For renewing the promises

For the day you said yes, however long ago.

An anniversary is a good day to say the words again — not as a formality but because a marriage is renewed by choice, repeatedly, over decades. Many couples pray this together and then go out to dinner, which is also a sacrament of sorts.

The Prayer

Lord, on this day we made promises
we did not fully understand.

Thank You for the years since:
for what has been good, which we sometimes forget to notice,
and for what has been hard, which taught us more.

Thank You for forgiveness given and received,
for the children, if You gave us any,
and for the ordinary evenings nobody will ever remember but us.

Renew in us today what You gave us then.
Make us patient, faithful and glad in each other,
and let us grow old together in Your friendship. Amen.

A Renewal of Promises

I take you again as my wife (husband),
to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish, until death do us part.

About This Custom

Ask your parish about a blessing for married couples on a significant anniversary — many dioceses hold an annual Mass for couples marking twenty-five, forty and fifty years. The Book of Blessings has a rite for it, and most priests are glad to be asked.