Prayer has real power, and if you ask for bread, you will not be given a stone…Jesus, here we are, the two of us standing before you, just as on the day we received from each other the sacrament of Matrimony, just as on that day that you blessed our love. But today, Lord, we are cast down, cold, far from you, missing the warmth of your love.
Our love feels dried up. Pour out your Holy Spirit over us, that He might cleanse us, heal us, restore and renew us, so that this love that you blessed on the day of our marriage might rise again, transformed now by your love, as you turned the water into wine for that couple you blessed with your presence in Cana.
Jesus, sever and free us from any attachment either of us has to sin. Separate from us any spirit of infidelity. Come to our family, our home; bless our children, bless our life. You made our hearts for you; make the yearnings of our hearts coincide with your will, and allow me to be the spouse that my husband/wife yearns for, and may he/she be the spouse I yearn for.
Lord, we call upon the graces of this powerful sacrament that has bound us, inseparably on this earth, into one flesh, making two become one. Heal us, Lord.
Jesus, bring your Holy Family to reside in our home, so that we might know how to raise our children in the model set us by Mary and Joseph, and so that our children might embrace the Father’s will as you did. Send us your holy angels, with the Archangels Raphael, Michael and Gabriel, to protect us.
Pour out your precious Blood on this marriage, on this home, on this family. Holy Mother Mary, cover us with your mantle.
Amen.
[Translated and adapted from Oraciones.es through Aleteia Spanish]
LEARN MORE:
In the Western Church’s celebration of the sacrament of Matrimony, the spouses themselves confer the sacrament on each other. The priest or deacon acts as a witness. This is in contrast to other sacraments, wherein it is generally an ordained minister who confers the sacrament — the priest is the one who confers the sacrament of Reconciliation; the bishop confers the sacrament of Holy Orders; etc.
The Catechism notes in #1639: “The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises ‘an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society.’ The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God’s covenant with man: ‘Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.’”
You can read the full section on marriage in the Catechism of the Catholic Church here: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c3a7.htm
