Marriage Week, 7-14 February 2026

Bishop Bosco MacDonald, Bishop of Clifton and Lead Bishop for Marriage and Family Life for the Bishops’ Conference, has praised the “ordinary heroism of married love, and the strength of family life” in a message to mark Marriage Week that runs from 7-14 February 2026.

“Love has a purpose,” says Bishop MacDonald. “Love is sustained by choice as well as by affection. It is a promise lived again each day, sometimes at a cost, often in quiet, hidden ways. Mercy keeps love alive when people are disappointed in one another. Discernment helps couples face the realities in front of them without bitterness. Mission reminds every family that their home is meant to become a place where others can glimpse the kindness of God.”

Full message

National Marriage Week, 7 – 14 February 2026, gives us a welcome chance to pause and recognise something we can easily take for granted: the ordinary heroism of married love, and the strength of family life. This year we are extending that reflection beyond the week itself, from 7 February through to the Feast of St Joseph on 19 March 2026 – the tenth anniversary of Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“On Love in the Family”), signed on the Solemnity of St Joseph.

“The joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church,” Pope Francis writes at the opening of Amoris Laetitia. That sentence is simple and it is demanding. It reminds us that the Church’s life is shaped in homes as well as in churches: at kitchen tables, in the forgiving of small hurts, in the patience required by tiredness, money worries, changing health, teenagers, elderly parents, and all the rest of life’s very real furniture. Joy in the Christian sense often comes quietly, with the humility of love that keeps its promises. St Joseph is a fitting patron for this season of reflection. The Gospels give us none of his words, yet they show us his faithful presence: steady, protective, attentive to God, and committed to Mary and to Jesus. Many marriages and families live in that same key, with a fidelity that speaks for itself.

To support this time of prayer and reflection, I warmly commend three resources for you to read, share, and use in homes, parishes, and schools. They can be found on the Bishops’ Conference website.

First, The Joy of Love: On Marriage and Family Life (2022), produced by the Bishops’ Conference Committee for Marriage and Family Life. It explores five themes drawn from Amoris Laetitia: Joy, Love, Mercy, Realities and Discernment, and Mission, with reflections and questions that work well for family conversations, small groups, and parish settings.

Second, the National Marriage Week Novena (2026). This novena follows the Sunday readings during Marriage Week, with a daily petition, and it invites couples and families to add their own personal intentions. It is simple, scriptural, and wonderfully realistic for busy lives.

Third, the reflection on the Marriage of Mary to Joseph in art and tradition. The wedding itself is not narrated in Scripture, yet Christian imagination, prayer, and art have long pondered what it means that God chose to enter the world within a real family, under the care of Mary and Joseph. That reflection can open up rich prayer, especially for those who pray well through image, story, memory, and beauty.

If there is a single spiritual thread running through all of this, it is that love has a purpose. Love is sustained by choice as well as by affection. It is a promise lived again each day, sometimes at a cost, often in quiet, hidden ways. Mercy keeps love alive when people are disappointed in one another. Discernment helps couples face the realities in front of them without bitterness. Mission reminds every family that their home is meant to become a place where others can glimpse the kindness of God.

St John Paul II once put it in these terms: “As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.” (Homily, Perth (Australia), 30 November 1986). Supporting marriage is a work of hope for society and for the Church.

To every married couple: thank you. To those preparing for marriage: be brave and be patient with one another. To those who carry wounds or grief in family life, including separation, divorce, bereavement, or strained relationships: the Church cares for you and is here to accompany you. To all our parishes and schools: thank you for building a culture that celebrates, promotes, and supports marriage and family life.

May St Joseph intercede for us. May the Holy Family guard our homes. May the Lord deepen in us the joy of love.

+Bosco

Right Reverend Bosco MacDonald
Bishop of Clifton
Lead Bishop for Marriage and Family Life, CBCEW

_{Image: © Clifton Diocese.}