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1. Isn't the relationship and the sexual intercourse a prayer on its own?
   What are they praying for? Divine intervention?
   
   We're regressing quickly into the dark ages very quickly aren't we...

   Posted By: TJ Lawson

2. Is this called fore-pray?

   Posted By: Poptoo

3. Well, that should cause more erectile dysfunction; so much for spontaneity. Not the brightest idea.

   Posted By: Stanley J. Harris

4. Cathnews, thanks for making our Thursday, a boring day at work, full of laughs. This is one heck of a good news story, but I would certainly like to see a copy of the prayers to use before sex. It would be another great laugh!

   Posted By: james

5. Without wanting to embarrass any of the couples who are preparing for their marriage and have me as the celebrant for their wedding liturgy, but with a sincere concern for their welfare, I tell couples that the act of making love is their Couple Prayer to God.
   
   The commitment they have for each other, their desire, no matter how it is verbalised or not verbalised, to see their marriage as part of God's plan for them and their humility, in this day and age surely, to ask for a priest and to have their wedding in the Church, we just have to help them see that the desire, thoughts and actions of making love can be prayerful moments that renew and refresh their commitments to each other and to God.
   
   In medieval times there was framed a phrase for the act of pre-nuptial love-making, "stealing heaven" after St Bernard of Clairvaux's treatise on married love.
   
   So, why not tell the couples that love-making in marriage is "a little bit of heaven", a sincere prayer.

   Posted By: Fr Mick Mac Andrew Bombala-Delegate NSW

6. Is this a joke or another attempt by the Church to retake the bedroom from the participants?

   Posted By: Laurie Sheehan

7. Thank you,Fr Mick.Yours is the only worthwhile comment.As for the other s.....typical "guy response"!

   Posted By: M.M.

8. Despite the scoffers and lewd smarties in the commenters, the CTS have a point.
   
   It is not simply an animal act of gratification, as much of our depraved modern culture would tell us.
   
   Nor is it simply an expression of human love.
   
   There is a metaphysical dimension to this. It is a generative act by which the couple may cooperate with God in the creation of a new person, body and soul.
   
   It is good to be reminded of this, God created us, and we may direct our prayers that he be present in and animate all of our actions.

   Posted By: Peter

9. How sad to see Catholics laughing and jeering at this and referring to the “Dark Ages”. Are you worried that you might pray “too much”?
   
   You have been affected by the idea, invented by the Puritans and shared by the atheist libertines, that sexuality and Christianity are polar opposites, one “holy” and one “dirty”.
   
   This is quite contrary to Catholic belief and practice. As the old poem says
   “Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s love, laughter, music and good red wine.”
   
   An old priest gave the same advice to my husband and me when we were engaged. At the time, we giggled nervously too. But when we got married we found how wise he was and have always prayed before, and sometimes after, making love. It doesn’t interfere with spontaneity – haven’t you ever prayed spontaneously? If praying “puts you off” lovemaking, there is something very wrong with your approach to prayer or to lovemaking or to both. Marital lovemaking is not lust.
   

   Posted By: Sharon Lee

10. If we WANT God to be part of our every action, we should include Him in those actions- that is called prayer. We are a culture who more often than not do not think of including God,especially in the bedroom.
    Our sexuality is an awesome gift from God, which enables the human heart, soul and body to experience the greatest act, second only to the Consecration of the bread and wine, into the Body and Blood of Jesus; an act which co-operates so closely to the Creator that we have the opportunity to enter into the very essence of God. This essence of God fulfils the human heart like nothing on earth can. It is blissful and bless- full. The blessings, which are fruits of this essence or presence of God, can be children, if God so desires. The blessings include unity in body, soul and spirit in the couple living their sexuality in purity (in God). It is a reflection of how Heaven will be: Blissful and blessful.
    Priests who pray before Mass, should understand the great mystery they are entering. I invite them to encourage the couples they teach, to pray before entering into the great mystery of their love making.
    For those who do not include God in their sexuality are missing out on many of His blessings:)
    Mother of many.
    

    Posted By: Nell

11. How wonderful! Marriage is a sacrament and what one uses to bring you closer to a sacrament is a sacremental.. The sexual union in marriage is a very immportant sacramental and it is appropriate that a prayer be said before it commences. It is about time! :)

    Posted By: Kay-marie thomas

12. I don't see what the hang-up is. Lots of human activities (study is a prime example) are prayerful, even prayers in themselves. But praying before them, like writing AMDG on top of papers, can serve as a reminder of the prayerfulness and help people remember the presence of God.

    Posted By: Adeodatus

13. Its a Sacrament, therefore its a channel of grace, and a constant prayer as it is lived out to the best of the couple's ability.

    Posted By: Davidanthony Davies

14. I believe, as did pope John Paul II, that for couples in particular, sex has to be liturgical, in other words by its very nature, self-sacrificing and complementary to the worship in the Church. Theologically we need to explore the one flesh union, open to life, as a legitimate and powerful contributor to the worship of the People of God as an act of praise, thanksgiving and glorification whereby two souls who have come together as one are in the likeness of the Blessed Trinity in their mutual reciprocity.
    
    Some time ago the Pontifical Council for the Family commissioned a series of essays in order to explore in greater depth the ‘Vademecum for Confessors concerning Some Aspects of the Morality of Conjugal Life’ issued in February 1997. This culminated in the publication ‘Conjugal Morality and the Sacrament of Penance,-Reflections on the Vademecum for Confessors’(my translation) which although it was commissioned as a direct request of Pope John Paul II; it has sadly only been published in Italian and French. Thirteen contributions are published to further explore the relationship between the supernatural power of Eucharist and Penance with the spiritual dynamic and fecundity of matrimonial morality. In an essay by Fr. A Mattheus SJ on ‘The Christian Call to Holiness and Marital Love,’ there is a striking simile drawn between the one flesh union of husband and wife and the epiclesis [the invocation of the Holy Spirit] by the priest over the bread and wine on the altar during the Eucharistic Prayer. The author argues that the Holy Spirit broods and descends upon the sexual union –open to life- of the spouses in like manner to the sanctification of the gifts on the altar. The faithful, fruitful, life-giving and total sexual love of spouses should evoke an odour of sanctity in the home (and therefore the Church) so the Holy Spirit blesses the altar of the matrimonial bed, the heart of the domestic church. Or, as Marc Cardinal Ouellet puts it:
    
    “Could it not be said that the Holy Spirit is in some sense the sacramental marriage bond which links the spouses at the very heart of their self-giving to each other in Christ? (“Divine Likeness- Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family. P43. Erdmann)
    
    Many married couples at some point or other experince difficulties with their love making, so why shouldn't they invoke God's help to overcome those problems and achieve REAL intimacy rather than being preoccupied with sexual prowess as is the culture around us.

    Posted By: Edmund Adamus

15. TJ Lawson:
    
    Is your comment another contribution to help build faith, hope and charity within the family, or just another of your cynical, hate-filled, backward, culture of death supporting remarks? How sad. The dark ages actually returned in force during the 60s, peaking with the Woodstock atrocity. This failed and hopeless generation are now greying and disappearing, being replaced by the Theology of the Body generation who love fidelity to God and family. You should try fidelity, it's very liberating. Fear not, however, we are still praying for your conversion to Catholicism ...

    Posted By: Michael Bernard

16. Michael Bernard - do you think a fair description of yourself would be Religious Fanatic?

    Posted By: TJ Lawson

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