Here the couples pledge to consummate the ideal of the creation of God as an eternal husband and wife, to rear their children to live up to the Will of God, and to love the people of the world as God does. Finally, the bride and groom exchange rings and the officiator offers a prayer and proclaims the participants husband and wife standing within the realm of God's original and eternal Blessing. The forty days following the Blessing is an historical time period for each couple. Just as Jesus began his mission on the foundation of forty days of fasting, couples who have received the Blessing are enjoined to offer a period of sexual abstinence for a period of forty days after the Blessing. Many couples have discovered from experience that the Separation Period can be a significant step in the process of transformation and renewal.
Sexual abstinence is an honored religious tradition.
On the spiritual level, problems are often worked out during the Separation Period. Moreover, the act of love itself takes on a new dimension of sacredness after offering the period of separation. After the separation period, the couple together carry out the Three-Day Ceremony. This is the completion of sanctification, in which the couple is restored to the position of true husband and wife. Over a three-day period, the wife gives rebirth to her husband from the position of mother and then receives him in the position of wife.