>>839721
>>The Church's stance is that marriage is not about love
Re-reading this, I just remembered:
Ephesians 5:25
<Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it:
It is true that marriage is about love. It's just that it is a contract. That doesn't mean that it's just a contract though, so yeah, I'd actually like to take back what I said. I'd really like to apologise not just to you but to anyone who reads my post and gains an erroneous understanding of Catholic doctrine.
>Your willingness to show that you know more than anyone else about faith by twisting the personality of God and making Him out to be cruel and cold hearted and perpetually hateful towards his creations
First off, I'm well aware that I don't know everything.
Secondly, I must admit that I myself don't quite understand the teaching on marriage. I was a bit surprised to learn that marriage was determined to be a "contract of bodily rights". On one hand, it's a bit poetic that the husband and wife quite literally belong to each other but on the other hand, after being exposed to what a "healthy relationship" looks like on TV in our secular culture, I was a bit surprised to see that it's actually a very grave sin (i.e. mortal) to deny one's spouse the conjugal act when they have reasonably requested it although I suppose this is just a natural consequence of spouses truly belonging to one another. Overall, I'd say I do want to study these things because I would like to know how the Church arrived at its conclusions from the Bible but for the time being, I'm willing to blindly trust in its teachings.
Also, this notion that God, in my mind, is perpetually hateful towards his creation? We Catholics experience God's mercy repeatedly in the Confessional! We also know it from the fact that we're not immediately damned upon any sin (unlike the angels who, upon rejecting God, were damned immediately).
>You make the already narrow path something only the most trained rock climber can navigate
No, no, no. It is difficult but it's not impossible. The Church gives plenty of tools to help us in the climb. First, there's the Confessional to catch you when you fall. Then, there's the graces from the Eucharist, the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Son of God Himself. Then there's the graces from praying the rosary and from doing penances as well as the plenary and partial indulgences you can gain for doing specific things. There's devotions too like the Three Hail Marys devotion, the Novena and the reparations to the Immaculate Heart of Mary or the Sacred Heart of Jesus (I just want to mention that if you do the "First 5 Saturdays" devotion (i.e. a specific procedure for offering reparations to Mary's Immaculate Heart), she actually promises salvation so this absolutely makes the narrow path easier to walk). It absolutely can be done. Do you really think most Catholics, sincerely striving for heaven, don't make it?
>That prayer
I appreciate it but I've already made a wife request from Mary. I don't know why you haven't received your wife yet. I requested a wife from God originally, stating in my typed letter to him a place (it was a public place), time (it was during daytime hours) and bodily requirements (I had this blind theory in my mind at the time that, even though Jesus said that you could ask for anything, realistically, God can't make the woman of your dreams show up at your doorstep the next morning with no warning so, out of my own doubt of God's ability, I did actually try to restrain how far I went with the bodily requirements. I specifically remember requesting a "decent" face and that's as far as I'll go with regards to talking about her physical appearance :) Nonetheless, I did hold back, just asking for one favoured feature. I also set the date a couple of days in the future to give God time to prepare the request). I believe I only waited perhaps three days and when I was at the place and time, I saw a woman that fit the features I requested however, I ended up walking away. In the end, it was for the best as, when I requested a wife, I just wanted to marry so I could fulfill my desires but the truth is, I'm in no position to support a family so I could never be a husband, unless it was with an infertile wife and I do in fact, desire to raise my own progeny.
I'm requesting from Mary now and I'm willing to wait years for what I've requested this time. It'll give me plenty of time to get ready for marriage too.