Sacrament of Matrimony

weddingringsSCHEDULING THE TIME
Only one wedding per day may be scheduled.
Friday – 4:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. – Mass or Ceremony
Saturday – 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. Nuptial Mass or 3:00 p.m. Wedding Ceremony
Sunday – 3:30 p.m. Mass or Ceremony

SETTING THE DATE – Only a priest or deacon of St. Stephen’s may set a date with you. A date will be set only after the priest or deacon has personally met with both of you and determined that you are free to marry here. If the couple is from outside the parish, the Visiting Priest/Deacon Form must be returned within one month before the date can be finalized. It is the couple’s responsibility to secure the date and time with the parish before making other commitments. Sufficient time is needed to complete all marriage preparation requirements. (At least six months are needed).

For your convenience we have prepared a comprehensive set of Wedding Guidelines that will help answer many of your initial questions about the planing, preparation, ceremony, floral decorations, photography, and visiting priests. Click here to download the six-page Wedding Guidelines. (PDF format)

MATRIMONY
Congratulations on your engagement! It is an occasion of great joy for you, your relatives, friends and your parish community. It is also a time to begin plans for your wedding and for your life together. These parish guidelines will help to guide you through this process.

WHO MAY MARRY IN OUR PARISH CHURCH?

Normally, the marriage takes place in the bride’s parish. Either the bride or groom (or your parents) must be registered parishioners of St. Stephen’s, or either bride or groom must have been confirmed here. On occasion, couples from outside the parish (with no connection to St. Stephen’s Parish) request the use of our church. If the parish schedule permits, the request may be granted at the discretion of the pastor, given that the couple provide their own priest/deacon to perform the marriage. You must have the Visiting Priest/Deacon Form filled out (see attached Wedding Guidelines) and signed by your priest/deacon before your date may be confirmed. We will hold your date for one month.

Your priest/deacon should be willing to prepare all the paperwork and necessary records, and be available for the rehearsal.Recalling these words of Jesus, the Catholic Church professes that, in the celebration of the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the instrumentality of the priest. Jesus said: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. . . . For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (Jn 6:51-55). The whole Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine—the glorified Christ who rose from the dead after dying for our sins.

This is what the Church means when she speaks of the “Real Presence” of Christ in the Eucharist. This presence of Christ in the Eucharist is called “real” not to exclude other types of his presence as if they could not be understood as real (cf. Catechism, no. 1374). The risen Christ is present to his Church in many ways, but most especially through the sacrament of his Body and Blood.