#5 Blessing and Prayer Examples – Religious and Contemporary
The blessing examples can be used as readings, by someone you wish to include in your ceremony, or by your Officiant. Some blessings are religious in nature and others contemporary. They may be used in any style of wedding, placed as optional readings, or included following, or replacing another prayer, the benediction, or the ring exchange (as noted).
You do not need to choose prayers, because they will be prepared for you, but they are provided so you may choose if you would like to. The prayers include the traditional “Prayer for the Marriage” Service Ministries uses. There are other prayer examples you may use instead, or add to your wedding ceremony.
Table of Contents
Page #Title
- Table of Contents
Blessings
- Apache Blessing
- Blessings for your Marriage
- Blessing of Hands – Religious (To be used after ring exchange)
- Blessing of Hands – Contemporary (To be used afterring exchange)
- Blessings on your Wedding Day
- Blessings this Day
- Irish Blessing
- May You be Blessed with Love
- Wedding Blessing
Prayers
- Cherokee Prayer
- Make Us an Instrument of your Peace
- Make Us Instruments of your Peace
- My Prayer for You
- Prayer for God’s Blessings
- Prayer for the Marriage – Service Ministries Traditional and Option of The Lord’s Prayer
- Prayer for the Groom and Bride - A
- Prayer for the Groom and Bride - B
- Prayer for the Groom and Bride - C
- Prayers of the Faithful
- Wedding Prayer
Apache Blessing
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two people,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place
To enter into the days of your togetherness
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Treat yourselves and each other with respect,
And remind yourselves often of what brought you together.
Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
Gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.
When frustration, difficulty and fear assail your relationship –
As they threaten all relationships at one time or another –
Remember to focus on what is right between you,
Not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms
When clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives –
Remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment,
The sun is still there.
And if each of you takes responsibility
For the quality of your life together,
It will be marked by abundance and delight.
Blessing For Your Marriage by James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring,
And may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.
May you always need one another - not so much to fill your emptiness
As to help you know your fullness.
A mountain needs a valley to be complete;
the valley does not make the mountain less but more;
and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it.
So let it be with you and you.
May you need one another, but not out of weakness.
May you want one another, but not out of lack.
May you entice one another, but not compel one another.
May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces.
May you look for things to praise, often say, "I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.
If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense -
Enough - to take the first step back.
May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence;
No more physical than spiritual,
Warm and near when you are side by side,
And warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another!
Blessing of Hands– Religious
(May be used following the exchange of rings in place of a unity element.)
Groom and Bride, look closely upon each others hands that you hold on this, your wedding day.
These are the hands of your best friend, strong and full of love, holding your hands as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years.
These are the hands that through the years, with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will tenderly lift your chin, as they raise your face, to look into eyes that are filled with overwhelming love for you.
Optional lines in red depending on the couple.
These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.
These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength to hold on when you need it.
Throughout the years you will love, laugh and cry together, and share your innermost secrets and dreams.
These hands will continue to tenderly and gently nurture you with love throughout your lives.
These are the hands that when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.
May these hands continue to build a relationship founded in care and devotion for one another.
We ask that God bless this couple, these hands, and the wedding rings worn upon them, as they symbolize the promises made here today.
Blessing of Hands - Contemporary
(May be used following the exchange of rings in place of a unity element.)
Groom and Bride, look closely upon each others hands that you hold on this, your wedding day.
These are the hands of your best friend, strong and full of love, holding your hands as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours, as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years.
These are the hands that through the years, with the slightest touch, will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes; tears of sorrow, and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will tenderly lift your chin, as they raise your face, to look into eyes that are filled with overwhelming love for you.
(Optional)
These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.
These are the hands that will help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength to hold on when you need it.
Throughout the years you will love, laugh and cry together, and share your innermost secrets and dreams.
These hands will continue to tenderly and gently nurture you with love throughout your lives.
These are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged, will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.
May these hands continue to build a relationship founded in care and devotion for one another.
May this couple, these hands, and the wedding rings worn upon them, be blessed, as they symbolize the promises made here today.
Blessing on Your Wedding Day(Author Unknown)
Today is a day you will always remember
The greatest in anyone’s life
You’ll start off the day just two people in love
And end it as Husband and Wife
It’s a brand new beginning the start of a journey
With moments to cherish and treasure
And although there’ll be times when you both disagree
These will surely be outweighed by pleasure
You’ll have heard many words of advice in the past
When the secrets of marriage were spoken
But you know that the answers lie hidden inside
Where the bond of true love lies unbroken
So live happy forever as lovers and friends
It’s the dawn of a new life for you
As you stand there together with love in your eyes
From the moment you whisper ‘I do’
And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real
May success find its way to your hearts.
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys
But today is the day it all starts.
Blessings This Day(Author Unknown)
May this day shine eternally in your lives.
May it add brilliance to every achievement
And cast a divine light over any misfortune.
May you care for each other in all sadness.
May you give cheer to each other.
May you give vitality to each other in all undertakings.
May all that is virtuous, beautiful and honest, remain with you always.
Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of his hand
May green be the grass you walk on
May blue be the skies above you
May pure be the joys that surround you
May true be the hearts that love you
May God be with you and bless you
May you see your children's children
May you be poor in misfortune
And rich in blessings
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.
May You Be Blessed with Love
Groom and Bride, in joining your lives
May God, with his grace, bless you with...
Love - To afford each other a special quality of time together.
Joy - In the accomplishments of one another.
Understanding - That your interests and desires will not always be the same.
Friendship - Based on mutual trust.
Courage - To speak of a misunderstanding and work on a solution before the setting of the sun.
Compassion - To comfort each other in pain and sorrow.
Foresight - To realize rainbows follow rainy days.
Imagination - To keep with you - part of the child you used to be.
Good Humor - So you may always find a silver lining through your sense of humor.
Awareness - To live each day with the knowledge that there is no promise of tomorrow.
May God bless you and keep you in the palm of his hands.
Wedding Blessing(Author Unknown)
May you never take each other for granted
but always experience the wonders of your union.
May your love consist not only in gazing into each other’s eyes,
but also in looking outward in the same direction.
May your life together be a source of strength and inspiration
to yourselves, your families and your friends.
May you never forget the beginning of your love for one another,
take care of it, nurture it, and allow it to grow
strong and firm in the years that are to come.
May you always concentrate on making each other
happy and secure in your commitment to one another.
May you always rely on your ability to keep the promises
you have made to one another today
throughout the thick and thin of life’s experiences.
And may you always be in love.
May your love be as beautiful each day you share
as it is on this day of your wedding
and may all of your wishes come true.
Cherokee Prayer
God in heaven above
please protect the ones we love.
We honor all you have created
asGroom and Bridepledge
their hearts and lives together.
We honor mother-earth -
and ask for their marriage to be abundant
and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honor fire -
and ask that their union be warm -
and glowing with love in their hearts;
We honor wind –
and ask that they sail though life
safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honor water –
to clean and soothe their relationship -
that they may never thirst for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created,
we pray for harmony and true happiness
as Groom and Bride forever grow young together.
Amen.
Make Us an Instrument of Your Peace
(Prayer modified for the Bride & Groom from a Prayer by St. Francis of Assisi)
God, make Groom and Bride instruments of your peace:
That where there is hatred, may they bring love;
Where there is hurt, may they bring the spirit of forgiveness;
Where there is conflict, may they bring agreement;
Where there is doubt, may they bring faith;
Where there is despair, may they bring hope;
Where there is darkness, may they bring light;
Where there is sadness, may they bring joy.
For it is by giving that they shall receive,
By losing that they shall find,
By forgiving that they shall be forgiven.
God grant that they seek to comfort, rather than to be comforted,
To understand, than to be understood,
To love, than to be loved.
Amen.
Make Us Instruments of Your Peace - Prayerby St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, Grant that we may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
My Prayer for You(Modified from a prayer from Paul written in Ephesians 1:17-19)
As a Prayer for the Bride and Groom:
Let us Pray:
God, our prayer forGroom and Bride, is thatthe Spirit of Christ may be more and more at home in their hearts, living within them as they trust in you.May the root of their love for one another go down deep into the soil of Your marvelous love. May You open the eyes of their hearts. Let Your presence in their lives give them the wisdom to know, feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how glorious, how long, how wide, how deep and how high Your love really is. God, grant that they may experience this love and hope for themselves - though they will never see the end of it, or fully know or understand it - and so at last -they will be filled with the Spirit of God himself. Amen.
Alternate Version:
Groom and Bride, as the Apostle Paul prayed, the same is our request for you:
Our prayer for you isthat the Spirit of Christ may be more and moreat home in your hearts,living within you as you trust in him.May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. May God open the eyes of your hearts. Let His presence in your life give you the wisdom to know, feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how glorious, how long, how wide, how deep and how high his love really is. God grant that you may experience this love and hope for yourselves - though you will never see the end of it, or fully know or understand it - and so at last -you will be filled with the Spirit of God himself. Amen.
Prayer for God’s Blessings
Dear God,
Please bless Groom and Bride.
May their love be nurtured by You, always, and forever.
May this marriage be held in Your hands and ministered unto by Your angels.
We dedicate this love to You.
May it serve Your purposes; may it increase Your dominion.
May this man grow strong in the arms of this woman.
May this woman grow glorious in the love of this man.
May the earth be brought closer to heaven through this love.