Convalidation

Last weekend, my wife and I got our marriage blessed by the Church. After a year without the Sacraments, it's good to be in communion once again with Christ's Church.

Seven years ago, my wife and I got married outside the Church. There was reluctance to get married in the Church, as my wife's a lapsed Baptist, and her family has issues with the Church. To salve my own conscience, I sought out a 'catholic' priest to do the ceremony. At that point in time, I was not particularly concerned with issues of licity and validity in regards to Holy Orders and the Sacraments.

Soon, Son #1 was on his way, so I started going to Mass again, taking my wife along. Our child had come, and we eventually had him baptised in the Church. I started getting more and more involved in the Church. Then our girls came, 10 weeks early, and had them baptised right away.

All the while, I had this nagging doubt about the validity of our marriage, and eventually decided to take the matter to my confessor. A year later, here we are. What a merry hunt, trying to find your original parish where you were baptised, getting a note from a different parish, confirming that you've been confirmed, and trying to get marriage prep started betwixt two holiday seasons in a small parish. Maybe more on all that later..