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Summary
- In Genesis 24, Abraham’s servant prayed at a well for a wife for Isaac; Rebekah answered his sign, and her own consent was still asked: “Wilt thou go with this man?”
- Tobias and Sarah prayed together on their wedding night (Tobias 8:7–10); the Book of Tobit is in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles and among the Protestant Apocrypha.
- Lasance’s Catholic Girl’s Guide (1906) gives a prayer to Saint Raphael and a prayer for guidance in choosing a state of life, married or unmarried.
- Twelve short prayers cover a husband or wife who loves God, shared faith, a particular person, waiting, loneliness, purity, a breakup and staying single.
- Catholic canon law requires a dispensation or permission to marry outside the Church; the Orthodox Church in America blesses marriages only to baptized Christians; the Westminster Confession says Christians should “marry only in the Lord.”
- Russian Orthodox Christians honor Saints Peter and Fevronia of Murom, canonized in 1547; since 2008 their feast on 8 July has been Russia’s Day of Family, Love and Fidelity.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 2:18; 24:3, 10, 12–15, 19, 26, 58, 67; Psalm 27:14; 37:4–5; 68:6; 147:3; Proverbs 15:22; 18:22; 19:14; 31:30; 1 Corinthians 7:7, 34, 39; 13:4–5; 2 Corinthians 6:14; Galatians 5:22–23; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Hebrews 13:4; James 1:5). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, Tobias 3:8; 6:11–14; 8:7–10; 12:15. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
- Lasance, Francis Xavier. The Catholic Girl’s Guide: Counsels and Devotions for Girls in the Ordinary Walks of Life and in Particular for the Children of Mary. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1906. Preface, p. 11; “The Married State,” pp. 320–321; “Prayer to St. Raphael, Archangel,” p. 601; “Prayer for Youth to Beg the Divine Direction in the Choice of a State of Life,” pp. 611–612. https://archive.org/details/catholicgirlsgui00lasa
- Driscoll, James F. “St. Raphael.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12640b.htm
- Code of Canon Law, canons 1086, 1124 and 1125. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann998-1165_en.html
- Orthodox Church in America. Guidelines for Clergy (2023), “Inter-Christian Marriages” and “Marriage outside the Orthodox Church and Inter-Religious Marriages.” https://www.oca.org/files/PDF/official/2023-OCA-Guidelines-for-Clergy.pdf
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapter 24, section 3. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/the-westminster-confession/
- “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Peter_and_Fevronia
- “Пётр и Феврония.” Wikipedia (Russian). https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Пётр_и_Феврония_Муромские
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