“You looked with love upon me and deep within your eyes imprinted grace.”

SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS

01

THE SECRET OF PURPOSE

If you’re going to be married, you have to know where you’re going.

Blessed is the couple who understands their marriage as a pathway to heaven.

Carlton and Maggie met almost a hundred years ago in the rolling foothills of southern Ohio, near the Ohio River. Carlton was nine years old when his father gathered the kids in a wagon to go to a funeral. A neighbor had died, leaving behind a widow and four small children.

After the funeral, as children moved around the burial site, Carlton noticed little seven-year-old Maggie standing with her grieving family. “That’s sad,” he thought, “such a poor thing, now with no daddy.” And Carlton right then vowed to himself to keep an eye on her in the days and years ahead.

Soon, Carlton and Maggie saw each other every day. They were both part of a group of kids who walked to school together each day, traveling a mile down the road to their one-room schoolhouse.

Their friendship grew as each year passed. Carlton finished eighth grade and quit school so he could help his family tend the corn on their farm. Maggie eventually became a teacher in the rural schools of Ohio. They began courting. And together they went to church.

When Carlton turned twenty-four, he left the farm and moved to Pittsburgh to work in the mills. He needed to earn money, more than his family’s small farm could provide. So he began as a shoveler. He did well enough that four years later he and Maggie were married.

The couple and their families and friends gathered in the local church. An old retired priest, Father Newman, celebrated the Mass. He had to sit through most of the wedding, since he was past the age of eighty by then.

But Father Newman had a ritual. Before the Mass, he leaned over to Carlton and said, “When I pronounce you man and wife, hold Maggie’s hand and don’t ever turn her loose.” Carlton did just as he was told.To have and to hold from this day forward.

Afterward, they all celebrated with cake and lemonade, and the newlyweds spent the night in her mother’s home. They visited the next day with Carlton