‘Each of us is the artist of her own life. The materials we are given to work with, the conditions we work under and what happens to us, are part of the drama of what we shall do with our lives. But materials and conditions and event are not, in themselves, the determinding factors. Whether a woman arrives or does not arrive at her destiny-the place that is peculiarly hers-depends on whether or not she finds the Kingom within and hears the call to wholeness-or holiness, as another might say. The woman who hears that call is chosen. She does not have to scramble for a place in the scheme of things. She knows that there is a place which is hers and that she can live close to the One who will show it to her. Life becomes her vocation.”

-Elizabeth O’Connor

“Marriage is not a lifelong attraction of two individuals to each other, but a call for two people to witness together to God’s love.

The basis of marriage is not mutual affection, or feelings, or emotions and passions that we associate with love, but a vocation, a being elected to build together a house for God in this world, to be like the two cherubs whose outstretched wings sheltered the Ark of the Covenant and created a space where Yahweh could be present. 

Marriage is a relationship in which a man and a woman protect and nurture the inner sanctum within and between them and witness to that by the way in which they love each other… the intimacy of marriage itself is an intimacy that is based on the common participation in a love greater than the love two people can offer each other.

The real mystery of marriage is not that husband and wife love each other so much that they can find God in each other’s lives, but that God loves them so much that they can discover each other more and more as living reminders of God’s presence.

They are brought together, indeed, as two prayerful hands extended toward God and forming in this way a home for God in this world.”  

–Henri Nouwen