Marriage is a gift from God – a profound representation of Christ’s relationship with the Church. Through marriage, Christ seeks to not only draw the husband and wife closer to each other, but also to Himself, helping them grow in love and selflessness. As we observe National Marriage Week, we invite you to reflect on these prayers for marriage, love, and the family – whether you wish to lift up those in your community or your own marriage to God.
Prayer for a Married Couple
O God, who in creating the human race
willed that man and wife should be one,
keep, we pray, in a bond of inseparable love
those who are united in the covenant of Marriage,
so that, as you make their love fruitful,
they may become, by your grace, witnesses to charity itself.
Through Christ our Lord
Amen.
Prayer of a Couple on the Anniversary of Marriage
We praise you, O God,
we bless you, Creator of all things,
who in the beginning made man and woman
that they might form a communion of life and love.
We also give you thanks
for graciously blessing our family life
so that it might present an image of Christ’s union with the Church.
Therefore, look with kindness upon us today,
and as you have sustained our communion
amid joys and struggles,
renew our Marriage covenant each day,
increase our charity,
and strengthen in us the bond of peace,
so that we may for ever enjoy your blessing.
Through Christ our Lord
Amen.
Prayer in Defense of Marriage
God our Father, we give you thanks
for the gift of marriage: the bond of life and love,
and the font of the family.
The love of husband and wife enriches your Church with children,
fills the world with a multitude of spiritual fruitfulness and service,
and is the sign of the love of your Son, Jesus Christ, for his Church.
The grace of Jesus flowed forth at Cana at the
request of the Blessed Mother. May your Son,
through the intercession of Mary, pour out upon us
a new measure of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
as we join with all people of good will
to promote and protect the unique beauty of marriage.
May your Holy Spirit enlighten our society
to treasure the heroic love of husband and wife,
and guide our leaders to sustain and protect
the singular place of mothers and fathers
in the lives of their children.
Father, we ask that our prayers
be joined to those of the Virgin Mary,
that your Word may transform our service
so as to safeguard the incomparable splendor of marriage.
We ask all these things through Christ our Lord,
Amen.
A Prayer for Marriage & Family by Pope John Paul II
Lord God, from you every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.
Father, you are Love and Life.
Through your Son, Jesus Christ, born of woman, and through the Holy Spirit, fountain of divine charity, grant that every family on earth may become for each successive generation a true shrine of life and love.
Grant that your grace may guide the thoughts and actions of husbands and wives for the good of their families and of all the families in the world.
Grant that the young may find in the family solid support for their human dignity and for their growth in truth and love.
Grant that love, strengthened by the grace of the sacrament of marriage, may prove mightier than all the weakness and trials through which our families sometimes pass.
Through the intercession of the Holy Family of Nazareth, grant that the Church may fruitfully carry out her worldwide mission in the family and through the family.
Through Christ our Lord, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life for ever and ever.
Amen
Sources:
A Prayer for Marriage & Family by Pope John Paul II, Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.
Prayer for a Married Couple, USCCB.
Prayer in Defense of Marriage, USCBB.
Prayer of a Couple on the Anniversary of Marriage, USCCB.