Readings for Weddings
THANK YOU- LED ZEPPELIN
If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you
When mountains crumble to the sea
There will still be you and me
Kind woman, I give you my all
Kind woman, nothing more
Little drops of rain whisper of the pain
Tears of loves lost in the days gone by
My love is strong, with you there is no wrong
Together we shall go until we die
My, my, my inspiration is what you are to me
Inspiration look, see
And so today, my world it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles
Thanks to you it will be done
For you to me are the only one
Happiness, no more be sad
Happiness, I'm glad
If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you
Mountains crumble to the se
ALL I KNOW ABOUT LOVE- NEIL GAIMAN
This is everything I have to tell you about love: nothing.
This is everything I've learned about marriage: nothing.
Only that the world out there is complicated,
and there are beasts in the night, and delight and pain,
and the only thing that makes it okay, sometimes,
is to reach out a hand in the darkness and find another hand to squeeze,
and not to be alone.
It's not the kisses, or never just the kisses: it's what they mean.
Somebody's got your back.
Somebody knows your worst self and somehow doesn't want to rescue you
or send for the army to rescue them.
It's not two broken halves becoming one.
It's the light from a distant lighthouse bringing you both safely home
because home is wherever you are both together.
So this is everything I have to tell you about love and marriage: nothing,
like a book without pages or a forest without trees.
Because there are things you cannot know before you experience them.
Because no study can prepare you for the joys or the trials.
Because nobody else's love, nobody else's marriage, is like yours,
and it's a road you can only learn by walking it,
a dance you cannot be taught,
a song that did not exist before you began, together, to sing.
And because in the darkness you will reach out a hand,
not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.
And your hands will meet,
and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again.
And that's all I know about love.
I BELONG IN YOUR ARMS- DEBORAH BRIDEAU
I belong in your arms
Finally, I have found a place
Into which I fit perfectly, Safely
And securely with no doubts
No fears, No sadness, No tears.
The place is filled with happiness and laughter
Yet it is spacious enough, to allow me
The freedom to move around,
To live my life and be myself.
This wonderful place, which I never believed really existed,
I have found Finally
Inside your arms, Inside your heart, inside your love
Extract from The Irrational Season, by Madeleine L'Engle
Ultimately there comes a time when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created.
To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling.
Why Marriage - Mari Nicholas-Haining
Why Marriage Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person, With all my heart, my soul, my mind my body….
Because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me, Who won't hold them against me, Who loves me when I'm unlikable, Who sees the small child in me, and Who looks for the divine potential of me…. Because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night With someone who thanks God for me, With someone I feel blessed to hold…
Because marriage means opportunity To grow in love in friendship… Because marriage is a discipline To be added to a list of achievements… Because marriages do not fail, people fail When they enter into marriage Expecting another to make them whole…
Because, knowing this, I promise myself to take full responsibility For my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness I create me, I take half of the responsibility for my marriage… Together we create our marriage… Because with this understanding The possibilities are limitless.
I am thankful― Tyler Kent White
"I am thankful
for the sunrise
and every sunset
for the safety nets
that catch my falls from grace
for the family
friends
and gentle eyed strangers
that pick me up and
place me at elevations
I have never deserved
but mostly just for you
and the soft smiles you bring
when I cannot find them
on my own."
What is a friend (author unknown)
What is a friend? I’ll tell you. It is a person with whom you dare to be yourself. Your soul can go naked with him, He seems to ask you to put on nothing, only to be what you really are. When you are with her, you do not have to be on your guard. You can say what you think, as long as it is genuinely you. She understands those contradictions in your nature that cause others to misjudge you. With her you breathe freely. You can avow your little vanities and envies and absurdities and in opening them up to her, they are dissolved on the white ocean of loyalty. He understands. You can weep with him, laugh with him, pray with him: Through and underneath it all he sees, knows and loves you.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love which sets us free
Extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
by Louis de Bernieres
Love is a temporary madness;
it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your
roots have so entwined together
that it is inconceivable that you should ever part.
Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement,
it is not the promulgation of eternal passion.
That is just being in love, which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love have roots that grow towards
each other underground,
and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen
from their branches,
they find that they are one tree and not two.
Albert Schweitzer Philosopher
We are each a secret to the other.
To know one another cannot mean to know
everything about each other;
it means to feel mutual affection and confidence,
and to believe in one another.
We must not try to force our way into the personality of another.
To analyse others is a rude commencement,
for there is a modesty of the soul which we must
recognise just as we do that of the body.
No one has a right to say to another:
Because we belong to each other as we do,
I have a right to know all your thoughts.
Not even a mother may treat her child in that way.
All demands of this sort are foolish and unwholesome.
In this matter giving is the only valuable process;
it is only giving that stimulates.
Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being
to those who are on the road with you,
and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.
Frank Yerby - Novelist
You are a part of me. I do not know
By what slow chemistry you first became
A vital fibre of my being.
Go Beyond the rim of time or space, the same
Inflections of your voice will sing their way
Into the depths of my mind still. Your hair
Will gleam as bright, the artless play
Of word and glance, gesture and the fair
Young fingers waving, have too deeply etched
The pattern of your soul on mine. Forget
Me quickly as a laughing picture sketched
On water, I shall never know regret
Knowing no magic ever can set free
That part of you that is a part of me.
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!
*
Friendship by Judy Bielicki
It is often said that it is love that makes the world go round. However, without doubt, it is friendship which keeps our spinning existence on an even keel. True friendship provides so many of the essentials for a happy life-it is the foundation on which to build an enduring relationship, it is the mortar which bonds us together in harmony, and it is the calm, warm protection we sometimes need when the world outside seems cold and chaotic.
True friendship holds a mirror to our foibles and failings, without destroying our sense of worthiness. True friendship nurtures our hopes, supports us in our disappointments, and encourages us to grow to our best potential.
Bride and Groom came together as friends. Today, they pledge to each other not only their love, but also the strength, warmth and, most importantly, the fun of true friendship
*
Benediction of the Apaches
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 you.
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
Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A
marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your
other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn’t that. That is a
relationship of pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it’s off. But a
marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime
concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you are not
married.” Joseph Campbell
“That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven,
and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.”
John Updike
“When two people meet and fall in love, there's a sudden rush of magic.
Magic is just naturally present then. We tend to feed on that gratuitous magic
without striving to make any more. One day we wake up and find that the
magic is gone. We hustle to get it back, but by then it's usually too late, we've
used it up. What we have to do is work like hell at making additional magic
right from the start. It's hard work, but if we can remember to do it, we greatly
improve our chances of making love stay.” Tom Robbins
Blessing of the Hands
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 alongside 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 fills your mind.
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 help you to hold your family as one.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
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.
“Learn how to love”, inspired by “Love is an Attitude” by Walter Rinder.
Every day you live Learn how to love. Take time with each other, Restore each other’s soul with loving words. Receive love with as much understanding As you give it. Find that which is within yourselves Then you can share it with each other. Do not fear this love, And do not fear this marriage, But keep open hearts and sincere minds. Be sincerely interested in each other’s happiness; Be, too, constant and consistent in your love, And in your actions. From this, as you know, comes security and strength. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us, So, even though you retain you individuality, Today in a real sense you also become one In a true unity. That this may be deep and rewarding, Today, the day of your marriage, Try to commit yourselves, Fully and freely and trustingly To each other, without reservations.
I will be hereby Steven Curtis Chapman
If in the morning when you wake, If the sun does not appear, I will be here. If in the dark we lose sight of love, Hold my hand and have no fear, I will be here.
I will be here, When you feel like being quiet, When you need to speak your mind I will listen. Through the winning, losing, and trying we’ll be together, And I will be here. If in the morning when you wake, If the future is unclear, I will be here. As sure as seasons are made for change, Our lifetimes were made for years, I will be here.
I will be here And when you cry on my shoulder, When the mirror tells us were older, I will hold you to watch you grow in beauty, And tell you all the things you are to me. we’ll be together and i will be here. I will be true to the promises i’ve made, to you and to the one who gave you to me. I will be here.