Does the performing the marriage act give us sacramental grace each time?
If not, does it at least give us sacramental grace on the first time on our wedding day?
(I emphasize sacramental because I already acknowledge that we can receive grace for it, I am specifically looking to find out if it is sacramental grace.)
Could somebody please reference something from the Catechism or an something official like an encyclical, etc, or even some writing from a Saint or Doctor of the Church. I just read the section in the Catechism on the Sacrament of Marriage and did not see the answer (maybe I overlooked it). I know some people compare the marriage act to receiving Holy Communion but I do not want this thread to deteriorate into that argument.
If two baptized Christians are married validly, then the grace is available to each of them from that moment of celebration (
not from consummation) forward, which requires our cooperation (we must be in a state of grace). There is sacramental grace given, specific to matrimony, and also an increase of sanctifying grace.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.48 They are *efficacious *because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.
**CIC Can. 1055 **
(1) The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership for the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.
(2) For this reason a matrimonial contract cannot validly exist between baptized persons unless it is also a sacrament by that fact.
CIC Can. 1057
(1) Marriage is brought about through the consent of the parties, legitimately manifested between persons who are capable according to law of giving consent; no human power can replace this consent.
(2) Matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which a man and a woman, through an irrevocable covenant, mutually give and accept each other to establish marriage.
Baltimore Catechism No. 3
Q. 596. Which are the Sacraments that increase sanctifying grace in our soul?
A. The Sacraments that increase sanctifying grace in our souls are: Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony; and they are called Sacraments of the living.
Q. 598. Why are Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony called Sacraments of the living?
A. Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony are called Sacraments of the living because those who receive them worthily are already living the life of grace.
Q. 601. Besides sanctifying grace do the Sacraments give any other grace?
A. Besides sanctifying grace the Sacraments give another grace, called sacramental grace.
Q. 602. What is sacramental grace?
A. Sacramental grace is a special help which God gives, to attain the end for which He instituted each Sacrament.
