World Peace Marriage Blessing

Readings about marriage from many religions and traditions, with blessing prayers and pledges Universal Peace Federation

Prayer
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is discord, union; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. - St. Francis of Assisi

On Marriage
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow. - Khalil Gibran

Biblical Wisdom
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 Matthew 19:5-6

Jewish Wisdom
From every human being there rises a light that reaches straight to heaven, and when two souls that are designed to be together find each other, their streams of light flow together and a single, brighter light goes forth from their united being. Bal Shem Tov

Christian Wisdom
Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have no love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there be prophecies, they shall fail; where there be tongues, they shall cease; where there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became an adult, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13

Islamic Wisdom
Among His signs is that He created spouses for you among yourselves that you may console yourselves with them. He has planted affection and mercy between you. Quran 30.21

Chinese Wisdom
When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze. And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts, their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids. I Ching

Jewish Blessing

You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, who created everything for his glory. You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, the creator of man. You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, who created man in His image, in the pattern of His own likeness, and provided for the perpetuation of his kind. You are blessed, Lord, the creator of man. Let the barren city be jubilantly happy and joyful at her joyous reunion with her children. You are blessed, Lord, who makes Zion rejoice with her children. Let the loving couple be very happy, just as You made Your creation happy in the garden of Eden, so long ago. You are blessed, Lord, who makes the bridegroom and the bride happy. You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, who created joy and celebration, bridegroom and bride, rejoicing, jubilation, pleasure and delight, love and brotherhood, peace and friendship. May there soon be heard, Lord our G-d, in the cities of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem, the sound of joy and the sound of celebration, the voice of a bridegroom and the voice of a bride, the happy shouting of bridegrooms from their weddings and of young men from their feasts of song. You are blessed, Lord, who makes the bridegroom and the bride rejoice together. You are blessed, Lord our G-d, the sovereign of the world, creator of the fruit of the vine.

Christian Blessing
May the love of God be above you

to overshadow you, beneath you to uphold you, before you to guide you, behind you to protect you, close beside you and within you to make you able for all things, and to reward your faithfulness with the joy and peace which the world cannot give neither can it take away.

Old English Blessing

May your joys be as bright

as the morning, your years of happiness as numerous as the stars in the heavens, and your troubles but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.

Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you,

may the wind be always at your back. May the warm rays of sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields. May green be the grass you walk on, may blue be the skies above you. May pure be the joys that surround you, may true be the hearts that love you. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May God be with you and bless you; may you see your children's children.

Native American Blessing

Now you will feel no rain,

for each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no more loneliness for you, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two bodies, but there is only one life before you. Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your togetherness. And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

Sufi Blessing
May these vows and this marriage be blessed.

May it be sweet milk, this marriage,

like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, with every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcomes the moon in a clear blue sky.

Christian Pledge
o O Lord, omnipotent and eternal God, you

created man and woman in your image and blessed their union, so that each would be for the other a help and support. o Remember us today. Protect us and grant that our love may be in the image of the devotion and love of Christ for his Church. o Grant us a long and fruitful life together, in joy and in peace, so that, through your Son and in the Holy Spirit, our hearts may always rise to you in praise and goods works.

Hawaiian Pledge
o Lord, help us to remember the time we first

met, and the strong love that grew between us. o Help us to apply that love in practical things so nothing divides us. o We humbly ask for kind words filled with love, and for hearts always ready to ask forgiveness, as well as to forgive. o Lord, we leave our marriage in your hands. Amen.

Native American Pledge

o God in heaven above, we honor all you created o o o o o

as we pledge our hearts and lives together. We honor mother-earth and ask for our marriage to be abundant and grow stronger through the seasons; We honor fire and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts; We honor wind and ask we sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms; We honor water to clean and soothe our relationship that it may never thirst for love; With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as we forever grow young together.

Hindu Pledge
o Sweet be the glances we exchange, o o

o o o o o o

our faces showing true concord. Enshrine me in your heart and let one spirit dwell within us. You have become mine forever. Yes, we have become partners. I have become yours. Hereafter, I cannot live without you. Do not live without me. Let us share the joys. We are word and meaning united. You are thought and I am sound. May the nights be honey-sweet for us. May the mornings be honey-sweet for us. May the plants be honey-sweet for us. May the earth be honey-sweet for us.

Buddhist Pledge
o We aspire to make our spiritual path the core

of our life together. o We will help each other on the path to enlightenment, watering the seeds of love, compassion, generosity, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom in each other. o As we age and undergo the various ups and downs of cyclic existence, we aspire to transform them into the path of love, compassion, joy and equanimity.

World Peace Blessing Pledge

o To be faithful in marriage; o To raise children and grandchildren to be pure in preparation for marriage; o To live for the sake of others as a couple and as a family; o To encourage people of all races, religions, nationalities and cultures to live as one family under God.

For Study and Reflection

World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts http://origin.org/ucs/ws/intch4.cfm

Compiled by Joy Pople Universal Peace Federation www.upf.org