Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle offered some advice on relationships: “Put on Christ.”
Speaking during Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family, the cardinal asked couples to put God first in their relationship from the start.
“I want to suggest that even in the courting period and the engagement period, hopefully, there will be discernment,” said Cardinal Tagle.
The prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said couples, along with their parents or guardians, must discern God’s direction in their relationship.
“(I hope) that our young people, young adults who are planning to get married are already guided in discerning the will of God,” he said.
“And this is the real challenge: how can we bring in spirituality in discovering the will of God?” he added.
Reflecting on the day’s readings, the cardinal said while the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is unique and can never be replicated, “they still present to us directions”.
A family is holy, according to him, because they allowed God to make them a family.
He then appealed to families to make God the center of their relationship “and allow God to form and reform us again and again as a family.”
“We shouldn’t let our own desires prevail over the will of God for us to be a family,” Cardinal Tagle said.