REFLECTIVE SYNTHESIS (Contemporary Issues on Christian Marriage) PREFINALS

Lamento, Kobe Lorenzo R.

In this subject matter I have learned different kinds of things on how a Christian life must
be this includes Catholic social teachings that I can apply in order for me to become a much
better human being and as a steward of God’s creation. I have experienced callings from God
throughout my life. Such callings that I have experienced is through my desires and I can feel
that God is calling me for a specific purpose that speaks for my desires in life. My desire is to be
an Architect someday and I feel that God called me on that certain course so that I can design
homes for the homeless to satisfy their needs so in order to achieve my desire and goals I must
do not just as a student but also as a son and a friend. Also God calls me through my emotions,
sometimes I feel good through the silence that surrounds me or through the beautiful sunset.
Whenever I feel sad or lonely, I reflect in the silence and in this silence I can feel the loving
presence of God that calls me and reassures me that everything is going to be fine. For me it is
fine to be lonely sometimes because I can communicate with God and meditate.

God also calls me to a life of a Single-Blessed because being single-blessed is the

relationship between me and my friends and also between my family. It is also about serving
God’s kingdom and his people when it comes to having a single life. Being single does not mean
a sad life but rather it means that I have time to grow and develop myself. For me it is important
to understand fully yourself before understanding someone else because knowing myself is as
important as loving other person unconditionally. In my past experience, I have made a few
mistakes because I was so focused on loving other people rather than myself and it became my
downfall and I felt that I have lost myself in the process but today I learned that I must first love
myself before loving other people because there is a saying that you cannot give what you do not
have. For now my vocation is be a single-blessed person but later on I’m planning to be married
to someone else when I accomplish the vocation of being a single person because I believe that
the vocation of single-blessedness is the first step of becoming married or towards a religious
life.

I have also learned in the past lessons that marriage is one of the most important and the
foundations of a family. That is why I have realized that I must prepare for a married life because
it is very important and an integral part of my future. Choosing a partner for life takes a lot of
time because I must learn to understand my partner very well in terms of emotionally, mentally,
physically and spiritually. Therefore, the attitude and personality in choosing a partner is the
most important factor. In this present time, I may have a special person in my life that does not
mean I know everything about her so before getting married as a couple we must further
understand each other for our relationship to become stronger and more intimate because I don’t
want to ruin my future family. For me marriage is sacred and a divine union with the person
whom I have chosen to be with so it is very important for me to have solidarity, trust and fidelity
within our relationship. Being loyal to my partner is not enough to prove that I love her but being
faithful means everything to me.

As I approach and prepare myself for a married life, I must also prepare myself for
having a family in the future as I have said earlier that marriage and family are related and
interconnected to one another due to the fact that the relationship of the parents alone affects the
whole family in the process. As I have experience within our family, my parents often argues a
lot on things that are not relevant and sometimes nonsense arguments that only bring
misunderstanding and gives me anxiety that affects my mental health. As a family member and a
the eldest son I have realized that I have to be more open to them and often communicate with
them because I believe that as the eldest son I can help them towards fixing their relationship
with each other. Through showing them affection and meditating together with them I could
make our bond stronger because we make God as a center of our family and as our medium of
our communication. For me meditation is also important in a Christian life because it allows me
and my family to pray together, and have deeper understanding on one’s emotions so that we can
address the existing problems within our family immediately. As an eldest son I must also show
affection and reassure my younger siblings whenever my parents are incapable of doing it. In my
family alone I have learned a lot of things that I could apply when establishing a family.
Therefore in order to prevent divorce or annulment and separation of our family we must share
the same value as human beings and as a member of this family this includes putting God as a
member of our family and also being a model of love, justice and other moral values to them.