Brace yourself! If we take in what the Holy Father is saying in his Theology of the Body, we will never view ourselves, view others, view the Church, the Sacraments, grace, God, heaven, marriage, the celibate vocation...we will never view the world the same way again.

God's plan remains God's plan despite our sin.

Marriage is the most basic expression of the vocation to love that all men and women have as persons made in God's image.

When marriage exposes a person's selfishness and sins it's doing what it is meant to do: bringing our sins and wounds to light so we can recognize them, confess them, and begin the healing process.

Grace flows through wounds.

In the sacraments, spirit and matter "kiss." Heaven and earth embrace in a union that will never end.

The free exchange of consent properly witnessed by the Church establishes the marriage bond. Sexual union consummates it - seals it, completes it, perfects it. Sexual union, then, is where the words of the wedding vows become flesh.