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Summary
- Christians mark an engagement by asking God to bless the couple as they prepare to marry, and Scripture uses the same word for God’s own love: “I will betroth thee unto me for ever” (Hosea 2:19).
- The Catholic Order for the Blessing of an Engaged Couple is a family celebration that a parent may lead, and it is never joined to a Mass.
- The Catechism calls engagement “a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God” (Catechism 2350).
- In the Orthodox Church the betrothal, with its blessing of rings, began to be joined to the crowning in a single service in the tenth century, and that is now the norm.
- In the Coptic betrothal the priest writes a document that the couple, their parents and the witnesses sign, and then prays over the couple.
- The twelve longer prayers are grouped for the announcement, the months of preparation, married life and hard times.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version: Hosea 2:19; John 15:9; Psalm 127:1; Genesis 24:60; 1 Corinthians 13:4, 7; Amos 3:3; James 1:17; Psalm 121:8; Ecclesiastes 4:9-10; Romans 12:12; Philippians 2:4; Proverbs 3:5-6; Psalm 133:1; Psalm 118:24. Passages: Bible Gateway.
- Order of Celebrating Matrimony, Appendix II: The Order of Blessing an Engaged Couple, Liturgy Office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, liturgyoffice.org.
- Book of Blessings: Blessing of an Engaged Couple, reproduced by Catholic Culture, catholicculture.org.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2350, vatican.va.
- Fr Alciviadis C. Calivas, “The Sacramental Life of the Orthodox Church”, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, goarch.org.
- Holy Matrimony: The Service of Betrothal and the Service of Crowning, Orthodox Church in America, 2022, oca.org.
- “The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: Rite of Betrothal”, Heritage of the Coptic Orthodox Church, after Deacon Albair Gamal Mikhail, The Essentials in the Deacon’s Service (2002), copticheritage.org.
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