By Tonia Borsellino
On Sept. 5, 1959, Daniel Michael and Joyce Lynn Trunk professed their vows to be united as one in the Catholic Church. Fifty-six years, three children, three grandchildren, and several moves later, they are still just as giddy as they were when they met in high school.
“Faith is one of the reasons our marriage is so strong,” explained Joyce. She converted to Catholicism from her Lutheran upbringing in order to marry Daniel.
“I wanted us to be both the same faith,” she said. “And now I’m so grateful that I did because now, I could not go back. I mean, the Catholic Church is the only church that has the Eucharist.”
Now parishioners at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Gainesville, Fla., the couple helps engaged and other married couples understand what it means to be married in the church.
“I come back constantly to the “little church” analogy,” said Daniel. “I tell them, ‘you’re going to be a little church because your job is to make love happen.”
Ten years into their marriage, the two attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend, a seminar for married couples, and it was there that they were “made aware of how God worked through marriage,” said Daniel.
“I learned that the church’s job is to create love. So in a sense, as a married couple with two people and Christ involved with that, you’re a little church,” he continued.
The Trunks explained that all the little churches then go off to the big church and the sacrament of marriage then mirrors God’s relationship to the Church.
As the Trunks continue to grow in their marriage, they say it is important for other couples to realize that a marriage requires giving. “Loving is not just a romantic thing,” Joyce began.
“Love is an action verb,” Daniel added.
“You have to give,” Joyce finished. “You can’t say, ‘I give you that, now you owe me this.’ No, it’s unconditional and happiness results.”
National Marriage Week ends with World Marriage Day on Sunday, Feb. 14. For more information, visit: https://www.dosafl.com/national-marriage-week-usa-world-marriage-day-emphasize-support-for-married-couples/