More Readings
READING NO: 4
Marriage is love
If two are caring as they are sharing life�s hopes and fears.
If the music of laughter outweighs sadness and tears.
Marriage is togetherness.
If both derive pleasure from the mere presence of each other,
yet when parted no jealousies restrict, worry or smother.
Marriage is freedom.
If achievements mean more when they benefit two
and consideration is shown with each point of view.
Marriage is respect.
And if togetherness, freedom and respect are combined
with a joy that words can never fully define, then
Marriage is love.
Gloria Matthew
READING NO: 5
Love is the reason
Love is the reason why this day was chosen by you both to begin your
lives together and love is the reason why you both will give with all hearts
for the good of each other.
Love is the reason that together you will become one; one in hope; one in
believing in life; one in sharing the coming years.
READING NO: 6
Two Lives
Two lives, two people, so very different, yet so similar.
Together we stand as one, sharing our future as it comes.
The past is that — past.
Buds are yet to blossom, with care and trust, the best is yet to be revealed.
Honesty and kindness, are the fruits of love.
Lord bless this day and always to enrich us so our love will never end.
READING NO: 7
1 Corinthians 13
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and all knowledge; and though I
have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, 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 charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth
not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own, is not easily
provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all
things.
Charity never faileth: 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 in part shall be
done away.
When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as
a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know
in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth, faith, hope, charity, and the greatest of these is charity.
READING NO: 8
Colossians 3:12-14
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, compassion, kindness,
lowliness, meekness, and patience, fore bearing one another, and, if one
has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And bore all, put on love, which
binds everything together in perfect harmony.
READING NO: 9
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds.
Admit impediments; love is not love.
Which alters when it alteration finds.
Or bends with the remover to remove.
Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark.
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with its brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare
READING NO: 10
There we are one
When I go to the place in me that is Love
And you go into that place in you that is Love
There we are ONE.
READING NO: 11
In Love Made Visible
In love are we made visible
As in a magic bath
are unpeeled
to the sharp pit
so long concealed
With love’s alertness
we recognize the soundless whimper
of the soul behind the eyes
A shaft opens, and the timid thing
at last leaps to surface with full-spread wing
The fingertips of love discover more than the body’s smoothness
They uncover a hidden conduit
for the transfusion
of empathy�s that circumvent
the mind’s intrusion
In love are we set free
Objective bone
and flesh no longer insulate us
to ourselves alone
We are released
and flow into each other’s cup
Our two frail vials pierced
drink each other up
May Swenson
READING NO: 12
A Vision
Two angels among the throng of angels
paused in the upward abyss, facing angel to angel.
Blue and green glowed the wing feathers
of one angel, from red to gold the sheen
of the other’s.
These two, so far as angels may dispute, were poised
on the brink of dispute, brink of fall from angelic stature,
for these tall ones, angels whose wingspan encompasses entire
earthly villages, whose heads if their feet touched earth
would top pines or redwoods, live by their vision’s harmony
which sees at one glance the dark and light of the moon.
These two hovered dazed before one another,
for one saw the sea feathered, peacock breakered
crests of the other angel’s magnificence, different from his own,
and the other’s eyes flickered with vision of
flame petallings, cream-gold grainfeather glitterings,
the wings of his fellow, and both in immortal danger of dwindling,
of dropping into the remote forms of a lesser being.
But as these angels, the only halted ones
among the many who passed and repassed,
trod air as swimmers tread water, each gazing on the angelic wings of
the other, the intelligence proper to great angels flew into their wings,
the intelligence called intellectual love, which,
understanding the perfection�s of scarlet,
leapt up among blues and greens strong shafted,
and among amber down illumined the sapphire bloom,
so that each angel was iridescent with the strange newly-seen
hues he watched; and their discovering pause
and the speech their silent interchange of perfection was
never became a shrinking to opposites,
and they remained free in the heavenly chasm,
remained angels, but dreaming angels,
each imbued with the mysteries of the other.
Denise Levertov
READING NO: 13
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds, With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me,
and be my love.
The shepherds’ swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each
May morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me
and be my love.
Christopher Marlowe
READING NO: 14
>From Sonnets from the Portuguese
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.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
READING NO: 15
The Ivy Crown
The whole process is a lie, unless, crowned by excess,
it break forcefully, one way or another, from its confinement-
or find a deeper well
Anthony and Cleopatra were right;
they have shown the way. I love you or I do not live at all.
Daffodil time is past. This is summer, summer!
the heart says, and not even the full of it. No doubts are permitted-
though they will come and may before our time overwhelm us.
We are only mortal but being mortal can defy our fate.
We may by an outside chance even win!
We do not look to see jonquils and violets come again
but there are, still, the roses!
Romance has no part in it. The business of love is
cruelty which, by our wills, we transform
to live together. It has its seasons, for and against,
whatever the heart fumbles in the dark to assert toward the end of May.
Just as the nature of briars is to tear flesh, I have proceeded.
Keep the briars out, they say. You cannot live and keep free of briars.
Children pick flowers.
Let them.
Though having them in hand they have no further use for them
but leave them crumpled it the curb’s edge.
At our age the imagination across the sorry facts
lifts us to make roses stand before thorns.
Sure love is cruel and selfish and totally obtuse-
at least, blinded by the light, young love is.
But we are older, I to love and you to be loved,
we have, no matter how,
by our wills survived to keep the jeweled prize
always at our finger tips. We will it so and so it is
past, all accident.
William Carlos Williams
READING NO: 16
The Lord’s Prayer: Traditional Version
Our Father which art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth
As it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
READING NO: 17
The Lords Prayer Modern Version
Our Father in heaven,
Holy be your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us at the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory
Are yours now and ever more.
Amen.
READING NO: 18
The Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste
And remember what peace there may be in silence.
Be yourself, especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity
and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.
Be gentle with yourselves.
You are the children of the universe
No less than the trees and stars.
Be at peace with God
Whatever you conceive Him to be
And whatever your labors and aspirations.
In the noisy confusion of life
Keep peace with your souls.
READING NO: 19
Blessing
All praise and blessing to you, God of love,
Creator of the universe,
Maker of man and woman in your likeness,
Source of blessing for married life.
All praise to you, for you have created
Courtship and marriage,
Joy and gladness,
Feasting and laughter,
Pleasure and delight.
May your blessing come in full upon
(Groom�s Name) and (Bride�s Name)
May they know your presence in their joys and sorrows.
May they reach old age in the company of friends
And come at last to your eternal kingdom.
Amen.
READING NO: 20
A Reading from the New Testament
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and 13, J.B. Philips translation
Love 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 when truth prevails.
Love knows no limits 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 is fallen.
In this life we have three great lasting qualities: faith, hope and love…
But the greatest is love.
READING NO: 21
The Prophet (fuller Version)
Then Almitra spoke again and said:
And what of marriage, master?
And he answered, saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore,
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God,
But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of heaven
dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love;
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shore 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 control 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.
Kahlil Gibran
READING NO: 22
The Master Speed, on the occasion of his daughter’s wedding
No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste,
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life for evermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar.
Robert Frost
READING NO: 23
The Gift of Friendship
Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought or sold,
But its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold.
For gold is cold and lifeless, it can neither see nor hear,
And in the times of trouble it is powerless to cheer.
It has no ears to listen, no heart to understand.
It cannot bring you comfort or reach out a helping hand.
So when you ask God for a gift, be thankful if he sends
Not diamonds, pearls or riches, but the love of real true friends.
Friends, Today I will marry my best friend
The one I have laughed and cried with, The one I have learned from
and shared with, The one I have chosen to support, encourage and
give myself to through all these days God has given us to share.
Helen Steiner Rice
READING NO: 24
from Notes to Myself
For communication to have meaning it must have a life.
It must transcend �you and me� and become �us�.
If I truly communicate, I see you in a life that is not me and become
part of it. And you see and partake of me. In a small way we grow
out of our old selves and become something new.
To have this kind of sharing I cannot enter a conversation
clutching myself. I must enter it with loose boundaries. I must give
myself to the relationship and be willing to be what grows out of it.
Hugh Prather
READING NO: 25
A Tender Message
If you have a tender message Or a loving word to say
Do not wait until you forget it, But whisper it today;
The tender word unspoken, The letter never sent,
The long-forgotten messages,
The wealth of love unspent—
For these some hearts are breaking, For these some loved ones wait;
So show me that you care for them Before it is too late.
Frank Herbert Sweet
READING NO: 26
The Owl and the Pussy Cat
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat.
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above
And sang to a small guitar,
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are.’
Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! Too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’
They sailed away for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows,
And there in the wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose.
His nose, his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.
�Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling Your ring?� Said the Pig,
�I will�.
So they took it away, and were married next day By the turkey who lives
in the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a
runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of
the moon,
The moon, the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.
Edward Lear
READING NO: 27
We Will Not Wish you Joy
We will not wish you joy on this great day,
For Joy is in your hearts and goes with you Along the fragrant,
mystic, sunlit way;
We will not wish you joy whilst love is new.
But this is our wish——May you be strong enough
To shelter love, and keep it safe from harm,
When winds blow high, and roads are steep and rough,
May you protect your love, preserve its charm.
When days are dark, may love be your sure light.
When days are cold, may love be your right fire,
Your guiding star when hope is out of sight,
The essence and sun of your desire.
May love be with you through the flight of years,
Then after storms, there will always be calm.
Though you have cause for heartache and for tears,
Despair lasts not, when love is there for balm.
This be the prayer we breathe for you today:
When you have reached the summit of life’s hill,
May it be possible for you to say:
�Married long years, but we are lovers still.�
READING NO: 28
I am
I am the living light
I am at peace and in harmony with all life and with all vibrations.
In all my being I grow ever upwards in the light and beauty of truth.
In all that I do at all times and in all ways.
May the living spirit be manifest in and through me,
that I may be a living light in the service of others.
READING NO: 29
Carnal Cerebral Love
Carnal Cerebral Love
I want to make love to your mind
Stimulate me with your intellect, your insight and understanding.
Ignite me with random connections and your clever wit.
Carnal Cerebral Love
I want to make love to your inner being.
Allow me to delight in your orgasmic, dynamic mind.
Open up and invite me into the deep warmth of your soul.
Carnal Cerebral Love
Let our synapses dance entangle and connect at the same plateau.
Complete each other�s sentences, not our lives.
Carnal Cerebral Love, Our physical being
Our external egos decay daily and by the moment only our inner selves
intact
Denise Castellucci
READING NO: 30
Art of Marriage
A Good Marriage must be created.
In the Art of Marriage, the little things are the big things;
It is never being too old to hold hands.
It is remembering to say, “1 love you,” at least once each day.
It is never going to sleep angry.
It is having a mutual sense of values and common objectives;
It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family.
It is speaking of appreciation, and demonstrating gratitude in
thoughtful ways.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other 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 not only marrying the right partner. It is being the right partner.
READING NO: 31
A Wedding Toast
(read by a dear friend to the Bride and Groom)
St. John tells how, at Cana’s wedding-feast, The water-pots poured wine
in such amount That by his sober count there were a hundred gallons at the
least. It made no earthly sense, unless to show how whatsoever/ore elects
to bless Brims to a sweet excess. That can without depletion overflow.
Which is to say that what love sees is true;
That the world’s fullness is not made but found. Life hungers to abound
And pour its plenty out for such as you.
Now, if your loves will lend an ear to mine,
I toast you both, good son and dear new daughter. May you not lack
for water, And may that water smack of Cana’s wine.
Richard Wilbur
READING NO: 32
Quiet Thoughts of the Seasons.
The quiet thoughts of two people a long time in love
Touch lightly, Like birds nesting in each other�s warmth
You will know them by their laughter
But to each other they speak mostly through their solitude.
If they find themselves apart, they may dream of sitting undisturbed
In each other’s presence, of wrapping themselves warmly in each other’s
ease.
As each Fall, when the trees shed their leaves to prepare
for the next Spring’s growth and fruit.
May each year also bring closure-shedding the spent-
and bring rebirth to the spirit of your marriage.
Look ever to the future,
for in it lies the creative power for your own lives.
May you grow together like flowers and grass
and may your life be a dance to the music of love.
READING NO: 33
Most Like an Arch This Marriage
Most like an arch—an entrance which upholds and shores the stone-
crush up the air like lace. Mass made idea, and idea held in place.
A lock in time. Inside half-heaven unfolds.
Most like an arch- two weaknesses that lean into a strength.
Two fallings become firm.
Two joined abeyance�s become a term naming the fact that teaches
fact to mean.
Not quite that? Not much less. World as it is,
what’s strong and separate falters.
All you do at piling stone on stone apart from one another is roofless
around nothing. Till you kiss
You are no more than uptight and unset.
It is by falling in and in you make
the all-bearing point, for one another’s sake,
in faultless fairing, raised by your own weight.
John Ciardi (adapted)
READING NO: 34
Giving and Receiving
I launched a smile; far out it sailed On life’s wide troubled sea.
And many more than I could count Came sailing back to me.
I clasped a hand while whispering, “The clouds will melt away”.
I felt my life was very blessed, All through the hours that day.
I sent a thought of happiness Where it was needed sore,
And very soon thereafter, found Joy adding to my store.
I wisely shared my slender hoard, Toil earned coins of gold;
But presently it flowed right back Increased a hundred fold.
I helped another climb a hill, A little thing to do,
And yet it brought a rich reward, A friendship that was new.
I think each morning when I rise, Of how I may achieve,
I know by serving I advance, By giving I receive.
READING NO: 35
Any Wife or Husband
Let us be guests in one another’s house With deferential “No” and
courteous “Yes�
Let us take care to hide our foolish moods
Behind a certain show of cheerfulness.
Let us avoid all sudden silences;
We should find fresh and sprightly things to say;
I must be fearful lest you find me dull,
And you must dread to bore me any way.
Let us knock gently at each others heart,
Glad of a chance to look within – and yet
Let us remember that to force one’s way
Is the unpardoned breach of etiquette.
So shall I be hostess- you, the host-
Until all need for entertainment ends;
We shall be lovers when the last door shuts
But what is better still – we shall be friends.
Carol Haynes
READING NO: 36
Where There is Love
Where there is love-the heart is light, Where there is love the day is bright,
Where there is love there is a song.
To help when things are going wrong, Where there is love there is a smile-
To make all things seem more worthwhile,
Where there is love there is quiet peace,
A tranquil place where turmoils cease-
Love changes darkness into light And makes the heart take wingless flight,
Oh, blest are they who walk in love, They also walk with God above—
And when you walk with God each day
And kneel together when you pray,
Your marriage will be truly blest, And God will guide your daily quest
And love-that once seemed yours alone
God gently blends into His own.
Helen Steiner Rice
READING NO: 37
In Love Forever
How can I stay in love with you forever?
How can we make our relationship into a lifetime of sharing and joy?
In order to stay in love Forever
I must first find the right person to love and I have, in you
In order to stay in love Forever
we both must understand each other
and ourselves vary well
and we must be completely honest
with each other at all times
We both must have our own goals and interests and actively pursue them
We both must have complete freedom of thought and we must
encourage each other to follow our dreams
We muse always be Fair, kind and supportive of each other
We must dedicate ourselves to being equal partners in all that we feel
and in all that we do.
We must promise each other that we will always create time
to just appreciate each other and our love and that we will never be lazy
and take our love For granted
In order for me to stay in love with you
Forever and have a relationship that is a lifetime of sharing and loving
I must really pledge myself to this wonderful commitment;
and I must really want to stay in love with you forever and I do
—Susan Polis Schutz
READING NO: 38
Love
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 NO: 39
Love is always
Love is an ocean of discovery
A multitude of experiences to treasure
It is the alliance of two lives for always
Not to become one life, but to be two hearts beating in time
Love will hold you near to one another
So that you never feel alone
It will keep you warm within
So that there never be frost around your hearts
Love will grow, will ripen and be ever strong
So that there never be emptiness in your souls
Love is the most precious gift to bestow
A resplendent gift to receive
And MARRIAGE is the promise to cherish your love
To guide its path and never let its glory pass unnoticed
Love is the rapture of this day that will be with you always
Fulfilling you, shining through you ALWAYS
Melissa Jaggard
READING NO: 40
I Love You.
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.
Roy Croft.
READING NO: 41
Now we are one
When thoughts take wing a wedding ring encircles all our dreams
And love abounds above, around,
enriching all our schemes
We plan together all our life
to make our dreams come true
When love is there a smile, a prayer, a hug, a kiss will do
And then together hand in hand
we go with love we’ve won
And you will see
the you and me
that once were two — are one
Kate Fisher
READING NO: 42
Best and most important
“It is therefore possible for a civilized man and woman to be happy
in marriage,
although if this is to be the case a number of conditions must be fulfilled.
There must be a feeling of complete equality on both sides;
there must be no interference with mutual freedom;
there must be the most complete physical and mental intimacy;
and there must be a certain similarity in regard to standards of values …
Given all these conditions,
I believe marriage to be the best
and most important relation that can exist between two human beings.”
Bertrand Russell
READING NO: 43
Love�s Philosophy
The fountains mingle with the river, and the river with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix forever, with a sweet emotion:
Nothing in the world is single; all things by a law divine,
in one another�s being mingle.
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high heaven and the waves clasp one another;
no sister flower would be forgiven if it disdained its brother and
the sunlight clasps the earth and the moon beams kiss the sea.
What are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?
Percy Bysshe Shelly
READING NO: 44
A Happy Couple.
A happy couple standing hand in hand
looking ahead to a promised land.
(Bride�s and Groom�s Names),
today as you promise to have and to hold,
and you seal those vows with small bands of gold.
As you journey the path of love together,
so stormy as well as sunny weather.
Remember there’ll be some hills to climb,
but you will be guided from time to time.
So if ever you feel you’ve lost your way,
just look to each other, and think of this day
READING NO: 45
This Day
This day we shall remember well, as in our married love we dwell
and cast our minds back to this time.
You made me yours and I you mine
In wedded love we choose to be, each binding each and yet each free.
As days and months and years go on, our love will hold us firm and
strong.
The marriage vow this day we say, a vow we’ll build on day by day
and as we walk the path of life, the world will know we’re man and wife.
We two who now are but one soul, have each to play a different role
and yet we know that all shall see, that bond of love twixt you and me.
For in this life we each shall care, that all we do is
all times fair, we pledge this day to be as one, in all those wondrous years
to come.
Brian Zouch
READING NO: 46
A Marriage Blessing
As you enter into the little world that you promised to make brighter
for each other, may He who harnesses the waves and hangs the sun out
in the sky and puts the song in the birds especially bless you
and make your marriage a good and a happy one!
Love is indeed “a many splendored thing!”
When it is given and returned, it enriches both the Lover and the Beloved.
And as long as two people love each other, nothing in this world is
too difficult or too impossible, for wanting to do something for the one
you love takes all the burden out of it and the roughest way becomes
smooth when you can travel it hand in hand.
READING NO: 47
What Is Love?
What is Love?
No words can define it, it�s something so great only God could design it.
Wonders of Wonders, beyond man�s conception,
And only in God can love find true perfection.
For love is enduring and patient and kind,
It judges all things with the heart not the mind,
And love can transform the most commonplace into beauty and splendor
And sweetness and grace . . .
For love is unselfish, giving more than it takes,
And no matter what happens love never forsakes,
It�s faithful and trusting and always believing,
Guileless and honest and never deceiving . . .
Yes, love is beyond what man can define,
For love is immortal.
READING NO: 48
The Gift of Lasting Love
Love is much more than a tender caress
And more than bright hours of gay happiness,
For a lasting love is made up of sharing
Both hours that are �joyous� and also �despairing� . . . .
It�s made up of patience and deep understanding
And never selfish and stubborn demanding.
It�s made up of �climbing the steep hills together�
And facing with courage �Life�s stormiest weather� . . . .
And nothing on earth or in heaven can part
A love that has grown to be part of the heart
And just like the sun and the stars and the sea
This love will go on through eternity – For �true love� lives on when earthly things die
For it�s part of the spirit that soars to the sky.
Helen Steiner Rice
READING NO: 49
Blessed Are We.
Blessed are we to go forward with love,
For travel we will on the wings of a dove.
As we travel through life forsaking all others,
To be husband and wife, friends, and lovers.
To learn from each other the knowledge we hold,
And to face all tribulations and always be bold.
We are not as young as we would like to be,
But every new day will be a pleasure to see,
To share and to care for each other always,
And to love one another to the end of our days.
These are the vows we make here today,
And in our hearts we know they always will stay.
READING NO: 50
Our Friendship
We have formed a friendship that has become invaluable to me.
We discuss our goals and plan our future.
We express our fears and talk about our dreams.
We can be very serious or we can just have fun.
We understand each other�s lives and try to encourage each other in all
that we do.
We have formed a friendship that makes our lives so much nicer.
Susan Polis Schutz
READING NO: 51
Time and Love
Time is the essence of everyone�s life,
Take time with your loved ones
Have the time of your life.
For nobody knows what tomorrow may bring,
Be it luck, be it love,
Can be most anything.
But one thing I do know I�ll forever
Love you still,
My heart keeps on beating and my
Dreams fulfill.
Every minute, everyday, that you pass my way,
I�ll love you forever, tomorrow and today.
READING NO: 52
Apache Wedding Prayer
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.
READING NO: 53
Comfort Together
Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort,
Of feeling safe with a person.
Having neither to weigh thoughts
Nor measure words, but pour them all out just as they are,
Chaff and grain together,
And a faithful hand will take and sift
Them, keep what is worth keeping,
And with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.
George Eli