"Sometimes people ask me what to do so that our families can go on and overcome difficulties. I suggest to them to use three words, three words which express three attitudes … three words which can help you to live out your married life, because in married life there are difficulties.
Marriage is something so beautiful and so wonderful that we have to look after it, because it is forever. And the three words are: 'May I?', 'Thank you,' and 'I'm sorry.'
'May I?': always ask your spouse, wife to husband and husband to wife, 'What do you think? What shall we do?' Never trample on the other. 'May I?'
The second word: be appreciative. How many times the husband needs to say to his wife, 'Thank you.' And how many times the wife must say to her husband, 'Thank you.' Thank each other, because the sacrament of marriage is conferred by the two spouses, one to the other. This sacramental relationship is maintained with gratitude. 'Grazie.'
The third word is 'I'm sorry.' It is a very difficult word to say. In marriage there is always some misunderstanding between husband and wife. Knowing how to recognise that and to apologise, to ask forgiveness, does a lot of good.
Remember these three words, which have helped so much in married life: 'May I?', 'Thank you,' and 'I'm sorry.'
By Pope Francis
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” – Mark 10:7-9