The Rosary: The Wedding At Cana

JMJ
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It is true that it is from Christ’s presence at Cana that the Church develops a sacramental idea of marriage.  It is also true that for the longest time marriage was seen as a secular issue with which devout Christians could work out their salvation.  First it was a state of life, governed by the state, which is blessed by the Church – giving it a sacramental grace.  Later it became an action wholly governed by the Church in which the State has always held so many of the cards in hand, that this state of life has always had risks: when the Byzantine Emperors and the English Kings wanted divorces, churches complied.

As St Paul says, the Union of a Husband and Wife is a Mystery of Christ and his Church.  This union of opposites, the merger of the two poles of human nature into one flesh, is how God becomes Man to save Man.  At every wedding, inside every measure, God takes our human water – used for washing dishes – and turns it into Divine Wine.

It is exactly in washing dishes that we find salvation with our spouse.

There is no liturgical commemoration (east or west) of the Wedding at Cana outside of every Wedding Ceremony, so I have take parts of the Byzantine Rite of crowning and marriage.  It’s important to know: in the ER there is no vow. It is the blessing of the priest  – more correctly, God’s response to that blessing – that makes the marriage happen, just as it is his blessing that makes the Eucharist.

Mary’s place here is important for she prays her son to do something.  And he listens to his mother.  From this we draw the idea that she is our Intercessor and Mediatrix before the Divine Throne.

The embolism I use for this:

...blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, who heard thy prayers at the Wedding in Cana, changing water into wine. Holy Mary…

The Second Luminous Mystery:
Christ at the Wedding in Cana

Let us contemplate in this mystery the presence of Mary and Jesus in the Wedding Feast at Cana and how Jesus through the intercession of Mary, performed his first miracle and changed water into wine.

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

The Eternal God, brought into unity what had been separated and establish an unbreakable bond of agreement; blessing Isaac and Rebecca, and declared them to be the heirs of thy promise.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; Blessed art thou amongst 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.

The Lord our God betrothed himself to the Church from the nations as a pure virgin.
Hail, Mary, &c.

The Lord our God in the beginning created male and female, and it is by you that woman is linked to man as a helper and for the continuation of the human race.
Hail, Mary, &c.

Our God most pure transformed the rib of our forefather Adam into a woman and blessed them saying, “Increase and multiply and have dominion over the earth”.
Hail, Mary, &c.

God declared them both to be one through wedlock, “for because of this a man will abandon his father and mother and be attached to his own wife, and the two shall become one flesh” and “those whom God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Hail, Mary, &c.

The Lord blessed Abraham and opened Sara’s womb, making him the father of many nations. God gave Isaac to Rebecca and blessed her offspring. He joined Jacob with Rachel and from him revealed the Twelve Patriarchs.
Hail, Mary, &c.

The Lord accepted Zachary and Elisabeth and declared their offspring to be the Forerunner and God made the Ever-Virgin spring from the root of Jesse according to the flesh, and from her he became incarnate and was born for the salvation of the race of man.
Hail, Mary, &c.

By his ineffable gift and great goodness God was present in Cana of Galilee and blessed the marriage there, to show that lawful wedlock and the begetting of children that comes from it is his divine will.
Hail, Mary, &c.

The Lord our God is the sacred Celebrant of the mystical and most pure marriage, Lawgiver of bodily marriage, Guardian of incorruption, loving Steward of our livelihood.
Hail, Mary, &c.

Holy Martyrs, who fought the good fight and were crowned, intercede with the Lord to have mercy on our souls. Glory to thee, Christ God, boast of Apostles, joy of Martyrs whose preaching was the consubstantial Trinity.
Hail, Mary, &c.

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

Most holy Virgin Mother of God and our mother, as thou wert present with thy divine Son at the wedding of Cana where he heard thy prayers for the young couple, so pray for all thy children united in the sacrament of matrimony that they may be preserved in peace and concord who have been joined to each another. Pray that their marriage be honourable; keep their marriage bed undefiled; and that their life together to be without spot; ask your Son that they may reach a ripe old age, carrying out his commandments with a pure heart.