Patience Vows

Before the altar of God, I receive you with gratitude and promise to love you with faithful patience. I will seek the good of our marriage in prayer, tell the truth with charity, and return to you when pride would make distance easier. In joy, I will give thanks with you; in sorrow, I will stay beside you. I ask God to make our home a place of mercy, our promises a source of courage, and our ordinary days an offering of love.

Before God, I receive our marriage as a school of patient and joyful love. I promise to let the grace of this sacrament form how I speak, serve, forgive, and begin again. I will bring our gratitude to prayer, receive wise correction without resentment, and seek the good of our family with a generous heart. In seasons of celebration and trial, I will remember that love is a vocation we practice together. With God's help, I will keep learning how to honor you faithfully for all our days.

I promise to walk with you in all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with you in love. I vow to make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, and to love you as Christ loved the church.

I want to know the orchard of our years, from first blossom to late fruit. I want the seasons that ask us to wait, the days of abundance, and the quiet work of tending what cannot be hurried. I promise to learn the weather of your heart, to shelter what is tender, and to celebrate every new thing that grows between us. When branches change and familiar paths look different, I will still reach for your hand. Loving you, I choose the patient beauty of a whole life.