Love That Lays Itself Down

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my home. You who lived together in love and labor at Nazareth, come and dwell with us. Make our family a place of patience, forgiveness, and peace, where Christ is welcome and his love is shared. Watch over each one of us, and lead us all, together, to your side in heaven. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us. Amen.

Let us pause in silence, and bring to mind the intention you are praying for.

In the app, your own saved intention rests here during the silence. The narration stays the same for everyone.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her,

Married love is held to the highest pattern there is: the self-giving of Christ, who loved to the point of laying down his life. This is not a love of mere feeling but of sacrifice, the daily dying to self that makes room for another. We ask the Holy Family to strengthen every marriage to love in this costly, life-giving way.

Lord, you call husbands and wives to love as you loved, holding nothing back. Strengthen the marriages in my family to give themselves for one another as you gave yourself for us. Where love has grown tired or cold, rekindle it; where it is strong, deepen it. Teach us that to love is to lay down our lives, a little, every day. Amen.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

O Holy Family of Nazareth, we consecrate our home and all who live in it to you. Be the model of our family life and the guardian of our love. Teach us, like you, to work and to rest, to forgive and to forbear, and to keep God at the center of all we do. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, we are yours; keep us always near to you. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.