The current ritual is the second typical edition of the Ordo celebrandi Matrimonium, published in 1990; the English translation for the dioceses of the United States, The Order of Celebrating Matrimony, came into use on the Feast of the Holy Family in December 2016. It provides three orders of service: the celebration of matrimony within Mass, the celebration without Mass, and the celebration between a Catholic and a catechumen or a non-Christian. The choice depends on the situation of the couple, and the Church does not treat a wedding outside Mass as a lesser event. In the Latin Church the spouses themselves are the ministers of the sacrament; the priest or deacon assists, asks for and receives their consent in the name of the Church, and gives the Church's blessing. Consent is what makes the marriage — a free, unconditional, and public act of the will by which the two give and accept each other for life. Canon law therefore requires the canonical form: consent exchanged before the local Ordinary or pastor or a delegated priest or deacon, and before two witnesses, unless a dispensation has been granted. The structure follows the Mass. After the Introductory Rites, in which the couple may be received at the door or accompanied in procession, comes the Liturgy of the Word, with readings the couple may choose from an ample selection. The Celebration of Matrimony follows the homily: the questions before the consent, concerning freedom, faithfulness, and the acceptance and Christian upbringing of children; the exchange of consent; the reception of the consent by the minister and the acclamation of the assembly; and the blessing and giving of rings. In the United States the ritual also provides for the blessing and giving of the arras, the coins, and for the lazo or veil where these are the custom of the families. When Mass follows, the Nuptial Blessing is prayed after the Lord's Prayer, and the Missal gives three forms of it. The blessing invokes the Holy Spirit upon the bride and groom and asks for fidelity, fruitfulness, and perseverance to the end of life. Marriage between two baptized persons is a sacrament and is by its nature ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children; a ratified and consummated sacramental marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power. Preparation for the celebration is a serious pastoral responsibility of the parish, and the couple's own catechesis and reception of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist belong to it.

Marriage rite

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marriage_rite