For husbands and wives

For the ordinary days, and for the hard ones.

A wedding lasts a day and a marriage lasts decades, most of them unremarkable. This prayer is for those decades: for patience with someone you know too well, for forgiveness asked and given, and for the love that has to be chosen again on the mornings when it is not felt.

The Prayer

Lord God, You joined us together,
and You have kept us together through years we could not have foreseen.

Make us patient with each other's faults,
quick to forgive and quicker to ask forgiveness,
and slow to speak the word that wounds.

Where we have grown careless, wake us.
Where we have grown cold, warm us.
Where we have kept score, teach us to stop.

Give us laughter in our house,
honesty in our conversation,
and tenderness in our old age.

And when one of us goes first,
let the one who remains be able to say
that we loved each other well,
and brought each other closer to You. Amen.

A Prayer for a Marriage in Difficulty

Lord, we are struggling, and You know it.
We have said things we cannot unsay
and kept silences we should have broken.

Do not let us give up on each other while there is still time.
Soften what is hard in me before I ask You to soften what is hard in them.
Send us the help we need — wise counsel, honest friends, Your grace.

Holy Family of Nazareth, pray for our home. Amen.

About This Prayer

The Church calls marriage a sacrament, which means it is not merely a promise between two people but a channel of grace — help given for a job too large to do on willpower. Couples often renew their vows privately on their anniversary; some pray this prayer together on the same day each year. Where a marriage is in serious trouble, seek help early: a priest, a counsellor, or a retreat for couples. Asking for help is not a failure of the sacrament but a use of it.