Marriage Anniversaries Mass honours a lifetime of commitment
September 14, 2026
St Francis Xavier Cathedral, Bishop Brian Mascord
More than 50 couples from across the Diocese of Wollongong gathered on Sunday 6 September for the annual Marriage Anniversaries Mass, giving thanks for the Sacrament of Marriage and celebrating decades of love, faithfulness and shared life.
Around 250 people attended the annual Marriage Anniversaries Mass, including family and friends, with couples from 22 parishes marking milestones from 25 to 65 years of marriage.
During the celebration, the couples renewed their commitment to one another and to their vocation of witnessing to the Gospel through married life. Bishop Brian Mascord offered a special blessing and presented each couple with a candle, recalling Christ as the light at the heart of Christian marriage and family life.
Among those present was one family celebrating three significant anniversaries together. One couple marked 65 years of marriage, while their son and daughter, together with their spouses, were each celebrating 30 years of marriage.
Kevin and Phyllis Gamble were also acknowledged for the remarkable milestone of 72 years of marriage, although they were unable to attend the Mass.
The annual celebration is an opportunity for the diocese to honour not simply the number of years couples have been married, but the vocation they have lived through those years.
In the Catholic tradition, marriage is a sacrament and a lifelong covenant through which husband and wife are called to love and serve one another, raise and nurture their families, and become witnesses to the faithful love of Christ.
That witness is often lived quietly, through the ordinary joys and struggles of family life, through sacrifice, forgiveness, perseverance and prayer. For the wider Church, couples who remain faithful to that vocation across the decades offer a powerful example of Christian discipleship.
The Marriage Anniversaries Mass therefore becomes more than a celebration of individual milestones. It is also an occasion for the whole diocesan community to give thanks for the gift of marriage and for the countless ways married couples contribute to the life of their families, parishes and communities.
As we give thanks for those who celebrated significant anniversaries this year, the faithful are invited to pray for all married couples across the diocese, particularly those experiencing hardship or uncertainty.
May all husbands and wives be strengthened in their vocation, sustained by God’s grace, and continue to bear witness to Christ’s faithful and enduring love.
View the photo gallery below and relive some of the joy and special moments from this year’s Marriage Anniversaries Mass.
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Our diocesan logo is theologically rich and very succinct. As a hand, it depicts our mission as a diocese and as individuals within the diocese, of bearing (bringing, carrying) Christ’s love to one another and to the world around us. In this, we are the hand of Jesus Christ, and we are offering ourselves to him so that he might work through us.
We can be the bearers of his love only as a response to his call and in the strength of his grace. We are reminded of this in two ways—through the symbol of the dove (the Holy Spirit) also present in the logo, and by the incorporation of the cross that segments the logo. The presence of the cross is a reminder that bearing the love of Christ will inevitably cost us if we live it authentically. However, in the way that the Cross is the portent of redemption and life—an echo of the tree of life in the book of Genesis—so becoming bearers of the love of Christ will also bring us to life.
The four fingers of the hand also represent the four regions of our diocese. The first is bluerepresenting the beautiful water of the Shoalhaven. The second is a blue and green combination representing the waters and escarpment of the Illawarra. The third is greendepicting the hills and plains of the Macarthur. The fourth is dark green illustrating the forests of the Southern Highlands.
