Readings
Reading 1
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage the “little” things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say, ”I love you” at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is standing together and facing the world.
It is speaking words of appreciation, and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is not only marrying the right person — it is being the right partner
Reading 2
BRIDE and GROOM, this celebration is the outward token of your sacred and inward union of hearts.
It is a union created by your loving purpose and kept by your abiding will. It is in this spirit and for this purpose that you have come here to be joined together.
Reading 3
I asked you to join hands as a symbol of the union that you are making here today.
I’d like you to think about the hands that you are holding.
These are the hands of your best friend
Holding your hands on your wedding day
Promising to love you and to work together as you build your future together.
These are the hands that will give you Strength when you need strength
Tenderness when you need tenderness
And love when you need love.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes
Tears of sorrow
But also tears of joy.
These are the hands that will hold all those whom you love.
These are the hands that years from now will still be searching for your hands,
Still seeking the love, encouragement and support That each of you seeks from the other.
Reading 4
Bride and Groom, Please face each other and take each other’s hands, so that you may see the gift that they are to you.
These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.
These are the hands that will work along side yours as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief temporarily comes your way.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will tenderly hold your children.These are the hands that will give you support and encouragement to chase down your dreams.
These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
These are the hands that will lift your chin and brush your cheek as they raise your face to look into eyes that are filled with overwhelming love for you.
And lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged will still be reaching for yours, still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch.
Reading 5
So, as important as this ceremony is, the foundation of your marriage was formed long before we ever came here today, and that is the love that you share.
Love is gentleness
Love is kindness
Love understands and love forgives.
It is loyal through good and bad
Love hopes for the future
Love is everlasting.
Love makes up for things that you may not have.
Without love, no matter what you do have it is never enough.
So, search for love.
Share your love.
But most of all, Enjoy your love.
Reading 6
Most would agree that it is love that keeps people together when they’re confronted with that immense sky, with those infinite distances that separate even the closest of men and women.
But what kind of love?
Poets, priests and philosophers, and no small number of cabbies, barbers and bartenders have debated this question. We speak of spiritual love, passionate love, love eternal… but the phrase that may capture the reality of this emotion best is “stirring the oatmeal” love.
When you’re willing to stand in your bathrobe on a cold kitchen floor at 5:00 AM, and stir the oatmeal so your spouse can have a little more sleep—and not even think twice about why you’re doing it—then you have a love that can last a lifetime.
As Carl Jung once wrote, “feeling is a matter of the small.” Such simple, pragmatic experiences are the best places for love to take root.
In such ground, love blossoms over time, becoming deeper, more beautiful, and more profound. Love so deep, intimacy so profound, cannot help but suggest transcendence, a shifting of human experience into the realm of the spiritual. This is what makes marriage a unique milestone in any relationship.
BRIDE and GROOM have been together for ______ years.
They seem as close as any two people can be.
Yet they felt the need for something more: a rite of passage.
We define marriage as a sacrament, something that is itself defined as “a rite ordained as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”
An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.
That is why we are here: to witness this visible sign.
These words, these actions—they are the manifestation of that inward grace. In this way, a marriage is like a mirror.
It lets us look into depths that cannot be seen directly, and reflects the spirit of the two being joined as one.
Reading 7
Your marriage is the coming together of your two souls for the purpose of manifesting your hearts’ desires and the truth of your being with one another. Marriage will bring to you all of the unlimited possibilities of consciously choosing to become all that you desire, giving you the opportunity to become your highest vision of your Self.
This path is not only incredibly challenging but very rewarding as well; it brings to each of you the choices that you want to have for your own growth as well as the wonderful moments of diving blessing that you yearn for in your lives.
Marriage is a path of divine humanness. It takes great courage and commitment to continue a conscious and loving union with one other. Through your commitment, the breath of human experience will be born, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.
This level of commitment to yourself and each other will open the door to receiving all that you desire, from the conscious to the unconscious. The very act of joining with each other will increase your potential for self knowledge, joy, fulfillment, peace, and growth a hundred fold because until you have fully committed to each other, the well spring of God’s gifts have only a small river in which to flow through you.
Marriage is the union of your souls, a divine process that your essence longs to experience. It is your nature, and the truth of who you are. By committing to each other, you commit to life more intimately.
You no longer have the luxury of leaving when the going gets tough and the ugliness comes to the surface. Your lifelong commitment brings to you an opportunity for joy that would be unparalleled for each of you alone. The joys are that much stronger and the happiness that much richer. The wisdom is deeper and more developed, and the journey itself fuller and more beautiful.
The path of true marriage is not for the meek. It requires courage and strength, as well as an open mind and a heart filled with hope and joy. Through the mirror of each other, marriageteaches you compassion, understanding, trust, commitment, love, gentleness, and patience. Within your marriage, all things are possible; all dreams, goals, and visions are possible within your Holy Union.
Marriage denies you nothing, and only gives to you that which you truly desire. Your marriage is the coming together of friends into Union. It requires you to soften, enjoying the special qualities of your present moments. It can bring you comfort in times of need, solace when you despair, and safety when you are afraid.
A lifelong, loving marriage brings to you more peace than a life filled with quietude and solitary meditation. It takes the peace of your connection with God into your relationship and into all that you say, think, and do. Because you have prayed for every gift available to you, your marriage leaves no stone unturned, enriching your lives beyond your wildest dreams, and making you greater than you ever imagined.
Reading 8
Now join your hands, and with your hands, your hearts.
These are the hands of the one you love and adore.
On this day, you promise to love and honour one another for all your days.
Reaching out to the one you love, may you find strength.
Standing side by side, may you find partnership.
Sharing responsibilities and chores, may you find equality and ease.
Helping each other in daily life and works, may you find fulfillment.
Loving each other through dark and light times, may you find power.
Look deeply into one another’s eyes, now, and promise to always see one another through the eyes of love.
As you hold hands, may you warmly hold one another’s hearts.
Our wish for you is that you build an extraordinary life together.
May your marriage be all you two would choose it to be!
Reading 9
To make this relationship work, therefore, takes more than love.
It takes trust, to know in your hearts that you want only the best for each other.
It takes dedication, to stay open to one another, to learn and grow, even when it is difficult to do so.
And it takes faith, to go forward together without knowing what the future holds for you both.
While love is our natural state of being, these other qualities are not as easy to come by.
They are not a destination, but a journey.
The true art of married life is an inner spiritual journey.
It is a mutual enrichment, a give and take between two personalities, a mingling of two endowments, which diminishes neither, but enhances both.
So it is on this Summer eve, let us rejoice yet know that we are here not just to observe but also to participate in this marriage ceremony.
May we all remember that the path of love is meant to be walked together with God and with all of humanity.
No persons in a love relationship can have meaning apart from their family, their friends and their community.
Reading 10
A Little Something
Love is the greatest gift that we can offer to one another.
That is what makes marriage so very special, and a cause for joy and celebration for all of us who have come here today to share in this event.
It is my personal hope and prayer that those of you who have already taken the vows of marriage will witness the love of these two people, and as you listen to them share their vows, perhaps it will strengthen for you the memory of your happy day, and remind you of the meaning of the vows you yourselves once took.
Perhaps it will even strengthen just a little bit the bond of love that has been growing between you, and if any of this should happen, it would certainly be the greatest gift that BRIDE and GROOM could offer all of us on their wedding day.
Reading 11
Love is always Patient and kind.
It is never jealous Love is never boastful nor conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It doesn’t take offense.
It is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope snd to endure whatever comes
Reading 12
by Eric Fromm
Love is not simply a relationship to a specific person; It is an attitude; an orientation of character, which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow person, this love is not love but a selfish attachment, or an enlarged egotism. If you truly love one person, you love all persons, you love the world, you love life. If you can say to somebody else, “I love you” you must be able to say, “I love through you the world, I love in you also myself.
Reading 13
by Carl Sandburg
I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be. I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little. A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall. The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desires are working for larger and finer growth. Not always shall you be what you are now. You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.
Reading 14
Author Unknown
Love me because I try to touch life within the framework of uncertainty. Love in me the shadows of my indecision as I strive to gain knowledge. Love in me the silence of my hurts and the noise of my confusions. Love me for the feeling of my heart not the fears of my mind. Love me in my search for the truth though I may stumble upon fallacy. Love me as I pursue my dreams sometimes retarded by illusions. Love me as I grow to know myself even during the times of stagnation. Love me because I seek God’s harmony not man’s discord. Love me for my body that I wish to share with affection, wrapping you in warmth. Love me because we are different as we are the same. Love me that our time together will be spent in growing, kindling the world with understanding. Love me not with expectations but with hope. I will love you the same.
Reading 15
A Touch of Heart
There was a time … a moment I felt all alone but then the sun shined upon me bearing gifts of love, friendship and harmony Everlasting love shared and expressed through you to me. The prayers, the cares, the gestures brought forth to me heal my soul For at times I’d only known to give but failed to accept and receive with grace. I’m not alone now for your warmth overwhelms me your spirit fills my sour, and I am ALIVE with your love.
Reading 16
From The Gift Of The Sea By Anne Morrow Lindbergh
When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity — in freedom in the sense that dancers are free barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation but in living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands; one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits … islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.
Reading 17
On Marriage, By Edmund O’Neill
Marriage is a commitment to life – to the best that two people can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other human relationship can equal, a joining that is promised for a lifetime. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships. A wife and a husband are each other’s best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic. There may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life. Happiness is fuller; memories are fresher; commitment is stronger; even anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing love through the seasons of life. When two people pledge to love and care for each other in marriage they create a spirit unique to themselves, which binds them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential, made in the hearts of two people who love, which takes a lifetime to fulfill.
Reading 18
Blessing For A Marriage, By James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring, and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding. May you always need one another – not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness. A mountain needs a valley to be complete; the valley does not make the mountain less, but more; and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it. So let it be with you and you. May you need one another, but not out of weakness. May you want one another, but not out of lack. May you entice one another, but not compel one another. May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another. May you succeed in all important ways with one another, and not fail in the little graces. May you look for things to praise, often say, “I love you!” and take no notice of small faults. If you have quarrels that push you apart, may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back. May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another’s presence – no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side, and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities. May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy. May you have love, and may you find it loving one another!
Reading 19
The Art Of A Good Marriage, By Wilferd Arlan Peterson
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In marriage the little things are the big things. It is never being too old to hold hands. It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years. It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives. It is standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not looking for perfection in each other. It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor. It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.
Reading 20
The One, By Bernie Taupin
I saw you dancing out on the ocean Running fast along the sand A spirit born of earth and water Fire flying from your hands In the instant that you love someone In the second that the hammer hits Reality runs up your spine And the pieces finally fit All I ever needed was the one Like freedom feels where wild horses run When stars collide like you and I No shadows block the sun You are all I have ever needed Baby, you’re the one
Reading 21
Thoughts In a Garden, By R. Gerhardt
This is a special place, a place where people have brought beautiful living plants, here to establish them, to nurture and care for them, that they may forever surround us with the beauty we now see. And into this place where we stand, you have brought something beautiful — the relationship that is becoming your marriage. Here you are declaring it and pledging it, promising to establish and nurture it. We are aware of the special beauty between the two of you, just as we are aware of the special beauty of this place. We are with you now in this appropriate place to celebrate your relationship as it is and as it is yet to be, and in doing so, we ask only that you remember how your life together will have the same seasons and needs as this garden. There will be growth like spring and loss like fall; there will be giving as the blossoming flower, and rest as the seed beneath the snow. All the seasons will be yours, but remember, too, that gardens are not must happenings. The more wonderful the garden, the more skilled the gardener. So you will have to care deeply for the life that is yours together, and nurture it. You will have to appreciate your differences and cultivate them. You will have to take care of yourself, if for no other reason than out of love for the other. And you will need the support of family and friends to reach full growth. As you caringly chose this place to declare your marriage, so remember its lessons for your life together through the seasons that are yours to share. And may those seasons bring you and yours joy and happiness.
Reading 22
The Covenant of Marriage
Marriage has certain qualities of contract, in which two people take on the housekeeping tasks of living, together, to enhance life’s joy. However, marriage is more than a contract. Marriage is a commitment to take that joy deep, deeper than happiness, deep into the discovery of who you most truly are. It is a commitment to a spiritual journey, to a life of becoming — in which joy can comprehend despair, running through rivers of pain into joy again. And thus marriage is even deeper than commitment. It is a covenant — a covenant that says: I love you. I trust you. I will be here for you when you are hurting, And when I am hurting I will not leave. It is a covenant intended not to provide haven from pain or anger and sorrow. Life offers no such haven. Instead, marriage is intended to provide a sanctuary safe enough to risk loving, to risk living and sharing from the center of oneself. This is worth everything.
Reading 23
The Key To Love
The key to love is understanding…
The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word,
but those unspoken gestures,
the little things that say so much by themselves.
The key to love is forgiveness…
to accept each others faults and pardon mistakes,
without forgetting, but with remembering
what you learn from them.
The key to love is sharing…
Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together;
both conquering problems, forever searching for ways
to intensify your happiness.
The key to love is giving…
without thought of return,
but with the hope of just a simple smile,
and by giving in but never giving up.
The key to love is respect…
realizing that you are two separate people,
with different ideas;
that you don’t belong to each other,
that you belong with each other,
and share a mutual bond.
The key to love is inside us all…
It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients that will take you to its threshold;
it is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work…
but the rewards are more than worth the effort…
and that is the key to love.
Reading 24
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Reading 25
Psalm 1 (often used in Jewish or interfaith weddings)
Blessed are the man and the woman who have grown beyond themselves and have seen through their separations. They delight in the way things are and keep their hearts open, day and night. They are like trees planted near flowing rivers, which bear fruit when they are ready. Their leaves will not fall or wither. Everything they do will succeed.
Reading 26
On Friendship by Roy Croft
I love you, not for what you are, but what I am, when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped up heart and passing over all the frivolous and weak things that you cannot help seeing there, and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful and radiant things that no one else has looked quite far enough to find…
I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.
You have done it without a touch, without a word, without a sign. You have done it by being yourself. Perhaps that is what being a friend means after all.
Reading 27
What is Love? by Susan Polis Schutz
Love Love is the strongest feeling known an all -encompassing passion an extreme strength an overwhelming excitementLove is trying not to hurt the other person trying not to change the other person trying not to dominate the other person trying not to deceive the other person
Love is understanding each other listening to each other supporting each other having fun with each other.
Love is not an excuse to stop growing not an excuse to stop making yourself better not an excuse to lessen one’s goals not an excuse to take the other person for granted
Love is being completely honest with each other finding dreams to share working towards common goals sharing responsibilities equally
Everyone in the world wants to love Love is not a feeling to be taken lightly Love is a feeling to be cherished, nurtured and cared for Love is the reason for life
Reading 28
From This Day Forward
From this day forward, let us laugh together, and plan together, let us find our favorite places, and go together…
Let us enjoy the sunshine, and the rain, being alone together, and in crowds together…
From this day forward, together, Let us love! Let Us Walk Together
Let us walk together yet not as one, but such that our shadows are separate and distinct, such that our souls are unbound and free.
Let us share our time, yet do not give all your time, nor take all of mine for in order to develop to the fullest, to be free, we must have solitude and individuality.
Let me wander in solitude, when I need to be alone, yet be near, when I need you. Let us share our love. Give freely of your love, but do not smother me, my soul must breathe a free air. Take my love, but do not demand it, for love given of obligation, is stale and without life. Let us share our lives.
Share my life, but do not try to shape it. Let me share your life, but do not let it revolve around me. Let us share ourselves. Accept me as I am, do not attempt to change me to fit your dreams.
Respect me for what I am, not for what I was or one day may be. Share yourself with me, but do not allow me to limit your freedom or bind your soul. Let us share our minds, thoughts, goals, values and dreams. Let us develop these within ourselves without restriction or loss of freedom
Thus our two free souls, may wander together as they develop in freedom. As we share our lives, as we walk through life together, know my love is yours, but not my soul for it must be free.
Reading 29
From ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ Rainer Maria Rilke
For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person – it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chose him and calls him to vast distances.
Reading 30
From To Know Yourself by Swami Satchidananda
A wedding is between two reflections of God. Two pairs of eyes see one vision. They are dedicated to serve one another and the humanity at large. Two minds come together to help each other realize their true nature. Going side by side with the right partner is a good way to reach God quickly. When the husband’s and the wife’s love for each other blends together and becomes love of God, marriage is a divine institution.
Reading – Ann Landers
Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present. It hopes for the future and it doesn’t brood over the past. It’s the day-in and day-out chronicle of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things that are missing. If you don’t have love in your life no matter what else there is it’s not enough.
Reading – THE ART OF MARRIAGE – Wilferd Arlan Peterson
Happiness in marriage isn’t something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. It is never being too old to hold hands. Saying I love you once a day and not taking one another for granted. It is a courtship that goes beyond the honeymoon and continues through the years. It is forming a circle of love that encompasses the whole family. It is doing kind things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice but in the spirit of joy. It is not looking for perfection in one another but cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding, and a sense of humor. It is being close and allowing each other room to grow. It is not only marrying the right partner but also being the right partner.
Version 2
The little things are the big things.
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say “I love you” at least once a day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is never taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through all the years.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives.
It is standing together facing the world.
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy.
It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways.
It is not expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.
It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal.
It is not only marrying the right partner,
It is being the right partner.
Marriage Joins Two People in the Circle Of Its Love – Edmund O’Neill
Marriage is a commitment to life, the best that two people can find and bring out in each other. It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other relationship can equal. It is a physical and an emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime. Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships. A wife and a husband are each others’ best friend, confidant, love, teacher, listener, and critic. And there may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life. Happiness is fuller, memories are fresher, commitment is stronger, even anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing a love that is deeper than life. When two people pledge their love and care for each other in marriage, they create a spirit unique unto themselves which binds them closer than any spoken or written words. Marriage is a promise, a potential made in the hearts of two people who love each other and takes a lifetime to fulfill.
A Reading from Scripture:
Lord, cause us to increase and abound in love for one another. A love whose breadth and length and height and depth can not be comprehended. Let our love reflect the unity of our hearts and souls which we celebrate today. (Thessalonians 3:13, Ephesians 3:18).
Genesis 2:18-24
The Lord God said: “it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.
A VIRTOUS WIFE proverbs 31:10
10 )Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
11)The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
12) She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.
20) She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
25) Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
26) She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
Ephesians 5:
King James
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For this cause shall a man leaves his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Living Bible
Honor Christ by submitting to each other. You wives must submit to your husbands’ leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the same way Christ is in charge of his body the church. (He gave his very life to take care of it and be its Savior!) So you wives must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the church obeys Christ.
And you husbands, show the same kind of love to your wives as Christ showed to the church when he died for he. That is how husbands should treat their wives, loving them as parts of themselves. For since a man and his wife are now one, a man is really doing himself a favor and loving himself when he loves his wife! (That the husband and wife are one body is proved by the Scripture which says, “A man must leave his father and mother when he marries, so that he can be perfectly joined to his wife, and the two shall be one.”) So again I say, a man must love his wife as a part of himself; and the wife must see to it that she deeply respects her husband – obeying, praising and honouring him.
Modern English
You wives must learn to adapt yourselves to your husbands, as you submit yourselves to the Lord, for the husband is the “head” of the wife in the same way that Christ is head of the Church and savior of his body. The willing subjection of the Church to Christ should be reproduced in the submission of wives to their husbands. But, remember, this means that the husband must give his wife the same sort of love that Christ gave to the Church, when He sacrificed Himself for her. Men ought to give their wives the love they naturally have for their own bodies. The love a man gives his wife is the extending of his love for himself to enfold her. Nobody ever hates or neglects his own body; he feeds it and looks after it.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, And shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh.
In practice what I have said amounts to this: let every one of you who is a husband love his wife as he loves himself, and let the wife reverence her husband.
New American Standard Bible
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her: that He might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water, with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing: but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see to it that she respect her husband.
I Corinthians 7: 3-4
King James
Let the Husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Modern English
The husband should give his wife what is due to her as his wife, and the wife should be as fair to her husband. The wife has no longer full rights over her own person, but shares them with her husband. In the same way the husband shares his personal rights with his wife.
Living Bible
The man should give his wife all that is her right as a married woman, and the wife should do the same for her husband: for a girl who marries no longer has full right to her own body, for her husband then has his rights to it, too; and in the same way the husband no longer has full right to his own body, for it belongs also to his wife.
Jewish New Testament
The husband should give his wife what she is entitled to in the marriage relationship, and the wife should do the same for her husband.
The wife is not in charge of her own body, but her husband is; likewise, the husband is not in charge of his own body, but his wife is.
I Corinthians 13:
King James
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love in my heart, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,
and have not love in my heart, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love in my heart, I gain nothing.
Love is long-suffering and kind; love does not envy;
Love does not make a vain display of itself, and does not boast,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked,
Thinks no evil; rejoices not over iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail;
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is imperfect shall come to an end.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
But when I became an adult, I put away childish things.
And now abide faith, hope & love; but the greatest of these is love.
Phillips Modern English
If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.
This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience – it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance.
Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails.
Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.
For if there are prophecies they will be fulfilled and done with, if there are “tongues” the need for them will disappear, if there is knowledge it will be swallowed up in truth. For our knowledge is always incomplete and our prophecy is always incomplete.
When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child. Now that I am an adult my childish speech and feeling and thought have no further significance for me.
In this life we have three great lasting qualities – faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.
Living Bible
If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages, without learning them, and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noises. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.
Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.
All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy, and speaking in unknown languages, and special knowledge – these gifts will disappear.
It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things.
There are three things that remain – faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.
New American Standard Bible
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous: love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly: it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth: bears all things, believes all things hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
But now abide faith, hope, love, these three: but the greatest of these is love.
Selection #5
A reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now, I am going to put before you the best way of all. Though I command languages both human and angelic – if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains – if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned – if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever. Love is always patient and kind; Love is never jealous; Love is not boastful or conceited, It is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, It does not take offense or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; And if knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, see things as a child does and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways. Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known. As it is, these remain: faith, hope, and love, The three of them; And the greatest of them is love.
Selection #6
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy, and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I am nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects. Always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease.
Where there are tongues, they shall be stilled;
Where there is knowledge, it shall pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
And now these three remain; faith, hope & love. But the greatest of these is love.
Selection #7
Love is patient; love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way:
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrong doing,
but rejoices in truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things
And now faith, hope, and love abide,
and the greatest of these is love.
Hosea 2:19
And I will betroth you unto me forever;
I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.
I will betroth you unto me in faithfulness…
Song of Songs 8:6
Wear me as a seal upon your heart
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is infinitely strong…
Many waters cannot quench love;
No flood can sweep it away.
Song of Songs 4:9
You have captured my heart,
My own, my bride,
You have captured my heart
With one glance of your eyes…
Ecclesiastes 4: 9-12:
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.
New King James Version
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three fold cord is not quickly broken.
King James Version
Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together then they have heat; but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
The Living Bible
Two can accomplish more than twice as much as one, for the results can be much better. If one falls, the other pulls him up; but if a man falls when he is alone, he’s in trouble.
Also, on a cold night, two under the same blanket gain warmth from each other, but how can one be warm alone? And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple braided cord is not easily broken.