The Best Short Catholic Wedding Readings

A Catholic wedding Mass has four reading slots, and the approved options vary enormously in length. Ephesians 5 runs to thirteen verses and takes real work to proclaim well. Mark 10:6-9 is four verses and lands in under thirty seconds.

Shorter is not lesser. If you have a nervous reader, a long ceremony, small children in the front row, or a guest list that is largely not Catholic, the short readings do the same theological work with less strain on everyone.

Shortest First Readings

• Tobit 8:4b-8: Tobiah and Sarah pray together on their wedding night. Five verses, and the only Old Testament option where the couple themselves speak. "I take this kinswoman of mine not because of lust, but with sincerity."
• Genesis 2:18-24: "It is not good for the man to be alone." Slightly longer, but familiar enough that guests follow it without effort.
• Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a: "Set me as a seal upon your heart." Short, and the most frankly romantic text in the lectionary.

Shortest Psalms

• Psalm 128: "Blessed are those who fear the Lord." Five verses, and traditionally the wedding psalm.
• Psalm 33: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord."

Shortest Second Readings

• 1 John 4:7-12: "Love is of God." Six verses, plain language, and it says the essential thing without requiring the congregation to hold a long argument in their heads.
• Colossians 3:12-17: "Put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility." A list rather than an argument, which makes it easy to read aloud.
• 1 John 3:18-24: "Let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth."

Worth knowing: 1 Corinthians 13, "Love is patient, love is kind", is the single most chosen wedding reading and is moderate in length. It is chosen constantly, and it earns that.

Shortest Gospels

• Mark 10:6-9: "What God has joined together, no human being must separate." Four verses. The shortest option in the entire wedding lectionary, and it contains the sentence the whole rite turns on.
• John 15:9-12: "Love one another as I love you." Four verses, and the gentlest of the Gospel options.
• Matthew 22:35-40: The greatest commandment. Six verses.
• Matthew 19:3-6: Matthew's version of "what God has joined together."

A complete short set

If you want the shortest liturgy the Church permits while keeping all four slots: Tobit 8:4b-8, Psalm 128, 1 John 4:7-12, and Mark 10:6-9. That set is entirely traditional, reads in a few minutes, and no one will notice it was chosen for length.

Three things to check first

If one of you is not Catholic, you may be celebrating a wedding without Mass, which has a different shape and usually fewer readings. Ask your priest or deacon early, because it changes what you are choosing.

Parishes sometimes have their own practice about how many readings are used and who may proclaim them. Confirm before printing.

Short does not exempt you from the one rule that governs the whole selection: at least one of your readings must explicitly speak of Marriage. Among the shortest options, Matthew 19:3-6 and Mark 10:6-9 both qualify and both run to a few lines, so a compact set can satisfy the requirement without lengthening the liturgy at all.

Putting it in the program

The full text of all 40 approved wedding readings is here, with the ones that satisfy the marriage requirement marked, and you can build a printable wedding program with your readings already laid out. For the complete four-slot walkthrough, see the complete guide to Catholic wedding readings.