Catholic Wedding Vows For Bride and Groom: Traditional Catholic Church wedding ceremony is a bit different from any other religious wedding. Whether you were reared in Catholicism or converted to the religion for your partner, you know that marriage is one of the most important events in the life of a Catholic and one of the seven sacraments of the Church. As such, Catholic wedding vows are part of a larger liturgy officiated by an ordained priest or deacon within a traditional wedding ceremony.
Catholic wedding vows are an important part of a Catholic wedding, the exchange of Catholic vows of marriage is considered as a consent through which a man and a woman accept each other. Without the sacred words, the marriage won’t happen. This act, when a man and a woman give themselves to each other, is a part of every wedding ceremony.
Traditional Catholic Wedding Vows In English
The Catholic Rite of Marriage has guidelines for Catholic wedding ceremony vows that couples are expected to uphold, although they have several options for their vows.
Before the vows can take place, the couple is expected to answer three questions:
Questions Before The Consent
The Catholic Priest will ask both bride and groom about their freedom of choice, fidelity to each other, and the acceptance and upbringing of children, and each responds separately.
- (Name) and (Name), have you come here to enter into Marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly?
Groom Answer: I have. Bride Answer: I have. - Are you prepared, as you follow the path of Marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?
Groom Answer: I am. Bride Answer: I am.
The next question may be omitted if circumstances suggest this, for example, if the couple is advanced in years.
- Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Groom Answer: I am. Bride Answer: I am.
The standard version of traditional Catholic wedding vows, as given in the Rite of Marriage, is as follows:
- I, (name), take you, (name), to be my (wife/husband). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
There are some acceptable variations of this vow. In some cases, couples may be worried about forgetting the words, which is common during such high-stress moments; in this case, it is acceptable for the priest to phrase the vow as a question, which is then answered with “I do” by each party.
You will respond with either “I will” or “yes,” then continue onto the vows themselves:
I, _____, take you, _____, to be my (husband/wife). I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
I, (name), take you, (name), to be my wife/husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
I, (name), take you, (name), for my lawful wife/husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
The Reception of Consent
Receiving their consent, the priest says to the bride and groom:
May the Lord in his kindness strengthen the consent you have declared before the Church and graciously bring to fulfillment his blessings within you. What God has joined, let no one put asunder.
May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God who joined together our first parents in paradise, strength and bless in Christ the consent you have declared before the Church, so that what God joins together, no one may put asunder.
The Priest invites those present to praise God: Let us bless the Lord.
All reply: Thanks be to God.
Another acclamation may be sung or said.
Blessing and Giving of Rings
Option 1
Priest: May the Lord bless these rings,
which you will give to each other
as the sign of your love and fidelity.
Response: Amen.
Option 2 (#194)
Priest: Bless, O Lord, these rings
which we bless in your name.
so that those who wear them
may remain entirely faithful to each other,
abide in peace and in your will,
and live always in mutual charity.
Through Christ our Lord.
Response: Amen.
Option 3 (#195)
Priest: Bless and sanctify your servants
in their love, O Lord,
and let these rings, a sign of their faithfulness,
remind them of their love for one another.
Through Christ our Lord.
Response: Amen.
The Priest sprinkles the rings, as the circumstances so suggest, and gives them to the bride and groom.
The husband places his wife’s ring on her ring finger, saying, as the circumstances so suggest:
(Name), receive this ring
as a sign of my love and fidelity.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Likewise, the wife places her husband’s ring on his ring finger saying, as the circumstances so suggest:
(Name), receive this ring
as a sign of my love and fidelity.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Optional: The Blessing and Giving of Arras
If the occasion so suggests, the rite of blessing and giving of arras (coins) may take place following the giving of rings.
The Priest says: Bless, O Lord, these arras that (Name) and (Name) will give to each other and pour over them the abundance of your good gifts.
The husband takes the arras and hands them over to his wife saying:
(Name), receive these arras as a pledge of God’s blessing and a sign of the good gifts we will share.
The wife takes the arras and hands them over to his wife saying:
(Name), receive these arras as a pledge of God’s blessing and a sign of the good gifts we will share.
Congratulations on your marriage!!!!!