Readings
Incorporating ceremony readings into your special day can bring wisdom, humor, and a sense of togetherness to your nuptials. The right reading can change the energy of your ceremony dramatically, lightening the mood or creating a sense of reverence, so choosing the right readings for weddings is an important task. Here are just a few selections... There are many more to select from if you check on the internet under Wedding Readings for more ideas. RELIGIOUS READINGS #1: We read in I Corinthians 13, Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have no love, I have become as sounding brass or a clanging 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, but have not love, I am nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Love rejoices in the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. #2: We read in The Prophet, True love gives nothing but itself, and takes nothing but from itself, for love is sufficient unto love. Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself, to awake at dawn and give thanks for another day of loving, to rest at noon and meditate love's ecstasy, to return home at eventide with gratitude, and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart, and a song of praise upon your lips. #3: We read in The Prophet, 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. 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. #4: We read in Colossians 3:12, Therefore put on tender mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long- suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which you were called in one body; and be thankful. #5: We read in the first epistle of John, Let us love not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.... Let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.... He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. NON-RELIGIOUS READINGSWedding Poetry & Readings--Selections
May the Road Rise Up to Meet You Traditional Irish Blessing May the road rise up to meet you, May the wind be always at your back, May the sun shine warm upon your face, And the rains fall soft on your fields. May you have warm words on a cold evening, A full moon on a dark night, May the roof above you never fall in, And the friends gathered below never fall out. May you never be in want, And always have a soft pillow for your head, May you be forty years in heaven Before the devil knows you’re dead. May you be poor in misfortunes, rich in blessings, Slow to make enemies and quick to make friends, But be you rich or poor, quick or slow, May you know nothing but happiness from this day on. The Apache Wedding Prayer (often used as a Blessing) Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each will be warmth for the other Now you will feel no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons, but there are three lives before you: his life, her life, and your life together. May beauty surround you both on the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion to the place where the river meets the sun. Go now to your dwelling to enter into the days of your life together. And may your days be good And long upon the earth. Reading from “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer Maria Rilke It is . . . good to love: because love is difficult. 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 chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Ancient Egyptian Ode This love is as good as oil and honey to the throat, as linen to the body, as fine garments to the gods, as incense to worshipers when they enter in, as the little seal-ring to my finger. It is like a ripe pear in a man’s hand, it is like the dates we mix with wine, it is like the seed the baker adds to bread. We will be together even when old age comes. And the days in between will be food set before us, dates and honey, bread and wine. The 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 ‘I 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 standing together facing the world. It is forming a circle of love that gathers in the whole family. 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 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. Will You Love Me When I’m Old” by Anonymous I would ask of you, my darling, A Question soft and low, That gives me many a heartache As the time come and go. Your love I know is truthful, But the truest love grows cold; It is this that I would ask you: Will you love me when I’m old? Life’s morning will soon be waning, And its evening bells be tolled, But my heart shall know no sadness, If you'll love me when I’m old. Down the stream of life together We are sailing side by side, Hoping some bright day to anchor Safe beyond the surging tide. Today our sky is cloudless, But the night may clouds unfold; But, though storms may gather round us, Will you love me when I’m old? When my hair shall shade the snowdrift, And mine eyes shall dimmer grow, I would lean upon some loved one, Through the valley as I go. I would claim of you a promise, Worth to me a world of gold; It is only this, my darling, That you’ll love me when I’m old. “The Gem” by D.H. Lawrence And man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers in Summer, and love, but underneath is rock. Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae, older than plasm altogether is the soul of man underneath; and when, throughout all the wild orgasms of love, slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, one-more-molten rocks of two human hearts, two ancient rocks, From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran 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 the same cup. 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. Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley The fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers 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 moonbeams kiss the sea, What are all these kissings worth, If thou kiss not me? love by e.e. cummings love is more thicker than forget more thinner than recall more seldom than a wave is wet more frequent than to fail it is most mad and moonly and less it shall unbe than all the sea which only is deeper than the sea love is less always than to win less never than alive less bigger that the least begin less littler than forgive it is more sane and sunly and more it cannot die than all the sky which only is higher that the sky Eskimo Love Song You are my husband, you are my wife My feet shall run because of you My feet dance because of you My heart shall beat because of you My eyes see because of you My mind thinks because of you And I shall love, because of you. I Ching When two people are at one in their inmost hearts, they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze. And when two people understand each other in their inmost hearts, their words are sweet and strong, like the fragrance of orchids. How do I love thee? 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 an 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. We Two by Kuan Tao-Sheng (13th Century) You and I Have so much love, That it burns like a fire, In which we bake a lump of clay Molded into a figure of you And a figure of me. Then we take both of them, And mix the pieces of water, And mold again a figure of you, And a figure of me. I am in your clay. You are in my clay. In life we share a single quilt. In death we will share one coffin. I carry your heart – e.e. cummings i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear not fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) This Marriage - Ode 2667 by Rumi May these vows and this marriage be blessed. May it be sweet milk, this marriage, like wine and halvah. May this marriage offer fruit and shade like the date palm. May this marriage be full of laughter, our every day a day in paradise. May this marriage be a sign of compassion, a seal of happiness here and hereafter. May this marriage have a fair face and a good name, an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky. I am out of words to describe how spirit mingles in this marriage. Untitled by Rumi May these nuptials be blessed for us, may this marriage be blessed for us, May it be ever like milk and sugar, this marriage like wine and halvah. May this marriage be blessed with leaves and fruits like the date tree; May this marriage be laughing forever, today, tomorrow, like the hours of paradise. May this marriage be the sign of compassion and the approval of happiness here and hereafter; May this marriage be fair of fame, fair of face and fair of omen as the moon in the azure sky. I have fallen silent for words cannot describe how the spirit has mingled with this marriage.
