For the silver, golden or any anniversary of marriage
“But you have kept the good wine until now.” John 2:10
At Cana the best wine came last. Years of faithful love can become better, not weaker.
A long marriage is a work of God's grace as much as of human effort.
“Bear with one another and… forgive each other” (Colossians 3:13).
In a time of broken families, faithful couples preach without words.
Dear N. and N., today we thank God with you for these years of married life. At Cana the steward said: “Everyone serves the good wine first… But you have kept the good wine until now.” Your jubilee is that good wine.
When you stood at the altar years ago, you could not know everything that was coming: children, joys, illnesses, debts, misunderstandings, reconciliations. But you kept your promise. That is not only your achievement; it is God's grace working in two ordinary hearts.
St Paul describes the secret: “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you.” Forgiveness was your daily bread. Teach that to your children and grandchildren.
In a time when many marriages break, your faithfulness is a sermon without words. May the Lord who kept the best wine until now give you many more years together. Amen.
Tobias and Sarah asked to grow old together (Tobit 8:7). Today that prayer is answered.
Most of a marriage is not dramatic, but daily.
Every long marriage has wounds that forgiveness has healed.
Your fidelity is a blessing for your children and grandchildren.
Dear N. and N., on the night of their wedding, Tobias and Sarah stood up and prayed. They asked God for mercy and that they might grow old together (Tobit 8:7). Today we see that prayer answered in you. You have grown older together, and you are still here, side by side.
When you married, you could not know what was coming. There were joys you never imagined: children, grandchildren, achievements, festivals. There were also sorrows: illnesses, deaths in the family, financial worries, misunderstandings. Most of all there were thousands of ordinary days: meals cooked, bills paid, children taken to school, prayers said at night. Holiness was hidden in those ordinary days.
No long marriage is without wounds. Somewhere along the road each of you has hurt the other, and each has had to forgive. That is not a failure of your marriage; it is its strength. A marriage lasts not because two perfect people met, but because two imperfect people kept choosing to forgive.
Today you are a sign for the whole parish, and especially for the young. Many young people are afraid of commitment because they see so many broken homes. Your faithfulness tells them: it is possible, with God's grace. Tell them your story. Tell them what helped you through hard times.
So we thank God with you. We pray for your health and peace in the years ahead. And we ask the Lord, who changed water into wine at Cana, to keep pouring His good wine into your home until the end. Renew today, with grateful hearts, the promises you made on your wedding day.
The sacrament gives a grace that remains throughout married life (CCC 1641–1642).
He dwells with them to help them rise after falls and forgive (CCC 1642).
The Christian family is a community of faith, hope and love (CCC 1655–1657).
The same grace sustains spouses in illness and age.
Dear N. and N., dear family, a wedding jubilee is a good moment to recall something the Church teaches that many couples forget: the sacrament of Matrimony is not only a ceremony on one day. It is a living grace that remains with the spouses every day of their lives.
The Catechism says that Christ dwells with the spouses, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and follow Him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens and to love one another with a supernatural, tender and fruitful love (CCC 1642). Every year of your marriage, Christ has been at work, often unnoticed.
When you forgave each other after a quarrel, that was grace. When you stayed beside each other in illness, that was grace. When you prayed together for a child in trouble, that was grace. Today we thank God not only for your effort, real as it is, but for His faithfulness in you.
The Church calls the Christian family a domestic church: the first place where faith is lived and handed on (CCC 1656). In your home your children learned to pray, to share, to forgive. Whatever they have become, they first saw faith in you. That is a priesthood of parents that only God can measure.
The grace that sustained your youth will sustain your old age. There may be harder days ahead: weakness, illness, the loss of one another one day. Do not be afraid. The same Christ who joined you will carry you. Let us offer this Holy Mass / Holy Qurbana in thanksgiving, and may God bless you and all your family.
Lord Jesus, guest at Cana, we thank you for the years of love you have given N. and N. Renew their love, bless their children and grandchildren, and keep the best wine for the years still to come. Amen.