My brother-in-law and his wife were married in 2007, but they never got a chance to celebrate it with a reception.  They finally had their reception today and asked me to offer a blessing.

This is what I said:

A reading from the Book of Genesis (2:7-8, 18-24). 

The LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.  

God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.  

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; let Us make him a helper suitable for him." Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.  

So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "At last, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Lord God, 

You created in Adam a longing for a companion, a helper, a partner. Alone, Adam was incomplete. Nothing earthly could fulfill that longing, not even the paradise of Eden. Only Eve could make him proclaim, “At last.” It was only with the creation of woman that man was made truly complete, only with another person to love was Adam made fully human. And so it is with all of humanity. That longing is so fundamental, so profound, so encompassing, that you created a fulfillment that is equally profound and encompassing, a bond that makes husband and wife one flesh, makes one where once there were two.

We ask that you fill every moment of Adam and Chastain’s marriage with the first man’s “At last;” every call, every home-coming, every morning awakening, every exhalation, their own “at last.” We pray that You will direct and redirect their longing to its true fulfillment, to each other, so that they will never forget that the longing at the very core of their being can only be fulfilled by each other, and that nothing, no diversion, no hobby, no occupation, no possession, no earthly delight can come close.

Lord God, 

Your Apostle tells us that You Yourself are love. Therefore, where there is love, there You are; and without you, there is no love. You are as essential to marriage as husband or wife.

We pray that you will always be present in Adam and Chastain’s marriage. Enflame their love with your constant presence. Sanctify their marital love, making it a sign to the world of your Divine Love.

Lord Jesus, 

You began your public ministry, and thus your saving work, with a miracle at a wedding. When the wine at Cana ran out, you surpassed it with your new vintage. With common water and the basins dedicated to the lowly task of washing the guests’ feet, you created the finest wine of the festivities. You began your mission of salvation at this wedding, and so marriage is always linked to salvation. And in marriage, the husband and wife become instruments of your saving work in each other’s lives. You have put their very souls in each others’ hands.

We pray that you will always be a guest at the feast of Adam and Chastain’s marriage. Be with them when, like the wine at the wedding in Cana, their own strength runs out. Give them the grace to trust you, you who can take the most ordinary and unexpected things in life and make of them the finest things.

Lord Jesus, 

You called yourself the bridegroom to your bride the Church, and in doing so you reveal the true, exalted nature of marriage. By your own example you reveal what it means to be married: to put the other before self, to clearly and uncompromisingly speak truth - even when it is hard - to be generous with mercy and forgiveness, to offer healing. You modeled the true nature of marital love: to give of self, to give fully and completely, to give unreservedly, to give unconditionally, to give even when there is no possibility of repayment, to give sacrificially.

We pray that you will mold Adam and Chastain in your own image as spouse. Strengthen them so that when they daily see the many other visions of marriage - marriage that is selfish, marriage that is self-serving, marriage that is disposable, marriage that keeps score, marriage that is faithless, marriage that seeks only to be 50-50, when 100-100 is what is required – that they may strive instead for Your vision of marriage. Draw their love ever upward into that divine model of marriage. Give them the Grace to put each other before themselves, to be honest with each other – remembering that real truth cannot be spoken without love – to be generous with mercy and forgiveness, to be healing in each other’s lives. Daily teach them that to love is make a gift of themselves, a total, unconditional, unreserved gift of self.  

When the hard times come, as they most assuredly will, we pray that you will draw them ever closer together. When it all seems too much to bear, give them the Grace to withdraw toward each other, not away from each other.

Lord Jesus, 

As everlasting life flows from your nuptial bond to your Church, we pray that you will abundantly fill Adam and Chastain’s marriage with life: the ever-growing life of Sierra, the life of any future children with which you choose to bless them, the life of love.

We ask all this in Your name,
Amen.