The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis recently celebrated National Marriage Week, which is observed from Feb. 7-14 and includes World Marriage Day on Feb. 13.

According to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the purpose of National Marriage Week is “an opportunity to focus on building a culture of life and love that begins with supporting and promoting marriage and the family.”

“Prayer for Married Couples. Almighty and eternal God, You blessed the union of married couples so that they might reflect the union of Christ with his Church: look with kindness on them," the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis shared on Facebook. "Renew their marriage covenant, increase your love in them, and strengthen their bond of peace so that, with their children, they may always rejoice in the gift of your blessing. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Throughout the week, the Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth was live-streamed on the For Your Marriage Facebook Page, according to the USCCB.

According to paragraph 1603 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws ... God himself is the author of marriage. The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.”

Marriage was instituted by God at the beginning of creation through the bond of Adam and Eve, who were created as equal partners to aid one another through the journey of earthly life.