PRAYERS

(1)

                                            I Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

(2)

                                                 I John 4:7-19

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

We love, because He first loved us.

(3)

                                        Bless This Marriage

Bless this marriage, O God, as ____ and ____ begin their journey down the road of life together.

We don't know what lies ahead for the road turns and bends. But help them to make the best of whatever comes their way.

Help them to hug each other often, talk and laugh a lot.

Help them to continue to enjoy each other as they did when they first met.

Help them to realize that nothing nor no one is perfect and to look for the good in all things and all people including themselves.

Help them to respect each other's likes and dislikes, opinion and beliefs, hopes and dreams and fears.

Help them to learn from each other and to help each other to grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Help them to realize that there is design and purpose in their lives as in the world, and if they will hold onto each other, they will know that things have a way of working out for the good.

Help them to create for their children a peaceful, stable home of love as a foundation on which they can build their lives.

But most of all, dear God, help them to keep lit the torch of love' that they now share in their hearts so that by their loving example they may pass on the light of love to their children and to their children's children forever. Amen

(4)

Gracious God, our hearts are filled with great happiness on this the wedding day of _____ and _______. They come before you, pledging their lives and their hearts to one another.

Grant that they may be ever true and loving, living together in such a way as to never bring heartbreak into their marriage.

Temper their hearts with kindness and help them to be sweethearts, helpmates, friend and guide, and together, may they meet the cares and problems of life more bravely.

May their home truly be a place of love and harmony where your Spirit is ever present. Bless their wedding day, we pray, and walk beside them, through all their life together. Amen.

                                                  Closing Prayers

We ask that the Holy Spirit of love may deepen the lives of ____________ and ___________. May the relationship, which today has been expressed, continue to grow in the years to come. And whatever changes time may bring, let this wedding ceremony remain as a treasured memory and a guide to life.

May they always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims: "Out of all this world, YOU have chosen ME."

When life is done and the sun is setting, may they be found then as now, still hand in hand, still thanking thee for each other. Amen

Dear God, look mercifully upon your children, ________ and ________, and be generous with them. Give them a sense of joy, excitement, possibility, and challenge about what they are undertaking here, the ever-unfolding and beautiful work of refining their spirits in the presence of each other's witness, of becoming the bearers of your love.

Give them peace of heart and strength of spirit so they may honor the vows they make here today. And may the promises they make here today inspire and instruct each of us who celebrates with them. Amen.

This marriage is a serious covenant made before God and before all of us as witnesses.

In acknowledgment of its Holy Purpose and the power of the occasion, let us pray.

God of Love, who gives us the longing for, and capability of loving, we give you thanks for ________ and _______ , for their open hearts and willing spirits, and for the example of love that they embody here in our presence. Be with them on this joyous occasion of showing their love and making their vows; and be with us, their witnesses, that we may all be changed by what is said and witnessed here.

Serious Covenant

(5)

                                            Bond Of Marriage

Father, you have made the bond of marriage a holy mystery, a symbol of Christ's love for his Church. Hear our prayers for ___________ and ___________. With faith in you and in each other they pledge their love today. May their lives always bear witness to the reality of that love

(6)

                                               A Wedding Prayer

O God, who out of all the world hast let us find one another and learn together the meaning of love, let us never fail to hold love precious. Let the flame of it never flicker or grow dim, but burn in our hearts as an unwavering devotion and shine though our eyes in gentleness and understanding on which no shadow falls. As the road of life we walk together lengthens, forbid that the dust of it should ever drift into our souls. Help us to have the sense to climb high places of memory and of imagination, so that we may recall the beauty that lies behind us and believe in the beauty that lies before. Make us sure that romance does not depend on time or place, but that daily it may be renewed in the awareness of those larger possibilities in one another which love itself creates.

Teach us to remember the little courtesies, to be swift to speak the grateful and the happy word, to believe in each other's best and to face all life bravely because we face it with united hearts. So may whatever spot of earth you give us to dwell in be as a garden in which all sweet and lovely things may grow;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.                                                 Amen