Divorce, a difficult topic

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For 23 May 2008, Friday of 7th week, based on Mark 10:1-12

Jesus left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”


Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

About Ms. Marlene Laurendeau, O.P.

Marlene Laurendeau grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, being taught by the Dominican sisters of San Rafael; lived many years raising a family in Indiana; and in semi-retirement she and her husband moved to Maine, where he died five years ago. After the loss of their spouses and through CatholicMatch.com., she and her current spouse were united, and they enjoy commuting between California, Maine, and New Hampshire! Marlene is currently working on a masters degree in theological studies through the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif., and she serves her Maine parish as a Eucharistic minister and group facilitator.