Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the
journey ahead and through all the years,
May happiness be your companion and
your days together be good and long upon the earth.
Before I pronounce you married partners, I have just one more thing I want you to do. Your wedding day is one that seems to fly. It’s a day filled with emotion, friends, rings and dances. Many people remember how fleeting their own wedding day was. So I want you to take a few seconds to look into each others’ eyes. Think about the happiness that you are feeling in this place, in this moment. Really let that feeling register in your heart and your mind. Now, I want you to think about your life together in twenty years . Where are you? What are you doing? We all know that your visions of the future are not identical, but always complimentary. John Lennon once said, “a dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together, THAT is reality”. That new reality starts Now.
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
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.
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.
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 GROOMhave 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.
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, marriage teaches 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.
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.
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.
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
“On Marriage,” Kahlil Gibran
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But 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 of 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.
On Marriage BY KAHLIL GIBRAN
Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master? And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But 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 of 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.
