Canon 776

1. The matrimonial covenant, established by the Creator and

ordered by His laws, by which a man and woman by an irrevocable

personal consent establish between themselves a partnership of

the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of

the spouses and the generation and education of the offspring.

2. From the institution of Christ a valid marriage between baptized persons is by that very fact a sacrament, by which the

spouses, in the image of an indefectible union of Christ with the

Church, are united by God and, as it were, consecrated and

strengthened by sacramental grace. 3. The essential properties

of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in a marriage

between baptized persons obtain a special firmness in virtue of

the sacrament.