Marriage is “an instrument of salvation” for society as well as for individual couples, the Pope has said.

Speaking on Wednesday to future participants in the Congress on the Family, which will take place in Jonkoping, Sweden from May 14-16, he said that marriage, “like any worthwhile goal,” it is demanding, challenging and calls us to sacrifice for the good of another while also inviting us to “nurture and protect the gift of new life.”

The Pope’s words on marriage came during his English-language greeting of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The stable family, Pope Benedict added, is the “first and most fundamental school for virtuous living and the qualities of good citizenship.”

God’s gift of marriage and family life enables people “to experience something of the infinite love that unites the three divine persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” he added.

Noting that “human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are made for love,” he proposed that through the love between spouses, parents and children and siblings “we are offered a foretaste of the boundless love that awaits us in the life to come.

“Marriage is truly an instrument of salvation, not only for married people but for the whole of society,” he underscored.

He reflected on those “fortunate enough to be born into a stable family,” saying they “discover there the first and most fundamental school for virtuous living and the qualities of good citizenship.”

Pope Benedict concluded his message to participants by encouraging all people to “promote a proper understanding and appreciation of the inestimable good that marriage and family life offer to human society.”