Recommended Book: First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians - Kindle Edition (get Kindle app for phone) (paid link)

O, God, by your power you have made everything out of nothing. In the beginning you created the universe and made us in your own likeness. You gave man the constant help of woman so that man and woman should no longer be two, but one flesh, and you teach us that what you have united may never be divided.

O, God, you have made the union of man and wife so holy a mystery that it symbolizes the marriage of Christ and his people.

O, God, by your plan man and woman are united, and married life has been established as the one blessing that was not forfeited by sin.

Look with love upon this woman, your daughter, now joined to her husband in marriage. She asks your blessing. Give her the grace of love and peace. May she always follow the example of the holy women whose praises are sung in the scriptures.

May her husband put his trust in her and know that she is his equal and the heir with him to the life of grace. May he always honor her and love her as Christ loves his people.

Keep them always true to your commandments. Keep them faithful in marriage and let them be living examples of Christian life.

Give them the strength which comes from the gospel so that they may be witnesses of Christ to others. And, after a happy old age, grant them fullness of life with the saints in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Said at a wedding at the Cathedral of The Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee in December of 1996.