Readings for a Wedding

When it comes to readings done at weddings, many couples ask a friend or relative to read. The reading is usually something that has a special meaning for the couple or their wedding day. A few samples from well known authors are listed below and all or any part of a reading may be used.

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I Ask the Impossible - Ana Castillo

 I ask the impossible: love me forever.
Love me when all desire is gone.
Love me with the single mindedness of a monk.
When the world in its entirety,
and all that you hold sacred advise you
against it: love me still more.
When rage fills you and has no name: love me.
When each step from your door to our job tires you–
love me; and from job to home again, love me, love me.
Love me when you’re bored–
when every woman you see is more beautiful than the last,
or more pathetic, love me as you always have:
not as admirer or judge, but with
the compassion you save for yourself in your solitude.
Love me as you relish your loneliness,
the anticipation of your death,
mysteries of the flesh, as it tears and mends.
Love me as your most treasured childhood memory–
and if there is none to recall–
imagine one, place me there with you.
Love me withered as you loved me new.
Love me as if I were forever–
and I, will make the impossible
a simple act,
by loving you, loving you as I do.

Ana Castillo from her book
I Ask the Impossible: Poems

Get her astounding book on Amazon.com.
Click on the book link below!


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A Marriage Prayer ~ Bud Henry Bowen
Bless our marriage, oh God,
as we begin our journey down the road of life together.
We don't know what lies ahead
for the road turns and bends.
But help us to make the best of whatever comes our way.
Help us to hug each other often...
laugh a lot, talk more, and argue less.
Help us to continue to enjoy each other
as we did when we first met.
Help us to realize that nothing nor no one is perfect
and to look for the good in all things,
And in all people, including ourselves.
Help us to respect each other's likes and dislikes,
opinions and beliefs, hopes and dreams and fears
even though we may not always understand them.
Help us to learn from each other and to help each other
to grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Help us to realize that there is design
and purpose in our lives as in the world
and no matter what happens to us
we will hold on to each other and know
that things have a way of working out for the good.
Help us to create for our children a peaceful, stable home
of love as a foundation on which they can build their lives.
But most of all, dear God, help us to keep lit
the torch of love that we now share in our hearts
so that by our loving example
we may pass on the light of love to our children
and to their children and to their
children's children forever.
Amen.

Blessings For A Marriage ~ James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you
all the exquisite excitements
a marriage should bring,
and may life grant you also patience,
tolerance,
and understanding.
May you always need one another,
not so much to fill your emptiness
as to help you to know your fullness.
A mountain needs a valley to be complete;
the valley does not make the mountain less, but more;
and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it.
So let it be with you and you.

May you need one another,
but not out of weakness.
May you want one another,
but not out of lack.
May you entice one another,
but not compel one another.
May you embrace one another,
but not out encircle one another.
May you succeed in all important ways with one another,
and not fail in the little graces.
May you look for things to praise, often say,
"I love you!" and take no notice of small faults.

If you have quarrels that push you apart,
may both of you hope to have good sense enough
to take the first step back.

May you enter into the mystery,
which is the awareness of one another's presence -
no more physical than spiritual,
warm and near when you are side-by-side,
and warm and near when you are in separate rooms
or even distant cities.
May you have happiness,
and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another.

True Love ~ Author Unknown
True love is a sacred flame
That burns eternally,
And none can dim its special glow
Or change its destiny.
True love speaks in tender tones
And hears with gentle ear,
True love gives with open heart
And true love conquers fear.
True love makes no harsh demands
It neither rules nor binds,
And true love holds with gentle hands
The hearts that it entwines.

The Road Not Taken ~ Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Sioux Prayer

Translated by Chief Yellow Lark - 1887
Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds
Whose breath gives life to the world, hear me
I come to you as one of your many children...

I am small and weak
I need your strength and wisdom

May I walk in beauty
Make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made
And my ears sharp to your voice.
Make me wise so that I may know the things you have taught your children.

The lessons you have written in every leaf
and rock make me strong…!
Not to be superior to my brothers,

but to fight my greatest enemy ... myself

Make me ever ready to come to you with straight eyes,
So that when life fades as the fading sunset,
May my spirit come to you without shame.

A Bride's Prayer
Oh Gracious God, my heart is filled with a happiness so wonderful that I am almost afraid. This is my wedding day!, and I pray thee that the beautiful joy of this day will never grow dim. Rather, may its memories become more sweet and tender with each passing anniversary. Walk thou with us even to the end of our journey, hand in hand, down the highway to the valley of the final shadow, which we will be able to lighten with sunshine because of our love and happy lives. Amen.

Hebrew Wedding Prayer

Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe,
who hath created joy and gladness, bridegroom and bride,
mirth and exultation, pleasure and delight,
love and brotherhood, peace and friendship.
May there soon be heard in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy and gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,
the jubilant voice of bridegrooms from the wedding canopy,
and of youths from their feasts of song.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, who gives the Bridegroom joy in his bride.

To Know Yourself ~ Swami Satchidananda
A wedding is between two reflections of God.

Two pairs of eyes see one vision.
They are dedicated to serve one another

and the humanity at large.
Two minds come together

to help each other realize their true nature.
Going side by side with the right partner

is a good way to reach God quickly.
When the husband's and the wife's love for each other

blends together

and becomes love of God,
marriage is a divine institution.

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The Beauty of the Heart ~ Rumi 

The Beauty of the Heart

The beauty of the heart

is the lasting beauty:

its lips give to drink

of the water of life.
Truly it is the water,

that which pours,

and the one who drinks.

All three become one when

your talisman is shattered.

That oneness you can't know

by reasoning.

The Privileged Lovers ~ Rumi

The moon has become a dancer
at this festival of love.
This dance of light,

This sacred blessing,
This divine love,
beckons us
to a world beyond
only lovers can see
with their eyes of fiery passion.

They are the chosen ones
who have surrendered.
Once they were particles of light
now they are the radiant sun.

They have left behind
the world of deceitful games.
They are the privileged lovers
who create a new world
with their eyes of fiery passion.  


My Burning Heart ~ Rumi
My heart is burning with love
All can see this flame

My heart is pulsing with passion

like waves on an ocean

my friends have become strangers

and I’m surrounded by enemies

But I’m free as the wind
no longer hurt by those who reproach me

I’m at home wherever I am

And in the room of lovers

I can see with closed eyes
the beauty that dances

Behind the veils
intoxicated with love

I too dance the rhythm
of this moving world

I have lost my senses
in my world of lovers

Rumi

Desiderata ~ Max Ehrmann c.1920

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant,
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be
greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

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.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore 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 in your soul.

With all its sham,
drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.  

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