READINGS

Special Readings

Some couples choose special readings to add to their wedding
script. This is an ideal way to personalize your ceremony.
Whether it is to recite a favorite poem or blessing, personalized
vows that you have written yourself, or if you are musically
inclined, a song sung for your loved one is very romantic.

"APACHE WEDDING BLESSING"
( If used, it is near the end of the ceremony )
"Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth to the other.
Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place, to enter into the days of your life together,
and may your days be good and long upon the earth."
(This is often added )
"Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often
of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration,
difficult and fear assail your relationship - as they threaten all relationships
at one time or another - remember to focus on what is right between you, not
only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms
when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that even if
you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you
takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by
abundance and delight."

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
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 everyday'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 a passion put to use
In my old griefs, 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, and tears of all my life!
And, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

Of shared love in marriage and the one best way to show love
- by Victor Hugo
" You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great
acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of
kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even
when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. And great happiness of life
is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in
spite of ourselves."

Love reflects love in return: The Divine Comedy by Dante
" The love of God, Unutterable and perfect, flows into a pure soul the way
light rushes into a transparent object. The more love we receive, the more
love we shine forth; so that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete
the joy of loving is. And the more souls who resonate together, the greater
the intensity of their love for, mirror like, each soul reflects the other."

Classic Reading from "The Prophet"
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
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 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.

Love as a Challenge and a Shared Life Quest by Rainer Rilke
" For one human being to love another human being; this 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 at
first does not mean merger, surrender and uniting with another person.
Love is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in
ourselves, to become world in ourselves for the sake of another person. Love
is a great, demanding claim on us, something that chooses us and calls us to
vast distances."

This is one of life’s most important of all priorities – LOVE.
By L. Brownlow
" We all need love. With all our complexities, we are not easy creatures to
satisfy. We can not meet the conditions of a satisfied life by gorging
ourselves, lying down on the grass and staring at the clouds.
We have deeper needs and deepest need of all is love.
Too often we think in terms of receiving love instead of giving it. It is
gratifying to receive. But there is much for fulfillment in having a heart so
filled with love that it is more a joy in giving love than in receiving.
The need for love is born within us, and is as universal as the human race
itself. Where ever we walk, on every shore and in every land, the need for
love walks by our side.
This implanted knowledge is proof that we are akin to Go, for "God is Love".
In is not trite, therefore, to say that love is necessary for life, no more than
to say that food sustains life. Without food, we will die. Without love, we die
a death worse than physical death. Do not depreciate loves value. Preserve
the value of love and live as exhalted creatures on the high summit of tender
affections that many will never obtain.
Never forget the true value and the true need for love."

CHEROKEE PRAYER
"God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honour all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together.
We honour mother earth-
and ask for our marriage to be abundant
and grow stronger through the seasons;
We honour fire -
and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts;
We honour wind -
and ask we sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms;
We honour water -
to clean and soothe our relationship - that it may never thirsts for love;
With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and
true happiness as we forever grow young together. Amen."

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