As Paul Evdokimov says, “Under the grace of the sacrament [of marriage] the sexual life is lived without causing the slightest decline of the inner life.”  Marriage, like monasticism, is a sign of God’s kingdom, because it begins to restore the unity of mankind (and the cosmos as a whole) which has been broken up by sin.  Thus marriage is both a great mystery in itself and represents a greater mystery, the unity of redeemed mankind in Christ.

from Introduction by Catharine P. Roth to St. Chysostom’s On Marriage and Family Life, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY. 1986.  p.10