Prayer of an Engaged Couple

Lord Jesus, to teach us to love one another, You became one of us, taking as a tabernacle the body of Mary. You said: "Be one in each other, even as I and the Father are one." You have desired that he and I should live in You as with a single life, like two branches of a single vine, which Your providence has entwined. Let our love pass through You, that it may realize a perfect union, not only of our hearts but also of our souls, and that, growing from day to day, it may likewise increase our life in You. Help us to bring to our home enough beauty, health, thrift, strength, purity, and ideals, to make it a model of the new world we wish to build with You, and to give You priests, perhaps, but certainly apostles. With all this, let us never forget that it is through us that Your kingdom must be established--in factories, offices, shops, in all the places we frequent, in our streets and houses . . . on earth as in heaven. Have pity on all those youths and maidens whose hearts are wounded and whose dreams are broken. Guard the promises which have been made according to Your Spirit. And may Your blessing soon give us to each other forever. Amen.