I received this interesting message from one of my male readers.

The topic of free will and predestination is a hot-button issue within Catholic circles.

Predestination is definitely part of Catholic teaching.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 600) defines predestination as:

“To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of “predestination”, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace: “In this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.

 

But how do we reconcile the fatalism of destiny and dizziness of freedom?  Can predestination and free will co-exist?
And in particular, when it comes to our spouse: do we choose who we marry or has this person already been chosen for us by God?

I guess predestination suggests two main arguments:

1. The argument that God has foreknowledge.  He is Omniscient, right?  Therefore, Him having foreknowledge suggests that He already knows who we would choose, through our own free will, to marry.
2. The Calvinist argument that God sovereignly, of His own free Will as opposed to ours, has already predestined certain people to come together in marriage.

Some people will argue that predestination as it is mentioned in the Bible and/or Catholic teaching is used almost exclusively in the context of salvation.

Is predestination akin to the belief in soulmates and that one true love?
Personally, I have an icky feeling about the soulmate topic.
Maybe because it is just too reminiscent of new-age magical thinking to me.
Still, predestination begs several questions.  In addition, the concept of soulmates is tied in to the topic of reincarnation, which is not Biblical teaching.
Does God already know who we are supposed to marry, advise us on it and then leave us the free will to listen and obey or not?

Perhaps God will simply advise us on whom we should, of our own free will, to marry.  Or perhaps God has already decided and predestined who we are to marry and He simply works everything together to make it come to pass?

Maybe THIS ARTICLE  can shed some insight on the matter.