Bless this Marriage

A prayer from the Wedding Liturgy of the Orthodox Church:

 

O God most pure, fashioner of every creature, Who transformed the rib of our Adam into a wife, because of Your love toward mankind, and blessed them and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; Who made of the two one flesh: Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, and what God has joined together, let no man put asunder.

You blessed Your servant Abraham, and opening the womb of Sarah made him to be the father of many nations. You gave Rebekah to Isaac, and blessed her in childbearing. You joined Jacob unto Rachel, and from them brought forth the twelve patriarchs. You united Joseph and Asenath, giving to them Ephraim and Manasseh as the fruit of their procreation. You accepted Zachariah and Elizabeth, and made their offspring to be the Forerunner.

From the root of Jesse according to the flesh, you budded forth form the ever-Virgin one, and was incarnate of her, and was born of her for the redemption of the human race.

Through Your unutterable gift and manifold goodness, You came to Cana of Galilee, and blessed the marriage there, to make manifest that it is Your will that there should be lawful marriage and procreation.

Do You, the same all-holy Master, accept the prayers of us Your servants, As You were present there, be present here also, with Your invisible protection.

Bless this marriage, and grant to these Your servants a peaceful life, length of days, chastity, mutual love in the bond of peace, long-lived offspring, gratitude from the children, and crown of glory that does not fade away. Graciously grant that they may see their children’s children. Preserve their bed unassailed, and give them of the dew of heaven from on high, and of the fatness of the earth. Fill their house with Wheat, Wine, and oil, and every good thing, so that they may give, in turn, to those in need; and grant also to those here present with them all those petitions which are for their salvation.

For You are the God of mercies, and of bounties, and of love towards mankind, and to Your we ascribe glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.