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Summary
- Four short graces for the reception meal name the couple, the families, the wedding at Cana and the people who are missing.
- Traditional graces are quoted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer (“Bless, O Father, thy gifts to our use and us to thy service”) and the 1888 Catholic Manual of Prayers (“Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts”).
- The grace is usually said once guests are seated and before food is served, by the officiant, a relative or a friend the couple chooses.
- Blessings for the couple come from the 1928 Anglican marriage service, the Orthodox marriage service in Hapgood’s 1906 translation, and Raguel’s blessing in Tobias 7:15.
- Jesus worked his first miracle at a wedding feast in Cana (John 2:1–11), and Paul gave thanks for bread “in presence of them all” before a meal (Acts 27:35).
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Numbers 6:24–26; Psalm 127:1; Ecclesiastes 4:12; Isaiah 41:10; John 2:10–11; Acts 27:35; Ephesians 4:2; 1 Timothy 4:5). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Tobias 7:15 and 8:10 are quoted from the Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision), Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. The Solemnization of Matrimony, pp. 300 and 303; Family Prayer, “Grace before Meat,” p. 600. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. “Grace before Meals,” p. 58. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Rite of Holy Matrimony, p. 302. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
