Ignatius Insight just posted what I believe is a brilliant reflection on the Church's teaching on marriage, from the point of view of the motivations for and "ends" of marriage.

By Monsignor Cormac Burke, the essay titled Marital and Family Commitment: A Personalist View, first appeared in 1994 in Homilitic and Pastoral Review and speaks of:

The past several decades [having] seen an ongoing debate within the Church about the ends of marriage. A traditional understanding presented these ends in a clear hierarchy or order of importance: a "primary" end (procreation) and two "secondary" ends (mutual help and the remedy for concupiscence). Early on in the century a feeling began to emerge that this understanding was too exclusively centered on the procreative function of the marital relationship, while it neglected "personalist" aspects or values also characterizing this relationship, and of which modern times have become more aware: love between man and woman as the main motive for marrying, the promise of personal happiness or fulfillment that marriage seems to offer, the human values felt to underlie physical sexuality.

The essay performs a remarkable service - building upon much of what Pope John Paul II taught from his own perspective combining Personalism and Catholic morality with strong writings on marriage.  The essay conceptually reunites these ends of marriage as flowing mutually out of one another rather than being opposed to one another or even separate from one another.

Go ahead an give it a read - it's not as intimidating a read as it appears at first glance, and its point is quite beautiful and applicable to the current discussion of perspectives on marriage, its meaning and purpose.

Marital and Family Commitment: A Personalist View at Ignatius Insight