to write a prayer for married couples based on the day’s lesson.
