Text: Han­na-Ma­ria Jur­mu

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

We ce­leb­ra­ted our god­son’s wed­ding at La­pin­lah­ti in Au­gust. The yo­ung coup­le had wan­ted to inc­lu­de a se­lec­ti­on of be­au­ti­ful in­ter­ces­so­ry pra­yers in their wed­ding ri­tes. Short pra­yers were read by the of­fi­ci­a­ting mi­nis­ter, the mot­her or fat­her of the bride or the bri­deg­room, one of the sib­lings, one of the god­pa­rents and one friend.

The first in­ter­ces­so­ry pra­yer was read by the mi­nis­ter. He pra­yed that God would uni­te the spou­ses with love and would bless their mar­ri­a­ge in ho­nor of His name.

The fat­her’s or mot­her’s pra­yer went like this: “You gave us our child­ren. We thank you for the joy they have brought in­to our li­ves. Bless them now that they are star­ting their own home and fa­mi­ly. Pro­tect them from evil. Give them a con­ci­li­a­to­ry mind and te­ach them to for­gi­ve and to ask for for­gi­ve­ness. We pray you.”

I am sure all pa­rents want to send their child­ren on the ma­ri­tal jour­ney with such lo­ving words. That pra­yer con­tains all that is nee­ded. We can read that pra­yer dai­ly for our mar­ried child­ren and our own mar­ri­a­ge.

The sib­lings than­ked God for their child­hood home and pra­yed for God’s pro­tec­ti­on for the mar­ri­a­ge that was being ce­leb­ra­ted. They al­so fond­ly pra­yed that God would help the sib­lings re­main close to each ot­her.

The god­pa­rents’ pra­yer went like this: ”In bap­tism you pro­mi­sed yo­ur bles­sing to this godc­hild of mine. Con­ti­nue to bless him in the fu­tu­re and al­so bless his de­a­rest one. Help them re­mem­ber that they can re­turn to the mer­cy of bap­tism again and again. We pray you.”

Ear­lier in the sum­mer our god­son had as­ked me to read the god­pa­rents’ pra­yer. I knew I would have a hard time re­a­ding those few li­nes. I ba­re­ly made it.

The friends pra­yed that God would bless the spou­ses’ mu­tu­al love. They al­so pra­yed that they would stay to­get­her un­til the end of their li­ves, and that they all would con­ti­nue to en­joy their mu­tu­al friends­hip in the fu­tu­re.

The mi­nis­ter then pra­yed that the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her would hear those pra­yers and would lead us all in­to the he­a­ven­ly home one day. Along with this pra­yer, we were all left in God’s good care.

Du­ring the wed­ding re­cep­ti­on that fol­lo­wed I felt that God had he­ard and will hear the pra­yers that had been read. It was ea­sy to sen­se the fa­mi­lies’ warm love for the yo­ung coup­le. The close and deep friends­hip bet­ween the coup­le and their nu­me­rous friends was al­so pal­pab­ly pre­sent. And I felt that we were gi­ven a new godc­hild. Ac­cor­ding to the god­pa­rents’ pra­yer, God will con­ti­nue to bless our godc­hild and his de­a­rest one.

Dear En­ni and Paa­vo, we will re­mem­ber you.