Twenty Two Years

You ask me now to marry you,

You ask for my reply,

And if I turned you down my dear,

Your heart might wonder why?

Before I answer let me ask,

"How old are you today?"

Not by the numbers of your years,

But what you think and say.

"What are you really looking for?"

The moon and stars above?

A paradise of happiness

In everlasting love?

Or will you keep your faith with me,

In sickness and in health?

And whether we are lucky or

We never live in wealth?

If love is really in your heart

Forever deep and true,

Then be assured my darling one

I want to marry you.

                             James J Metcalfe

Twenty two years today we made promises to love and cherish, honour, care in sickness, manage our finances as best we can and welcome a family.  There have been inumerable ups and downs and like any good wine we have matured with age!  God has and continues to be the cementing in this partnership, without Him I'm sure we would have floundered long ago.  He endows us with His grace and makes many a crooked path straight.

" The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptised persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament"

Article 7 " The Sacrament of Matrimony" Catechism of the Catholic Church.