MARRIAGE
Matrimony is the Sacrament which sanctifies the contract of a Christian marriage, and gives a special grace to those who receive it worthily. Hence, the matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a 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 baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a Sacrament (Can. 1055).
Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitely, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love (C/c CCC 1662). Thus, the essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility (Can. 1056). As such, the Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called “the domestic church”, a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity (C/f CCC 1666).