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 6. But when, and under what conditions, may the reply be an affirmative one? In order briefly to sum up everything, I say to you: If you have reached a suitable time of life, if you are at least twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, if you are sound both in body and mind, if you are not afflicted with any hereditary disease; if you have a fair prospect of being able, in the pursuit of your calling, to maintain a family, if you possess the requisite endowment and capacity to fulfil the difficult duties which devolve upon parents, and to be the head of a well-ordered household, and if you think that you can preserve your chastity and promote your sanctification better as a married man than as a bachelor, then you ought to marry. But on the other hand, it would not be right to refuse to found a family, merely from love of a free and comfortable existence. May God enlighten and direct you; may God bless you.

The selfsame faith and mutual love. The selfsame hope for joys above, Such bonds alone in wedded life Will joy secure, and banish strife

f you have reached a suitable age, and feel yourself called to the married state, then are you confronted with the most important affair - namely, that of seeking and selecting the partner of your life.