Deus, qui potestáte virtútis tuæ de níhilo cuncta fecísti: qui, dispósitis universitátis exórdiis, hómini ad imáginem Dei facto, ídeo inseparábile mulíeris adiutórium condidísti, ut femíneo córpori de viríli dares carne princípium, docens quod ex uno placuísset instítui, numquam licére disiúngi:
réspice propítius super hanc fámulam tuam, quæ maritáli iungénda consórtio, tua se éxpetit protectióne muníri. Sit in ea iugum dilectiónis et pacis: fidélis et casta nubat in Christo, imitatríxque sanctárum permáneat feminárum.
Sit amábilis viro suo, ut Rachel: sápiens, ut Rebécca: longǽva et fidélis, ut Sara. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum. Amen.
O God, who by the power of Thy might didst make all things out of nothing; who, having set in order the beginnings of the world, and made man to the image of God, didst appoint woman to be his inseparable helpmeet, so that the woman’s body took its beginning from the flesh of man, teaching that what it had pleased Thee to form from one principle might never lawfully be put asunder:
look in mercy upon this Thy handmaid, who is to be joined in wedded partnership and who prays to be strengthened by Thy protection. May the yoke of love and of peace be upon her; may she marry in Christ faithful and chaste, and remain an imitator of holy women.
May she be lovable to her husband like Rachel, wise like Rebecca, long-lived and faithful like Sara. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Nuptial Blessing is the Church’s own solemn prayer over a bride and groom, spoken by the priest within the Nuptial Mass after the Our Father. It is one of the most venerable prayers in the whole liturgy: forms of it are found already in the ancient Roman sacramentaries — the Leonine, Gelasian, and Gregorian — making it well over fourteen hundred years old, prayed over Christian couples since the Church’s first centuries.
The blessing reaches back to the very beginning. It recalls that God made all things from nothing, formed man in His own image, and gave woman as his "inseparable helpmeet," drawn from his own flesh (cf. Genesis 2:21–24). From this it draws the great law of Christian marriage: what God formed "from one principle" may "never lawfully be put asunder" — the indissolubility Our Lord confirmed (Matthew 19:6). Marriage is not a human invention to be dissolved at will, but a bond willed by God from creation.
The prayer then asks concrete graces upon the bride: the "yoke of love and of peace," a faithful and chaste marriage "in Christ," and a life modeled on the holy women of Scripture — lovable like Rachel, wise like Rebecca, faithful and long-lived like Sara. In the traditional rite the bride was often veiled for this blessing, a sign of the reverence and consecration of Christian marriage. (The full blessing continues at greater length; its principal petitions are given here.)
O God, who by the power of Thy might didst make all things out of nothing; who, having set in order the beginnings of the world, and made man to the image of God, didst appoint woman to be his inseparable helpmeet, so that the woman’s body took its beginning from the flesh of man, teaching that what it had pleased Thee to form from one principle might never lawfully be put asunder:
look in mercy upon this Thy handmaid, who is to be joined in wedded partnership and who prays to be strengthened by Thy protection. May the yoke of love and of peace be upon her; may she marry in Christ faithful and chaste, and remain an imitator of holy women.
May she be lovable to her husband like Rachel, wise like Rebecca, long-lived and faithful like Sara. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Deus, qui potestáte virtútis tuæ de níhilo cuncta fecísti: qui, dispósitis universitátis exórdiis, hómini ad imáginem Dei facto, ídeo inseparábile mulíeris adiutórium condidísti, ut femíneo córpori de viríli dares carne princípium, docens quod ex uno placuísset instítui, numquam licére disiúngi:
réspice propítius super hanc fámulam tuam, quæ maritáli iungénda consórtio, tua se éxpetit protectióne muníri. Sit in ea iugum dilectiónis et pacis: fidélis et casta nubat in Christo, imitatríxque sanctárum permáneat feminárum.
Sit amábilis viro suo, ut Rachel: sápiens, ut Rebécca: longǽva et fidélis, ut Sara. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum. Amen.
O God, who by the power of Thy might didst make all things out of nothing; who, having set in order the beginnings of the world, and made man to the image of God, didst appoint woman to be his inseparable helpmeet, so that the woman’s body took its beginning from the flesh of man, teaching that what it had pleased Thee to form from one principle might never lawfully be put asunder:
look in mercy upon this Thy handmaid, who is to be joined in wedded partnership and who prays to be strengthened by Thy protection. May the yoke of love and of peace be upon her; may she marry in Christ faithful and chaste, and remain an imitator of holy women.
May she be lovable to her husband like Rachel, wise like Rebecca, long-lived and faithful like Sara. Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.