National Marriage Week USA and World Marriage Day are opportunities “to focus on building a culture of life and love that begins with supporting and promoting marriage and the family,” wrote Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in a letter to his brother bishops.

The annual National Marriage Week USA continues through Feb. 14. This year, World Marriage Day was celebrated throughout the church on Sunday, Feb. 11, coinciding with the World Day of the Sick.

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The USCCB offers resources to the faithful for the promotion and defense of marriage as a lifelong union of one man and one woman through its websites ForYourMarriage.org, PorTuMatrimonio.org, and MarriageUniqueForAReason.org. Additional resources for National Marriage Week can be found here.

Learn more, including a daily virtual marriage retreat for couples, on the ForYourMarriage.org website and via the For Your Marriage social media channels on Facebook and Twitter. The seven-day retreat focuses on the theme “Marriage: School of Life and Love.”

A wide array of prayer cards, books and pamphlets on marriage and family can be ordered online through the USCCB store.

National Marriage Week USA, launched in 2010, is part of an international event seeking to mobilize individuals, organizations, and businesses in a common purpose to strengthen marriage in communities and influence the culture.

For information and resources, visit NationalMarriageWeekUSA.org. World Marriage Day was started in 1983 by Worldwide Marriage Encounter.