Originally published at National Catholic Register
In the Wednesday general audience, the pontiff continued his series of teachings on the Holy Spirit, focusing on the role of the Third Person of the Trinity in the sacrament of matrimony.
Pope Francis said the Holy Spirit plays an essential role in the unity of a husband and a wife, and advised married couples to invoke the Spirit’s help for their marriage, because the separation of spouses is a source of suffering for children.
“What can the Holy Spirit have to do with marriage, for example? A great deal, perhaps the essential,” the pope said during his weekly audience with the public in St. Peter’s Square on Oct. 23.
“Christian marriage is the sacrament of self-giving, one for the other, of man and woman. This is how the Creator intended it when he ‘created man in his own image … male and female he created them (Gn 1:27),’” Francis said to crowds gathered in an overcast square.
In the Wednesday general audience, the
