- Aug 1, 2018
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This is an issue that frequently eats away at me and it seems difficult to get a clear answer so I feel I need to discuss it here.
Long story short, are celibate marriages permitted within the church? I do realize that certain saints(such as St. John of Kronstadt) had such marriages, but I have come to understand that they're more of an exception rather than the norm. On that basis I've seen people state that one should only ever get married if they're open to sexual intercourse and the possibility that said intercourse will produce children.
That reasoning often concerns me since I do like the idea of getting married for the life-long companionship and having a devout Orthodox Christian husband by my side to aide me in my spiritual journey. However, I am set on celibacy and have no interest in having children. I simply have no call whatsoever to be a mother. To most the obvious answer would be to just go monastic, but sometimes that's a lot more complex than it seems. I'm in a situation where even visiting a monastery temporarily on pilgrimage is simply not feasible. Essentially, if nothing changes in my life then it's likely that I will die alone and as a lukewarm Christian simply because I'm isolated in my Christian journey.
Long story short, are celibate marriages permitted within the church? I do realize that certain saints(such as St. John of Kronstadt) had such marriages, but I have come to understand that they're more of an exception rather than the norm. On that basis I've seen people state that one should only ever get married if they're open to sexual intercourse and the possibility that said intercourse will produce children.
That reasoning often concerns me since I do like the idea of getting married for the life-long companionship and having a devout Orthodox Christian husband by my side to aide me in my spiritual journey. However, I am set on celibacy and have no interest in having children. I simply have no call whatsoever to be a mother. To most the obvious answer would be to just go monastic, but sometimes that's a lot more complex than it seems. I'm in a situation where even visiting a monastery temporarily on pilgrimage is simply not feasible. Essentially, if nothing changes in my life then it's likely that I will die alone and as a lukewarm Christian simply because I'm isolated in my Christian journey.