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This is a great collection of sample readings you may use in your
wedding ceremony. They can be made more effective by having one of
your friends or family members read them. Choose readings that
reflect the love you all have, and not simple on whether they are
religious or not. In the context of a wedding ceremony, your sample
readings will support the overall ceremony to make it more personal
to you, not to make it more or less religious.
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.
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.
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.
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
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.
When, in disgrace with
Fortune and Men's eyke's,
I all alone beweep my
outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven
with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and
curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more
rich in hope,
Featur'd like him, like him
with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art,
and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy
contented least;
Yet in these thoughts
myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and
then my state
Like to the lark at break
of day arising
From sullen earth, sings
hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love
rememb'red such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change
my state with kings.
1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but
have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a
clanging cymbal.
2If
I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith
that can move mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing.
3If
I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my
body to the flames, but have not love, I gain
nothing.
4Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does
not boast, it is not proud.
5It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not
easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth.
7It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres.
8Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they
will cease; where there are tongues, they will be
stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass
away.
9For
we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10but when perfection comes, the imperfect
disappears.
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I
thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When
I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a
mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know
in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully
known.
13And
now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But
the greatest of these is love.
Paul's Letter to the Romans
12:9-18
Love must be sincere. Look away from what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Medieval Wedding Prayer
(Listen
to Lance read this)
"Our Father, who art in heaven above,
So holy be thy name. Your kingdom is upon us
and only thy Will shall we do
Here on the soil you doth provide, as for
your angels in heaven.
We are thankful for our daily bread and spirit
and be forgiving of our faults as we find others faultless
OH Lord turn our eyes from temptations and be our holy protector
from evil
For God yours is the entirety of the world, with all power,
And all goodness and might is Yours for eternity.
Amen
A Reading from the Book of
Ruth
… Ruth said, "Do not
press me to leave you and to
stop going with you, for
wherever you go, I shall
go,
wherever you live, I shall
live.
Your people will be my
people,
and your God will be my
God.
where you die, I shall die.
John 15: 9-12
Jesus said to his
disciples:
"As the Father has
loved me, so I have loved you.
Live on in my love.
You will live in my love if
you keep my commandments,
even as I have kept my
Father's commandments,
and live in his love.
And this I tell you that my
joy may be yours
and that your joy may be
complete.
This is my commandment:
Love one another as I have
loved you."
First Letter of John 4:
7-12
My dear friends, let us
love one another, since love is from God
and everyone who loves is a
child of God and knows God.
Whoever fails to love does
not know God, because God is love.
This is the revelation of
God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life
through him.
Love consists in this:
it is not we who loved God,
but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.
My dear friends, if God
loved us so much, we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God,
but as long as we love one another
God remains in us and his
love comes to its perfection in us. This is the proof that we
remain in him and he in us. that he has given us a share in
his Spirit.
Matthew 5: 1-12a
Seeing the crowds, he went
onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came
to him. Then he began to speak.
This is what he
taught them:
How blessed are the poor in
spirit:
the Kingdom of Heaven is
theirs.
Blessed are the gentle:
they shall have the earth
as inheritance.
Blessed are those who
mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for uprightness:
they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown
them.
Blessed are the pure in
heart:
they shall see God.
Blessed are the
peacemakers:
they shall be recognized as
children of God.
Blessed are those who are
persecuted in the cause of
uprightness:
the Kingdom of Heaven is
theirs.
Blessed are you when people
abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny
against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be
glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
Matthew 22: 35-40
To put him to the test, one
of them asked him a question:
"Master, which is the
greatest commandment of the Law?"
Jesus said to him,
"You must love the
Lord your God
with all our heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and
the first commandment.
The second resembles it:
You must love your neighbor
as yourself.
On these two commandments
hang the whole Law,
and the Prophets too."
John 15: 9-12
I have loved you
just as the Father has
loved me.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my
Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this that
my own joy may be in you
and that your joy be
complete.
This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
You shall be together
forevermore.
You shall be together when
the white wings of death scatter your days.
You shall be together even
in the silent memory of God.
Let there be spaces in your
togetherness,
and let the winds of the
heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make
not a bond love;
let it rather be a moving
sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup, but
drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your
bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and
be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
even as the strings of a
lute are alone
though they quiver with the
same music.
Give your hearts, but not
into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life
can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not
too near together:
for the pillars of the
Temple stand apart,
and the oak tree and the
cypress grow not in each other's shadow.
Dance Me To The End Of Love
Dance me to your beauty,
with a burning violin,
Dance me through the panic,
till I'm gathered safely in,
Lift me like an olive
branch, and be my homeward dove,
Dance me to the end of
love.
Let me see your beauty,
when the witnesses are gone,
Let me feel you moving,
like they do in Babylon,
Show me slowly what I only
know the limits of,
Dance me to the end of
love.
Dance me to the wedding
now, dance me on and on,
Dance me very tenderly, and
dance me very long,
We're both of us beneath
our love, we're both of us above,
Dance me to the end of
love.
Dance me to the children,
who are asking to be born,
Dance me through the
curtains
that our kisses have
outworn,
Raise a tent of shelter
now, though every thread is torn,
Dance me to the end of
love.
Dance me to your beauty,
with a burning violin,
Dance me through the panic,
till I'm gathered safely in,
Touch me with your naked
hand, touch me with your glove,
Dance me to the end of
love.
I don't love you as if you
were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that
propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark
things are loved,
secretly, between the
shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant
that doesn't bloom carries
hidden within itself the
light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love,
darkly in my body
lives dense fragrance that
rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing
how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without
problems or pride:
I love you in this way
because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is
no I or you,
so intimate that your hand
upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I
fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
Sonnet XLIII, from "Sonnets
from the Portuguese"
(Listen
to Lance read this)
by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning.
How do I love thee?
Let me
count the ways.
I love thee to the depth
and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when
feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and
ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need,
by sun and
candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men
strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they
turn from Praise.
I love thee with the
passion put to use
In my old grief's,
and with
my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I
seemed to lose
With my lost saints,
--I
love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my
life!
--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee
better after death.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
I do
I do…
Want to laugh with you,
Learn with you,
Grow with you.
I do…
Want to be with you
All my life through,
For I love you with all of
my heart,
And today I’m so happy to
tell you…
I do
Memories
Within my book of memories
are special thoughts of
you,
and all the many nice
things
you often say and do.
As I turn the pages
and recall each single
thought,
I realize the happiness
that knowing you has
brought.
There are memories of the
times we’ve shared
both bright and gloomy
days.
There are memories of your
kindness
and your friendly
thoughtful ways.
There are memories of your
laughter
and your bright and cheery
smile,
that add a bright note to
each day
and make life more
worthwhile.
There are memories of the
things we planned,
each friendly little chat,
when we would get together
and just talk of this and
that.
And when I recall these
memories
I go along life’s way,
and find they grow more
precious still
with every passing day.
Tribute
I love you
not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with
you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself,
but for 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 foolish and frivolous and weak things which you cannot
help dimly seeing there, and for drawing out into the light
all the beautiful, radiant belongings that no one else had
looked quite far enough to find.
I love you for
ignoring the possibilities of the fool and weakling in me, and
for laying firm hold on the possibilities of good in me. love
you for closing your eyes to the discords in me, and for
adding to the music in me by worshipful listening.
I love you
because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life
not a tavern but a Temple, and of the words of my every day
not a reproach but a song.
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.
Before the heavens
and the earth, when we were still a part of the Great Spirit,
you and I asked for a journey to be remembered for all time. Out
of Love our hearts desires answered and we were granted these
lives.
Today we fulfill
that destiny and begin the journey of a lifetime. We were once
one soul, then we became two, and were born into this world. We
have lived lives separate. Now let us give thank to the Great
Spirit for loving us enough to allow our love for each other to
be expressed. yesterday we were two souls, today we are one
life.
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