When it is said
The priest says it at an Orthodox wedding, soon after the Gospel of the wedding at Cana is read.
Later in the service everyone says the Lord’s Prayer, and the couple drink three times from a common cup.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America offers it to married couples as a prayer for home. Say both your names where it asks for them.
Where it comes from
No author known
From the wedding service
At an Orthodox wedding, the Gospel tells how Jesus came to a wedding at Cana in Galilee and turned water into wine, His first sign. Soon after, the priest says this prayer over the couple. Christ honoured that wedding with His presence, so the prayer asks Him to keep this husband and wife in peace and of one mind.
G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church (1894), the Order of the Coronation; The Greek service of marriage (Akolouthia Gamou)
A prayer for home
The Archdiocese’s version is one of two prayers for married couples taken from the wedding service, and it leaves out the couple’s names. A husband and wife can add their own, or pray it for a couple they love.
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Prayers for Married Couples: From the Sacrament of Marriage
What the words mean
“Make their marriage honourable”
The prayer asks God to make the couple’s marriage honourable and keep their marriage bed undefiled. The words echo the Letter to the Hebrews: “Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled.” The wedding prayer turns that teaching into a request for one couple.
Hebrews 13:4
The Scripture in it
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, what is that to you and to Me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. “Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!” Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, ὁ ἐν τῇ σωτηριώδει σου οἰκονομίᾳ καταξιώσας ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας τίμιον ἀναδεῖξαι τὸν γάμον, διὰ τῆς σῆς παρουσίας, αὐτὸς καὶ νῦν τοὺς δούλους σου (τὸν δεῖνα) καὶ (τὴν δεῖνα), οὕς ηὐδόκησας συναφθῆναι ἀλλήλοις, ἐν εἰρήνῃ καὶ ὁμονοίᾳ διαφύλαξον.
Τίμιον αὐτοῖς τὸν γάμον ἀνάδειξον· ἀμίαντον αὐτῶν τὴν κοίτην διατήρησον· ἀκηλίδωτον αὐτῶν τὴν συμβίωσιν διαμεῖναι εὐδόκησον· καὶ καταξίωσον αὐτοὺς ἐν γήρει πίονι καταντῆσαι, ἐν καθαρᾷ τῇ καρδίᾳ ἐργαζομένους τὰς ἐντολάς σου.
Σὺ γὰρ εἶ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν, Θεὸς τοῦ ἐλεεῖν καὶ σῴζειν, καὶ σοὶ τὴν δόξαν ἀναπέμπομεν, σὺν τῷ ἀνάρχῳ σου Πατρί, καὶ τῷ παναγίῳ καὶ ἀγαθῷ καὶ ζωοποιῷ σου Πνεύματι, νῦν καὶ ἀεὶ καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.