Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Sermon
Best Wedding Meditations
An Anthology
Object:
(A general wedding homily built around the traditions)
There is nothing that happens in our society that is as filled with sentiment and custom as a marriage.
However, if a wedding is to have permanent significance in the lives of these young people, and for us, we need to see it in a deeper context than sentiment and custom.
We need to see marriage as something old. We didn't think it up -- it's not new to our generation. It's old -- as old as the origin of humankind.
He which made them at the beginning, made them male and female and said -- for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
God made us male and female -- for the reason that there would be marriage. We are created for marriage -- for life together. What happens here today is something old -- these young people, ____________ and ____________ are fulfilling their created purpose in becoming man and wife.
In spite of the jokes -- the attacks -- the sin -- which can beset marriage in our time, we can confidently rejoice in this marriage because it is rooted in the nature of things -- it is the way God wills for his children.
We need to see marriage as something new!
A man leaves father and mother; a wife has her own home to care for.
Something new begins today -- a new human relationship in which a man and a woman promise to give themselves to one another in a way that they have never done before.
They will experience a new life of sharing -- of togetherness in concerns, values, and purposes. The focus of personal responsibility shifts from friends and work to the beloved -- the husband -- the wife.
A new life begins today for __________ and ____________ with the freshness and possibility, openness and joy that characterizes all new things. Such a new life brings with it the need for maturity and responsibility that new adventures and discoveries always have.
We need to see marriage as something borrowed.
Marriage derives its energy by love, and its stability by faithfulness.
We rejoice that ____________ and ____________ have experienced the awakening of love, and are now to promise their fidelity, their truth, to their marriage and the love they have.
Such love and faithfulness is not a natural human possibility. It is something borrowed. We love because he first loved us.
Because our Lord loves us with an everlasting love -- seeking us, accepting us as we are, giving himself to us in constant mercy and blessing -- so we are able to reflect that same love, a borrowed love, in all our human relationships.
And especially in the relationship of marriage. This borrowed love will enable you, ____________ and ____________, to know love in its fullness -- as you give yourselves to each other, as you open yourselves to each other, forgiving and strengthening one another, so that each of you is fulfilled and becomes truly yourself in the relationship of love.
We need to see marriage as something blue! In the Church, blue is the symbol of eternity because the sky seems to stretch out endlessly before us.
When we say marriage is blessed by God, we are saying that the eternal God who watches over us now and to all eternity promises to be with ____________ and ____________ to forgive them, to share his love with them, to lead and guide them, until at length they meet him in the Eternal Home far beyond the heavens.
This is a tremendous comfort and strength -- to know your love together will be lived under the umbrella of God's eternal strength and care.
We rejoice for ____________ and ____________ this day for all the gladness, sentiment, custom, and joy their marriage brings. But we are thankful most of all that in these moments together, their lives are linked with God, his love, and his might. Amen.
There is nothing that happens in our society that is as filled with sentiment and custom as a marriage.
However, if a wedding is to have permanent significance in the lives of these young people, and for us, we need to see it in a deeper context than sentiment and custom.
We need to see marriage as something old. We didn't think it up -- it's not new to our generation. It's old -- as old as the origin of humankind.
He which made them at the beginning, made them male and female and said -- for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife.
God made us male and female -- for the reason that there would be marriage. We are created for marriage -- for life together. What happens here today is something old -- these young people, ____________ and ____________ are fulfilling their created purpose in becoming man and wife.
In spite of the jokes -- the attacks -- the sin -- which can beset marriage in our time, we can confidently rejoice in this marriage because it is rooted in the nature of things -- it is the way God wills for his children.
We need to see marriage as something new!
A man leaves father and mother; a wife has her own home to care for.
Something new begins today -- a new human relationship in which a man and a woman promise to give themselves to one another in a way that they have never done before.
They will experience a new life of sharing -- of togetherness in concerns, values, and purposes. The focus of personal responsibility shifts from friends and work to the beloved -- the husband -- the wife.
A new life begins today for __________ and ____________ with the freshness and possibility, openness and joy that characterizes all new things. Such a new life brings with it the need for maturity and responsibility that new adventures and discoveries always have.
We need to see marriage as something borrowed.
Marriage derives its energy by love, and its stability by faithfulness.
We rejoice that ____________ and ____________ have experienced the awakening of love, and are now to promise their fidelity, their truth, to their marriage and the love they have.
Such love and faithfulness is not a natural human possibility. It is something borrowed. We love because he first loved us.
Because our Lord loves us with an everlasting love -- seeking us, accepting us as we are, giving himself to us in constant mercy and blessing -- so we are able to reflect that same love, a borrowed love, in all our human relationships.
And especially in the relationship of marriage. This borrowed love will enable you, ____________ and ____________, to know love in its fullness -- as you give yourselves to each other, as you open yourselves to each other, forgiving and strengthening one another, so that each of you is fulfilled and becomes truly yourself in the relationship of love.
We need to see marriage as something blue! In the Church, blue is the symbol of eternity because the sky seems to stretch out endlessly before us.
When we say marriage is blessed by God, we are saying that the eternal God who watches over us now and to all eternity promises to be with ____________ and ____________ to forgive them, to share his love with them, to lead and guide them, until at length they meet him in the Eternal Home far beyond the heavens.
This is a tremendous comfort and strength -- to know your love together will be lived under the umbrella of God's eternal strength and care.
We rejoice for ____________ and ____________ this day for all the gladness, sentiment, custom, and joy their marriage brings. But we are thankful most of all that in these moments together, their lives are linked with God, his love, and his might. Amen.
