What icon is used to bless the bride at the wedding. Blessing of parents at the wedding: the right words for young people

Christian parents, long before the wedding of their children, think about which icon to bless their son or daughter for marriage. For Orthodox believers, blessing children is not just a ritual, but an act of deep spiritual power.

The meaning of parental blessing

The fifth commandment of God says that children are obliged to respect their parents, and they do this not for the sake of their father and mother, but for the sake of their future life and future children. Parental blessing with the help of icons is an open door for happiness, peace and tranquility in the future family.

Read about other commandments:

The images of the Mother of God and the Lord Almighty are given by parents to the young during the blessing

The newlyweds, fulfilling the command of God, in humility and humility come to their father and mother for a blessing, at first each on their own, and then together, as future husband and wife. The rite of blessing is repeated several times. The first time the parents bless their son or daughter, then the young couple receives the blessing of the parents at the matchmaking, before the wedding and at the first entry into the house of a new family.

Icons for blessing children before marriage

In each Orthodox family there are icons with which parents bless their children for the journey, study, or from adversity and illness. These may be the holy faces of the Guardian Angels, Nicholas the Pleasant or the Virgin. The time comes, and the children ask for the blessing of their parents for the wedding, receiving it through prayers to the icons of the Mother of God and the image of the Savior.

Kazan icon of the Mother of God

At the end of the wedding, wedding images are hung or placed indoors so that it is convenient to pray in front of them. If the young were baptized in childhood, but did not know the Faith of Christ, the icons are wrapped in towels and kept until the time of the churching of the spouses.

Text of parental blessing for the wedding

Our Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray you for the sake of your Most Pure Mother, hear me and cleanse me from sins, Your unworthy daughter. Lord, our children (Names) are in the power of Your mercy, grant them mercy and salvation for the sake of Your name. Savior, forgive them all their transgressions, obvious and involuntary, that the children committed before You. Guide them, Lord, on the true path, enlighten the young to the knowledge and fulfillment of Your commandments, illuminate them with the Light of Christ for the salvation of souls and the healing of the body. Lord, I invoke Your blessing on every place they will dwell. Savior, keep our children under Your protection from an arrow and a flying bullet, from heat, hunger and cold, evil forces and witchcraft spells, may their misfortunes and evil pass by. Lord, cleanse them of all filth and addictions, heal them from sudden onset diseases and trials, be with them in the days of sorrow and mental suffering. Bless, Almighty Creator, our children with the grace of the Holy Spirit for many years of life, happiness, health and purity. Grant them, God, piety in family life and healthy children. Grant us, parents, Your unworthy and sinful servants, to bless our son and daughter at any time of the day with Your name, Your eternal Kingdom standing forever and ever. Amen.

The order of holding the icons

There is no single order, who holds the image, and who is the loaf, each wedding may have its own nuances. Fathers can hold loaves, and mothers can hold icons, or the bride’s mother can hold a fold, and the groom’s father can hold a loaf.

Parents should remember that this is the wedding of their children, and not the time to share the first roles. When blessing the newlyweds, the main thing is the purity and sincerity of wishes, because what a person sows, he reaps.

1. Under the image and the loaf, you should purchase several towels. Each icon is held by a separate towel. Under each loaf, and there may be several, there should be a festive towel.
2. Before kissing the icon, the mother or father baptizes the young with it three times, while making a sign from top to bottom, pay attention, from left to right, so that the young receive the Orthodox sign of the cross, from right to left.
3. The entire church wedding ceremony must first be negotiated with the clergyman, so that everyone present at the wedding and holding the icon knows what and how to do.

Attention! In the old days, without parental permission and blessing, the priest did not have the right to conduct a wedding ceremony. Recalcitrant children who entered into an unmarried marriage without parental blessing were deprived of their inheritance and acceptance in society.

A prayer petition before the Creator with holy images has great power, because at the same time a piece of family happiness of parents is inherited by children, blessing which the father and mother ask for the intercession of the Most High God.

What icons bless the young

A wedding is the most memorable event in everyone's life. How you want to get married once in your life and live with your loved one until old age. Previously, marriages were strong because people honored God's commandments. My great-grandmother lived a long and happy life with my great-grandfather family life because their parents blessed them at the wedding.

Nowadays, Orthodox traditions are being revived, but not everyone knows how to properly organize a wedding according to church traditions. I will tell you what the blessing of the young is, what icon you need to bless and how to do it.

In modern times, young people themselves choose their life partners, taking responsibility for the choice on their own shoulders. Previously, a married couple was selected more carefully, and for this there was an institution of matchmakers and matchmakers. It was very beautiful folk tradition and there were no divorces among the spouses. Unfortunately, those times have already become history, but the tradition of parental blessing lives on to this day.

Bless the young in two ways:

• in Orthodox tradition;
• in a modern way.

The modern way of blessing is carried out purely formally as a wedding ceremony. Parents give a parting speech to young people in their own words or read a prepared verse. This tradition was adopted in Soviet times, it has been preserved to this day in atheistic families. We will not consider it, since the organization of a secular wedding can be entrusted to specialists in conducting wedding ceremonies.

The blessing of the newlyweds at the wedding in Orthodox traditions has deep roots. This rite crystallized over the centuries, however, the central place was given to icons. Family icons were passed down from generation to generation and served as a powerful amulet for the family. Nowadays, parents can get confused in the ceremony, so it is advisable to clarify incomprehensible points in advance with the priest.

Icons for the bride and groom

What icon is used to bless the young? Traditionally, the blessing is carried out with two icons:

1. the icon of Christ the Savior - for the groom;
2. Icon of the Mother of God - for the bride.

It is customary to bless brides with the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, as she has long been revered as the intercessor of the entire Russian people. The history of the icon dates back to ancient times; it has many miraculous salvations to its credit. The sacrament of the wedding is also carried out with this icon. The priest meets the young in the church with the image and asks for the intercession of the Mother of God:

• about the approval of a strong family;
• about the birth of children;
• about the health of all households;
• about well-being in the family;
• about peace and understanding.

Kazanskaya Mother of God she is the guardian of the hearth, prayers are offered to her for the birth and upbringing of children. With this icon, the mother blesses her daughter.

What icon do the bride's parents bless the young with, besides Our Lady of Kazan? You can bless with any other icon of the Virgin, if there is such a desire. The choice of the image of the Virgin may be due to personal reasons (helped in healing or another problem). It can also be a family icon of the Mother of God, an intercessor and patroness.

The Almighty Savior is an important icon at a wedding. It is to her that prayers are made for well-being in the house, they turn in joy and in sorrow. This icon should bless the groom. A distinctive feature of the icon is the open Bible, which he holds in his right hand. The words are written there: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another."

However, in practice, the blessing can also be carried out with the icon of the patron saint, the nominal icon of a man. Some choose the image of Nicholas the Wonderworker, as he is one of the most revered saints in Russia.

If you still have family icons from the wedding of great-grandmothers and grandmothers, then it makes sense to perform a blessing ceremony with them.

In the church you can buy a wedding fold - icons of the Virgin and Christ. If the fold was not bought in the church, it must be consecrated before the wedding.

Blessing

How to bless the young correctly? First of all, both newlyweds must be baptized. If one of them did not accept the rite of baptism, it must be carried out before the wedding. The same applies to parents, since it is forbidden to bless young unbaptized parents with icons. This is the greatest sin.

According to Orthodox traditions, before leaving the house for the wedding, the young should kneel in front of the bride's parents and ask for blessings. Parents baptize their children three times, reciting a special prayer. After that, the young people kiss the icon.

Important! You can’t touch the icons with your fingers, they are kept in towels. You can embroider towels yourself, or you can buy ready-made ones.

The bride's parents bless the newlyweds before the wedding, and the groom's parents - after the Church Sacrament. The bride's parents let the daughter kiss the icon, and then the groom. The groom's parents let the icon be kissed first by their son, and then by their daughter-in-law.

After the wedding, the icons first stand on the wedding table, and then they are hung in the red corner of the house. If the newlyweds were baptized in infancy and do not adhere to the Orthodox canons in their lives, the icons are wrapped in towels and stored in a closet.

To avoid misunderstandings during the wedding ceremony, you need to know some of the nuances:

• Get a few embroidered towels in advance - for each icon, for all the loaves, for the knees of the newlyweds.

Blessing is considered an integral part of marriage. Thus, parents give their consent to marriage and wish their children a happy and long life. life together. Since ancient times, it has been believed that if the bride or groom did not receive a blessing from their parents, then the marriage will be unhappy and the family may break up.

How to bless the newlyweds with an icon?

According to existing traditions, the parents bless the daughter twice: during the matchmaking and before leaving for the registry office. The groom's parents bless the newlyweds after marriage.

To conduct the ceremony, it is important to know what icons the bride and groom are blessed with, since the images of saints are an obligatory attribute, without which the process turns simply into an expression of wishes and kind words. Basically two images are used:

1. The icon of the Kazan Mother of God is the most revered image of the Mother of God. It is this icon that is most often used in the ceremony of blessing the daughter. She is considered the protector and patroness of all life on earth. There is a huge amount of evidence about how the Kazan Mother of God helped people in solving their troubles. Before marriage, the icon is asked to protect new family from various problems and the evil eye, as well as give healthy children.
2. The icon of the Almighty Savior is the most common image of Christ. The blessing of the groom's parents most often takes place with this icon. On it, Jesus is depicted with the Gospel in his hands, which indicates the righteous path, and with the other hand he blesses the people who turned to him with. Before the image, they ask for family happiness and prosperity. It is this icon that needs to be brought into the house of the newlyweds first.

In the ceremony, you can use both icons, and only one of them. As an option, you can purchase a wedding couple or a fold, where two icons are connected to each other.

It is now known which icon the young people are blessed with, it remains to figure out how the ceremony itself goes. In advance, parents should prepare not only the image of the saint, but also the towel on which it will need to be kept. In the room where the blessing takes place, there should be only close people. The mother of the bride picks up an embroidered towel, and the father gives her an icon, which he must also take with a towel and in no case with his bare hands. To bless the young with an icon, it is best to use the image that is in the house, but if there is none, then you need to purchase it in a church shop, where all the icons are consecrated. The mother should hold the icon facing the young.

Now you need to take a closer look at the topic of how to bless the newlyweds with an icon and what you need to say at the same time. There is no specific text that parents should memorize like a prayer, since instructions should come from a pure heart. Please note that the speech should not be too long. The text is a kind of guide to the future, in which parents wish the young, prosperity, peace, harmony, etc. The speech should include not only wishes, but also instructions. During the pronunciation of the words, the mother and father must cross the young people three times with the icon, and then let them kiss the image. After the completion of the ceremony, the icon and towel are handed over to the young, who must keep it as a relic, and it, in turn, will play the role of a talisman.

AT Christian families The blessing of parents on a happy family life for children is a long-standing and carefully observed tradition. It is believed that it will help the young couple in the future and will protect them from the evil eye and adversity. Therefore, today this ritual is strictly observed at most weddings. The Svadbagolik.ru portal will tell you how to meet the newlyweds.

Blessing daughter before marriage

It is believed that parting words of the mother of her daughter before marriage have a special protective power. This ceremony is an integral part of our culture. Despite this, it remains one of the most touching and exciting wedding traditions. A blessing from her daughter's mother means that she fully accepts her choice, and on her wedding day wishes the young only happiness. But at the same time, one should not forget that the words are addressed not only to the bride, but also to the groom, because on this day they become one.

According to custom, on the day of the wedding, the groom must come for the bride, go through a series of tests and pay a ransom for her. Only after that he is admitted to his betrothed, and it is here that the moment of blessing comes. If several days of celebration are planned, then this ritual is performed only on the first day, because the features of the second day of the wedding imply more relaxedness, fun and entertainment.

In our culture, there are two ways of this blessing:

In the first case, the ritual is carried out only with the participation of young people, parents and godparents in a separate room. The mother of the bride should hold the icon with the towel facing the young. At the same time, she should not worry about what should be said at the moment when she begins to bless the newlyweds with an icon. There are no special formulations for pronunciation, it all depends on the sincerity of the parents and their eloquence. But it will be obligatory for the mother to baptize her daughter three times, then the future son-in-law, then both, recognizing them as a couple. The father may do the same in this case. After that, young people should also cross themselves and kiss the icon.

The second blessing according to the Orthodox tradition occurs after the registry office in banquet hall. They are met by the groom's parents with icons and a loaf and keep their word. In accordance with the wedding ceremony, the mother-in-law pronounces a blessing to her daughter-in-law already as own daughter. After such a speech, the young people kiss the icons and take bread and salt.

Icons for the blessing of the newlyweds

The portal site notes that in order to comply with all the rules, you need to know which icon and how the newlyweds bless. For such a ceremony, two icons are selected:

• Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
• Saved by the Almighty.

Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - the most famous and canonical image of the Virgin. She is considered the protector of the Russian people, it was this image that protected Russia during the war with the Polish army. It is to her that the mother blesses her daughter before the wedding, uttering beautiful words.

Icon "Savior Almighty"- also a traditional image, but this time of Christ. On it, the Son of God holds the Gospel in one hand, indicating the path of salvation, and with the other hand blesses the beholder. With this icon on the wedding day, the future mother-in-law blesses the groom as her own son, so that she guides the head of the family and protects the family.

In our time, icons are used both individually and in the format of a folding - the so-called wedding couple. It represents both images connected together and which can be added.

In addition, some icons can be presented as a wedding gift to newlyweds from guests. Wedding traditions and customs say that the icon of Peter and Fevronia of Murom, symbolizing family happiness and love, is best suited. She is considered miraculous, she can be prayed for well-being. The design of the image in this case does not matter and depends on the imagination and financial capabilities of the giver.

Without exaggeration, we can say that a wedding is the day that will be remembered for a lifetime. That is why it is so important to treat the organization of the event very responsibly, wholeheartedly. However, a wedding is not only guests, a beautifully decorated hall, rich food and dancing. For example, the parents of the bride should not forget that their daughter is starting a new segment of her life, she will have many worries and difficulties. Today, not everyone decides to get married in a church, so the blessing before the wedding becomes so important. These are not just the words of parents, but parting words containing positive energy that will give the newlywed self-confidence and success in family life. How to bless your daughter before the wedding? We will talk about this.

Proper preparation for the ceremony

If you do not know how to bless your daughter for marriage, but sincerely want to do it, start with preparations. You will need:

• special words (think them in advance, write them down and learn);
• a towel with which you will pick up an icon (towel);
• directly the icon (about which one to take, read below).

Take special care of the blessing speech. It shouldn't be long. Wish your daughter and her chosen one family well-being, peace of mind and understanding. Let there also be words about the need to support, understand each other, give in, seek a compromise. Ideally, you should make several options, then to choose the most successful and sincere.

Choosing an icon for blessing

Not every mother is aware of how to bless her daughter before the wedding, but this does not mean that you can go and buy any icon according to the principle “because it is necessary”. This is fundamentally the wrong approach. For example, in ancient times, without the right blessing, young people could not marry, it was considered a terrible sin. The icon was generally given great importance. It was believed that a mother should accompany her daughter on her family journey with the icon with which she herself was blessed in her time. Unfortunately, today not everyone has such an opportunity. But if you are doing something from the heart, then do it right. What icon is used to bless the daughter? The answer is simple - you need an image of the Kazan Mother of God. Go to church and buy it. It is advisable to keep the icon, because it will carry great power, and then your daughter can bless her children with it.

What else does the mother of the bride need to know?

About how to bless the daughter before the wedding, the future mother-in-law can ask the priest. You after all all the same will go to church behind an icon. What will he advise? Approach the face of the Virgin, light a candle, pray, ask happiness for your daughter. The main thing is to sincerely believe that the mother blesses her so imperceptibly matured baby for a good deed. At home, on the wedding day, take the purchased icon (only with a towel, by no means with your bare hands!), bless your daughter on long marriage. About how to make a speech, we talked above. There are no special, special words, everything should prompt your heart.

The father must not be silent either.

How to bless the daughter before the wedding, the future father-in-law should also know, because without his words, the parting words of the mother do not have the necessary power. However, it is the mother of the bride who speaks first. And she is holding the icon. Men, as a rule, are laconic, but the father must still tell his daughter that he blesses her for this marriage, that he wishes a happy family journey. When the parents say their parting word, they need to kiss their daughter, then her chosen one. By this they make it clear that they accept him into the family as their own son.

A few more words about the ceremony

As you already understood, the whole process of blessing takes place directly on the wedding day, before going to the registry office, but after the groom has paid the ransom. This is all done in the bride's native house, because there, beyond the threshold, will begin new life. After parental speeches, the young ones kneel on a towel (that is, you will need another such accessory at this moment). Mom should cross the couple with the icon three times, then the bride and groom kiss the icon in turn, and are baptized. It is desirable that during this process there is silence in the room, and only the mentioned persons are here.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in this rite. The main thing is sincerity in words, because more than anything in the world you want your daughter to be happy, so that the house, as they say, is a full bowl. Don't worry, don't panic, you all know. And if you suddenly forgot something, then your heart will definitely tell you, because you are giving your daughter in marriage and wish her the best. And then give the icon to the young people, let it bring them health, success and happiness, because it contains the energy of all your words and wishes. And later, when they bless their children for family life, it will certainly come in handy for them, only the energy of the image will already be much stronger, because it also contains your parting words.