Catholic Wedding Readings: The Full List and How to Actually Choose One

At some point during marriage prep, a priest or deacon will hand you a packet, or point you to a website, and tell you to pick your readings. This usually happens on top of choosing a caterer, a florist, and eleven other decisions that week, so most couples do the fastest thing available: they pick 1 Corinthians 13 because it is the one they have heard before, and move on.

There is nothing wrong with that reading. It is popular for a reason. But you have forty actual options across four categories, and the right one for your wedding is not always the famous one. Here is the complete list, and an actual way to choose instead of defaulting to the first name you recognize.

How This Actually Works

At a Nuptial Mass, you get four readings: one from the Old Testament, a Responsorial Psalm, one from the New Testament, and a Gospel, which is usually read by the priest or deacon. If your ceremony is a Rite of Marriage without a Mass, which is common when one of you isn't Catholic, this can be trimmed to one reading plus the Gospel. Every option here comes from the Church's own Lectionary for the Rite of Marriage, meaning you are not picking from the entire Bible freely and you cannot substitute a poem, a song lyric, or a passage that isn't on this list, however much you love it. Your priest can confirm exactly which structure applies to your wedding.

The Old Testament Readings (9 options)

1. Genesis 1:26-28, 31a: creation of man and woman together in God's image
2. Genesis 2:18-24: the first marriage in Eden, "the two of them become one body"
3. Genesis 24:48-51, 58-67: Isaac and Rebekah, a marriage guided by providence
4. Tobit 7:6-14: Raphael, Tobiah, and the marriage of Tobiah and Sarah
5. Tobit 8:4b-8: Tobiah and Sarah's wedding night prayer for a long life together
6. Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31: the worthy wife, a portrait of steady virtue
7. Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a: love as fierce and undefeated by anything
8. Sirach 26:1-4, 13-16: the blessing a good spouse brings to a household
9. Jeremiah 31:31-32a, 33-34a: God's new, unconditional covenant, a mirror for marriage vows

The Responsorial Psalms (7 options)

1. Psalm 33: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord
2. Psalm 34: taste and see the goodness of the Lord
3. Psalm 103: the Lord is kind and merciful
4. Psalm 112: blessing on the one who delights in the Lord's commands
5. Psalm 128: a psalm specifically about the blessing of home and family
6. Psalm 145: how good is the Lord to all
7. Psalm 148: a psalm of praise drawing in all of creation

The New Testament Readings (14 options)

1. Romans 8:31b-35, 37-39: nothing can separate us from the love of Christ
2. Romans 12:1-2, 9-18: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, a call to real sacrificial love
3. Romans 15:1b-3a, 5-7, 13: welcome one another as Christ welcomed you
4. 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20: your body is a temple of the Spirit
5. 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8a: the famous "love is patient, love is kind" passage
6. Ephesians 4:1-6: one Body and one Spirit, a reading centered on unity
7. Ephesians 5:2a, 21-33 (long or short form): marriage as a sign of Christ and the Church
8. Philippians 4:4-9: the God of peace will be with you
9. Colossians 3:12-17: put on love, the bond of perfection
10. Hebrews 13:1-4a, 5-6b: let marriage be held in honor by all
11. 1 Peter 3:1-9: be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another
12. 1 John 3:18-24: love in deed and in truth, not just words
13. 1 John 4:7-12: God is love, the theological foundation under everything else on this list
14. Revelation 19:1, 5-9a: the wedding feast of the Lamb, a more mystical option

The Gospel Readings (10 options)

1. Matthew 5:1-12a: the Beatitudes
2. Matthew 5:13-16: you are the light of the world
3. Matthew 7:21, 24-29 (long or short form): the wise man who built his house on rock
4. Matthew 19:3-6: what God has joined, man must not separate
5. Matthew 22:35-40: the greatest commandment, to love God and neighbor
6. Mark 10:6-9: a shorter parallel to the Matthew 19 reading, "no longer two but one flesh"
7. John 2:1-11: the Wedding at Cana, Jesus's first miracle
8. John 15:9-12: remain in my love
9. John 15:12-16: this is my commandment, love one another
10. John 17:20-26 (long or short form): Jesus's prayer that his followers be brought to perfection as one

How to Actually Choose

Most couples pick readings the way they pick a paint color, by what looks good on a sample card. Here is a better process.

Start with what is actually true about you, not what sounds nice. If your relationship was built through hardship, Tobit's readings about a marriage that survives real suffering will land harder than the Song of Songs. If you are a family that already knows you want a house full of kids and noise, Psalm 128 says exactly that, out loud, in front of everyone. Pick the reading that describes the marriage you are actually building, not the one that photographs well in a program.

Read the ones you think you'll skip. Ephesians 5 gets avoided constantly because of the line about wives being subordinate, but the short form removes that language, and the passage underneath it is one of the strongest descriptions of self sacrificing love in the entire New Testament. Don't rule a reading out because of a first impression; read the whole thing, including the alternate short forms where they exist.

Think about who is doing the reading. A nervous family member handed 1 Peter 3 or Revelation 19 cold is a very different experience than that same person reading Colossians 3. Match the reading's length and rhythm to the person you actually have in mind to proclaim it.

Don't pick the Gospel yourself if your priest has a strong preference. Some priests like to choose or at least weigh in on the Gospel specifically, since it sets up the homily. Ask before you get attached to one.

Talk about it as a conversation, not a checkbox. Choosing a reading together is one of the few required parts of wedding planning that is actually about your relationship rather than your budget. Treat the conversation about which one fits you the way you'd treat any of the real conversations worth having before the wedding, not a task to clear off the list.

That last point is really the whole idea behind our 65 Questions to Ask Before Marriage, and it's worth the same honesty here. If you want a more complete picture of where you and your partner actually align before the wedding, you can take the full assessment together. The reading you choose is one afternoon of conversation. It's a good one to have either way.