Human Relationship
*Loving God, each new generation of humans is granted freedom to choose eternal life with You as children of God. You made men and women to complement each other, and to share in Your Creation by propagation of their kind from generation to generation.
You created men and women as reciprocally attractive, finding beauty and treasure in the presumed goodness of the cherished other. In their mutual attraction and vulnerability, men and women are led to dedicate themselves to each other. You bless this intimacy of interaction through Your Sacrament of Matrimony, with its safeguards to soul and body in the security of continuing union.
This Sacrament was instituted to ensure that men and women serve Your will in unselfish ministry to each other’s spiritual, mental, emotional needs—so that each is a sacrament of Your love to the other. The welfare of children born of this sacramental union is assured if lived out in love. Love is the basis of our relation to You and to each other.
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Our God, please bless married couples with love, faith, hope, forgiveness, and perseverance. Please guard them and their family relationships against selfishness and injustice, against cruelty and abuse, against misunderstanding and insensitivity. Shield them against impurity and promiscuity.
Please flood families with healing grace when unemployment, and financial pressures threaten to erode family life. Support them where illness or disability threatens to overwhelm their strength and relationships. Encourage and support them when the actions of each other or their children disrupt family peace and unity.
Have mercy on anyone trapped in marriages that lack tenderness and affection. Comfort those who have bitter and critical spouses. Cherish those whose partners do their duty without love. Have pity on those who are controlled by the other’s will or selfish inclinations. Give support to those whose spouses are faithless, and bring forgiveness and constancy into their union.
Please give grace and assistance to those whose marriage relationships are endangered. Grant them perseverance in mutual compassion and communication. Help them to deal wisely with their problems and to allow sufficient relaxation and humour to restore their ability to cope with pressure and anxiety. Please restore marital relationship with love that overcomes all.
Our God please be merciful towards the needs and anxieties of husbands, wives and children in married and family life. Give restoration and courage to afflicted and aggrieved partners and children, and patiently heal them and their relationships through the Spirit. Let love mould them in faith, wisdom and maturity.
In their suffering and in their joys let them grow stronger by trusting in Your grace. In daily struggle and mutual service, let them become more Christlike. Support them through easy times and difficult, with the joy, and peace of true Christian living, so that they witness Your gospel to Church and society.
Please forgive all sins against matrimony. Halt the erosion of respect owed to this Sacrament through various forms of non-Sacramental union.