Two weeks ago Pat and I celebrated our 16th anniversary.  I just noticed an allusion to our vows in my post, Happy Anniversary, Baby from that day.  In honor of the sacramentality of our marriage, we often repeat our vows to eachother.  I found myself repeating my vows to someone else to whom I pledge my life.  Am I being unfaithful?  No!  By all means am I being faithful. 

During a profound adoration experience at a youth conference with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, I repeated my vows to him.  Is this too personal to share?  This is what I said: “I, Alisa Angela, take you, my Lord Jesus Christ, to be my Lord and Savior.   I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” 

What could be more personal relationship than that of a spouse?  I shared this profession of fidelity to Jesus with Pat who thought it was pretty cool.  Although I said these vows to Jesus, it was he [Jesus] who professed his love for me first when he became my Good Shepherd laying his life down for little lost me.  Now that’s true love!  …and so is the sacrificial love of my sweet husband.  I have much to learn from the men in my life about true, sacrificial love, but I’m trying to do more and more unselfish acts every day to become more like the one who loves me.

Today is the 16th anniversary of my marriage to Pat and the 40th anniversary of the publication of Humanae Vitae.  I just realized we share the same anniversary!  What a wonderful gift of truth Paul VI gave us through this encyclical in 1968, especially to those of us who are married.  Here’s a quote and a great reflection for us as we recall the true meaning of marriage:

[Married] love is above all fully human, a compound of sense and spirit. It is not, then, merely a question of natural instinct or emotional drive. It is also, and above all, an act of the free will, whose trust is such that it is meant not only to survive the joys and sorrows of daily life, but also to grow, so that husband and wife become in a way one heart and one soul, and together attain their human fulfillment.

It is a love which is total—that very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner’s own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.

Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness.

–Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI, July 25, 1968

Pat, thank you for being my friend, my happiness, my husband.  I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.  I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.