My LORD’s BibleThe Roman Missal: Mass for a Bridegroom and Bride, and Occasional Prayers (English) 1
The Mass for a Bridegroom and Bride, with the prayers over the new-married couple, and the Occasional Prayers (for the intercession of saints, for all degrees in the Church, for pastors, for the family, for concord, in any necessity or tribulation, for rain and fine weather, for the remission of sins, for friends and for enemies), in English, as printed in the Rev. F. C. Husenbeth's Missal for the use of the Laity (London, 1853), in the form used from the Council of Trent until the liturgical reform of the 1950s. This is the English only; the Latin is to be added. The words in square brackets are the Missal's own headings and directions. A liturgy of the Catholic Church, not scripture.
1[Mass for a Bridegroom and Bride.]
2Introit. Job vii. viii. May the God of Israel join you together; and may he be with you, who took pity upon two only children: and now, O Lord, make them bless thee more fully. Ps. Blessed are all they that fear the Lord; that walk in his ways. Glory, &c.
3Prayer. Exaudi nos. Graciously hear us, O almighty and merciful God; that what is performed by our ministry may be more fully accomplished by thy blessing. Through our Lord, &c.
4Epistle. Ephes. v. 22—23. Brethren, let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord; for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church: He is the saviour of his body. Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it; as also Christ doth the Church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall stick to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself, and let the wife fear her husband.
6[After Septuagesima, instead of the Alleluia and Verse, the following is said:]
7Tract. Behold thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. May the Lord bless thee out of Sion; and mayest thou see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.—And mayest thou see thy children's children: peace upon Israel.
8[In Paschal Time the Gradual is omitted, and the following said:]
10Gospel. St Matthew xix. 3—6. At that time, the Pharisees came to Jesus, tempting him and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Who answering, said to them, Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? and he said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
11Offertory. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped: I said, thou art my God; my times are in thy hands.
12Secret. Receive, we beseech thee, O Lord, the gift offered for the sacred law of matrimony; and be thou the disposer of the work of which thou art the author. Through our Lord, &c.
14Prayer. Propitiare Domine. Favourably attend to our supplications, O Lord, and graciously protect thy institution, by which thou hast provided for the propagation of mankind; that the union made by thy appointment, may be preserved by thy assistance. Through our Lord, &c.
15[Let us pray.]
16O God, who by the power of thy might didst make all things of nothing, and having ordered the beginning of the universe, and made man to the image of God, didst so appoint for him the inseparable help of woman, as to give to the body of woman its beginning from the flesh of the man, teaching us thereby that what it pleased thee to form from one, it would never be lawful to put asunder. O God, who hast consecrated the conjugal union by so excellent a mystery, as to represent the sacrament of Christ and the Church by the nuptial contract: O God, by whom woman is united with man, and that alliance ordained in the beginning is gifted with that blessing, which alone was taken away neither by the punishment of original sin, nor by the sentence of the deluge: look down favourably upon this thy handmaid, who being now to be joined in matrimony, prays to be defended by thy protection. May the yoke upon her be of charity and peace; faithful and chaste may she marry in Christ, and remain an imitator of holy women. May she be pleasing to her husband, as Rachel; prudent, as Rebecca; long-lived and faithful, as Sara. May the author of sin find none of his actions in her. May she remain constant to faith and the commandments: united to one, may she fly all unlawful connexions. May she protect her weakness by the strength of discipline. May she be grave in bashfulness, venerable in modesty, instructed in heavenly doctrine. May she be fruitful in children, approved and innocent; and may she arrive at the repose of the blessed, and the kingdom of heaven; and may they both see the children of their children to the third and fourth generation, and arrive at desired old age. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, &c.
17[The Priest then continues the Mass, and at the proper time administers the Holy Communion to the new-married couple.]
18Communion. Behold, thus shall every man be blessed that feareth the Lord; and mayest thou see thy children's children: peace upon Israel.
19Postcom. Quæsumus. We beseech thee, Almighty God, to accompany the institutions of thy providence with thy gracious favour; that thou mayest preserve those with lasting peace whom thou unitest in lawful union. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.
20[Before the Blessing of the People, the Priest turns to the new-married couple and says,]
22[The Priest seriously admonishes them to be faithful to each other; to observe continence at times of prayer, and especially on fasts and solemn festivals; mutually to love each other, and to persevere in the fear of God. Then he sprinkles them with holy water, and concludes the Mass in the usual manner.]