Prayer of Tobias and Sarah for Married Couples

The Book of Tobit tells the story of young Tobias, guided on his journey by the Archangel Raphael, and his marriage to Sarah, a woman who had known great sorrow. On their wedding night, before anything else, the couple rose and prayed together, praising God as Creator of man and woman and asking Him for mercy and a long life together. The Church has long used this passage at weddings.

It is a beautiful prayer for engaged couples, newlyweds, and married couples renewing their love on an anniversary. It reminds husband and wife that their marriage begins and rests in God. Pray it together at night or on your wedding day. The Douay-Rheims text is below.

The Prayer

Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all thy creatures that are in them, bless thee. Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper. And now, Lord, thou knowest, that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever. Sara also said: Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together in health.

Sources: Tobit (Tobias) 8:7-10, Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), public domain.