July 2.  Fatima and Clive were aware that their daughter had embarked on a relationship with a young man from a very different background. “Just choosing anyone she likes is against our culture, that we have been taught as an Indian Hindu family.  We don’t want to force her into marriage either these days, but we do try to lead her to choose a partner that we and her grandparents can approve of.”  1st Friday is traditionally dedicated to the Sacred Heart.

Abraham told his servant, “I will make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven and earth that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac.” From Genesis 23-24. 

Pope Francis. Some societies still maintain the practice of polygamy, in other places arranged marriages are an enduring practice. In many places the practice of living together before marriage is widespread, as well as cohabitation which excludes any intention to marry.   Surely it is legitimate and right to reject older forms of the traditional family marked by authoritarianism and even violence, yet this should not lead to a disparagement of marriage itself but rather to the rediscovery of its authentic meaning and its renewal.  AL 53.