Deeper Meaning

A lot of people were wondering and have been asking us why would we still need to be married in a church ceremony while we’re already married on a civil rite a year ago. My answer was it was really on our priority plans and the civil rite was just a prelude to that big event. Partly true, until we had our pre-cana seminar at the church yesterday where I had some realizations or should I say has been reminded of the real purpose of a church wedding.

I want to bring back again those times when people asked me the reason of our church wedding. I want to tell them that as devout Catholics, we want to acquire God’s blessings in our new state of life by receiving the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. That’s it, the true purpose of the pre-cana seminar, to remind us of the things we know since it was being taught ever since elementary but we seemed to forget it over time. I should’ve said the seminar already had served its purpose at the start since I’ve been knocked on my head about the things I’m supposed to know. I can’t stay long enough the whole day listening to the lecture. But it was a pre-requisite so endurance is a must =).

However, the seminar was not a total bore though. The first speaker was a San Miguel retiree and has been married for almost 40 years to an ADB retiree too. Both retired as executives from the country’s biggest companies so weren’t surprised that they live and now enjoy their lives inside Ayala Alabang. At first we thought he was a priest as we expect to conduct the seminar and a lot of couples greeted him “Good morning Father.” but he wasn’t.. hahaha =D He somehow did well in contributing and giving advice to soon-to-be-married couples based on his 40 years of marriage experience. The last speaker in the afternoon was a nun. Even she, questioned herself why she was giving such seminars where she hasn’t been married at all. But her topic which is catholic catechism find her in authority to discuss it.

Well, let me enumerate the things that we learned and recalled:

• Since Holy Matrimony is one of the 7 sacraments in our catholic faith, those who chose married life as their calling must receive it.
• There are two valid reasons a wife can deny her husband of sex
  - If the wife is praying to her God.
  (** The speaker joked about his wife becoming so prayerful..hehehe **)
  - If the wife is sick.
  The reason the subject here is the wife because husbands will have no reason at all to refuse once their “thing” is up.. hehehe
• We finally got a very valid answer on the infamous anecdote on whose to save in a drowning situation: your wife or your mother? Most answers I’ve heard (as well as mine) is to save our mother, because she’s our mother and we’re bloodline compared to our husband/wife. But marriage cleared out the haze and the answer is we must save our husband/wife because of the vows we exchanged, for better or for worse, ‘til death do us part. =)
• As written also in the bible that a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be united to his wife; and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). We therefore need to get our own house hopefully within next year. =)

Canonical Interview

Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. It essentially means “standard”, “generally accepted” or “part of the backstory”.

We felt anxious somehow on what are we going to do as our canonical interview day is getting very near. I texted our wedding coordinator the day before (that was Monday) on what to expect on the interview and she told us to relax coz it’s just for formality sake. We’ll just be asked on our family and educational background. Indeed she was correct.

We were given a questionnaire at first and the church coordinator told us to fill it up. We felt dumbfounded when we’re told to fill up everything including the spaces that are suppose to be filled up by our interviewer, the priest.

The priest who interviewed us was stiff. Since Marvin and I were products of catholic schools ever since elementary, he only asked us few questions. I regard those as comments and not questions coz everything was already written in the questionnaire. I didn’t agree on his comment that our church wedding will only be a validation coz we were already married on a civil rite last year. We did that because of the legal documents and we want to be married in the church to receive the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony. This is how we see it.

Anyways, we’re somehow glad that our canonical interview was not a lengthy one as compared to other couples who received an untimely sermon from their priest interviewers. We still had the time to stroll around the malls that we definitely miss when we’re still staying in Alabang.

Chasing time

Time flies so fast to a busy person. And that time really does fly when we’re having fun. Or at least, it flies when our attention is engaged.

Two months starting today, we are keeping all our fingers crossed that all our laid out plans will be perfectly executed. The places below will become one of the landmarks in our lives as we transformed them into beautiful and romantic venues to celebrate our love.

The church

The reception