it was instrumental (get it? get it?!) to my conversion

CHAPTER X.

TIME AND PLACE OF MARRIAGE

(Canon 1108-Canon 1109)

I. The Time of Marriage 524

Marriage may be contracted on any day of the year. The solemn blessing of the nuptials is forbidden from the first Sunday of Advent to Christmas Day inclusively and from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday inclusively. The Ordinaries of places however heeding the liturgical laws may permit the solemn nuptial blessing even on the above mentioned days provided there is a just cause and provided they admonish the spouses to abstain from too much display. As regards the time at which marriage may be contracted the new law does not introduce any change from the former discipline. While the general law permits marriages on any day of the ecclesiastical year a particular custom in vogue in a certain locality may prohibit them at certain times This conclusion is justified by the decision rendered by the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda.

525. A departure of signal consequence from the former discipline is noted in the new legislation with regard to the nuptial blessing In the past for a just reason the Ordinary could permit the celebration of the Mass even in forbidden times but it was not within his power to authorize the nuptial blessing on those days. The period of forbidden time in the ante Tridentine discipline comprehended almost twice as many days as it did subsequently. The present legislation has reduced it to still fewer days and limited the period to the two main seasons of penance namely Advent and Lent. The forbidden time runs from the midnight of the first Sunday of Advent to the midnight of the Feast of the Nativity and from the midnight of Ash Wednesday to the midnight of Easter Sunday. The forbidden time is a period during which the solemn nuptial blessing should not be given. The prohibition contained in the new Code is not absolute as it was in the past but only relative obliging the priest and the Ordinary under pain of mortal sin unless there is a just cause to dispense from the general law. As regards the justness of the cause the judgment must always proceed from the Ordinary nor may a pastor assume the right to render a decision in the matter and to act on his own initiative without consulting the Ordinary of the place.

The insistence that marriages contracted by Catholics should be accompanied by the solemn nuptial blessing shows the ardent desire of the Church to benefit her members by the graces it imparts for the precise purpose of this blessing is to give that particular supernatural aid of which the newly wedded stand most in need. It is for this reason that the new law does not require a grave cause even a just cause would warrant the decision of the Ordinary to impart the solemn blessing in forbidden time. Such iusta causa would be present whenever the parties cannot without inconvenience or scandal postpone their nuptials till the end of the prohibited period. If the favor of having their nuptials blessed is granted to them the assisting priest must observe the liturgical laws relating to the nuptial blessing and the parties should be forewarned not to indulge in a display of worldliness and frivolity which would be in conflict with the spirit of the holy season.

527. Should the Ordinary permit the nuptial blessing in forbidden time the commemoration of the nupturientium may be made sub unica conclusione with the prayer of the feast on Christmas Day and on Resurrection Sunday. The Congregation of Rites decreed that by the nuptial blessing are meant the special prayers found in the Missal and said during the Mass over the nupturientes kneeling at the altar. According to canon 1108 the Ordinary for a just cause may permit that nuptial blessing in the closed or forbidden time but with the restriction Salvis legibus liturgicis. In other words the nuptial blessing thus permitted may be given with the Missa pro Sponso et Sponsa if the liturgical laws permit that Mass on a certain day otherwise the blessing would have to be given with the Mass of the day. Should the Ordinary of the place ex iusta causa permit the solemn nuptial blessing in forbidden time the votive Mass for the spouses may be said any day except Sundays and Holy Days of obligation the feasts of the first and the second class the privileged octaves of the first and the second order the privileged ferias and the vigils of the Nativity Epiphany and Pentecost.