Want to pray for your spouse, but can’t find the words? These will help.
Praying for your children? Most moms would agree that comes easy. But praying for your husband? Who does that regularly? In our busy lives, husbands sometimes get left behind. We find the time to pray for our children, and may even participate in mothers’ prayer groups, but praying for our husbands is a different matter. This can make it a struggle when we wake up to how important it is to pray for our spouse. So here are six short and effective prayers inspired by the letters of Saint Paul that you can try right away, without waiting for Father’s Day.
1. So my husband knows the love of God
“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 3: 17-19).
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Prayer: Lord Jesus, I place myself in Your presence and beg you to enshroud the heart of my husband with Your Sacred Heart. Help him to have complete faith in You. May Your love be deeply rooted in him, and may this Love shines in our lives. Help my husband to know Your infinite mercy so he understands that Your Love is more real than any earthly experience. Amen.
2. So he can fulfill his vocation as husband
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 5: 25-28).
Prayer: Lord, according to Your will, help my husband to draw closer to holiness through the sacrament of our marriage. Fill his heart with Your Love, and help him to fulfill his vocation by following Your path. Amen.
3. For my husband to teach our children Your love
“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 6: 4).
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Prayer: Holy Spirit, fill the heart of my husband with Your peace, so that through him he may show your love to our children. Give him the patience and the necessary wisdom to raise our children in purity and in faith. Help him to guide our children towards the right path and to encourage them to stay close to You. Amen
4. For the well-being of our family
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Philippians 4: 19).
Prayer: Lord, You know what we truly need. I ask You to give my husband the grace to use our resources with wisdom, to be ‘poor in spirit’ (Matthew 5: 3) and to be generous towards those in need. Amen.
5. That he should be the man You called him to be
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love” (First letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 16: 13-14).
Prayer: Lord, I entrust to You all the decisions of my husband, his projects, his worries, and his entire being. Help him to be strong in Your Love and anchored in faith. Give him the strength to be the man that You’ve called him to be: courageous, happy, and generous. Help him to grow in faith, hope, and charity. Amen.
6. That my husband acts with wisdom and discernment
“I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength.” (Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians 1, 16-19).
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“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (Letter of Saint James the Apostle 1: 5).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, You who went about doing good, I ask You to give my husband the grace to follow in Your steps. Give him the strength to advance with wisdom and to have the awareness of how his choices will impact on our family. May his heart shine with the light of the Holy Spirit so he can move ahead with assurance and confidence, whatever the obstacles he might face. Amen.
And one last prayer asking for the Virgin Mary’s intercession:
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, place your mantle around my husband so that he will obtain the necessary graces to be the protector of our family, as Saint Joseph was. By your maternal embrace, O Mary, pray that he may be granted a great sense of security so he will never feel abandoned. Amen.
This article was originally published in the French edition of Aleteia.
