READINGS --Author

A Marriage by Michael Blumenthal

Apache Wedding Prayer

Cherokee Prayer

Foundations of Marriage by Regina Hill

Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I Promise by Dorothy Colgan

Let Us Not Ask Too Much by Clifford Gessler

Love

Love as a Challenge by Rainer Rilke

Love is A Special Way by Joan Anglund

Marriage Advice by Jane Wells

Marriage Is...

Marriage Is a Promise

Marriage is the Greatest Happiness of All

Never Marry But for Love by William Penn

Of Shared Love by Victor Hugo

Oh! The Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Suess

On Marriage by Kahlil Gibran

The Art of A Good Marriage by Wilfred Peterson

This is Friendship by Mary Carolyn Davies

When A Man and A Woman

Today I Marry My Best Friend

The Meaning by Kellie Spehn

Blessing for a Marriage by James Freeman

I Will Be Here For You by Margaret Keip

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach (excerpt)

from First Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

A Marriage by Michael Blumenthal

You are holding up a ceiling with both arms. It is very heavy, but you must hold it up, or else it will fall down on you. Your arms are tired, terribly tired, and, as the day goes on, it feels as if either your arms or the ceiling will soon collapse.

But then, unexpectedly, something wonderful happens: Someone, a man or a woman, walks into the room and holds their arms up to the ceiling beside you.

So you finally get to take down your arms. You feel the relief of respite, the blood flowing back to your fingers and arms. And when your partner's arms tire, you hold up your own to relieve him again. And it can go on like this for many years without the house falling.

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.

Cherokee Prayer

God in heaven above please protect the ones we love.
We honor all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together.

We honor mother-earth- and ask for our marriage to be abundant
and grow stronger through the seasons;

We honor fire- and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts;

We honor wind - and ask we sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms;

We honor 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.

First Poemsby Rainer Maria Rilke

Understand, I'll slip quietly

Away from the noisy crowd

When I see the pale

Stars rising, blooming over the oaks.

I'll pursue solitary pathways

Through the pale twilit meadows,

With only this one dream:

You come too.

Foundations of Marriage by Regina Hill

Love, trust, and forgiveness are the foundations of marriage. In marriage, many days will bring happiness, while other days may be sad. But together, two hearts can overcome everything.

In marriage, all of the moments won't be exciting or romantic, and sometimes worries and anxiety will be overwhelming. But together, two hearts that accept will find comfort together. Recollections of past joys, pains, and shared feelings will be the glue that holds everything together during even the worst and most insecure moments.

Reaching out to each other as a friend, and becoming the confidant and companion that the other one needs, is the true magic and beauty of any two people together. It's inspiring in each other a dream or a feeling, and having faith in each other and not giving up... even when all the odds say to quit. It's allowing each other to be vulnerable, to be himself or herself, even when the opinions or thoughts aren't in total agreement or exactly what you'd like them to be.

It's getting involved and showing interest in each other, really listening and being available, the way any best friend should be.

Exactly three things need to be remembered in a marriage if it is to be a mutual bond of sharing, caring, and loving throughout life: love, trust, and forgiveness.

Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg

When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to.

And yet this is exactly what most of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return.

We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern.

Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.

I Promise by Dorothy R. Colgan

I promise to give you the best of myself and to ask of you no more than you can give.

I promise to respect you as your own person and to realize that your interests, desires and needs are no less important than my own.

I promise to share with you my time and my attention and to bring joy, strength and imagination to our relationship.

I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost fears and feelings, secrets and dreams.

I promise to grow along with you, to be willing to face changes in order to keep
our relationship alive and exciting.

I promise to love you in good times and bad, with all I have to give and all I feel inside in the only way I know how, completely and forever.

LET US NOT ASK TOO MUCH by Clifford Gessler

Let us know how to not ask too much of each other.

Share body, mind and spirit without trying to absorb.

Be kind yet not smother with kindness.

Walk together yet neither retards the others' pace.

I would not lead one that did not choose to follow

or follow one that demanded I be led.

The spark of self-hood, that right and precious thing-

let us not dampen it with scorn or blame.

Each his own master, and the two of us, richer, dearer for it.

But neither sunk passively, in the other-that alone is true mating.

Love

Love is a friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad. It settles for less than perfection,and makes allowances for human weakness.

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 you lack. If you don't have it, no matter what else there is,it is not enough, so search for it, ask God for it, and share it!

Love as a Challenge 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.

LOVE IS A SPECIAL WAY OF FEELING by Joan Walsh Anglund

Love is a special way of feeling….It is the good way we feel when we talk to someone and they want to listen and don’t tell us to go away and be quiet.

It is the happy way we feel when we save a bird that has been hurt, or feed a lost cat, or calm a frightened colt.

Love starts in little ways...love is the happy feeling that stays inside your heart for the rest of your life.

Marriage Advice Jane Wells (1886)

Let your love be stronger than your hate and anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break. Believe the best rather than the worst.
People have a way of living up or down to your opinion of them.
Remember that true friendship is the basis for any lasting relationship.
The person you choose to marry is deserving of the courtesies
and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
Please hand this down to your children and your children's children.

Marriage is...

Marriage is a dynamic process of discovery, a journey, not an arrival.
It is a partnership in which two people can proclaim their love and commitment to each other. Marriage is starting to love, over and over again. It is a life's work requiring trust and respect for one another, thought and effort.

In marriage, being the right person is as important as finding the right person. Marriage means learning to share, learning to give and receive love generously; learning to be open, honest and understanding, and
learning to search for the good and the beautiful in yourself and your partner.

Marriage is a Promise of Love

Marriage is a Promise of Love and it is a commitment to Life…to the best that two people can find and bring out in each other.

It offers opportunities for sharing and growth no other human relationship can equal, a physical and emotional joining that is promised for a lifetime.

Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life’s most important relationships a wife and a husband are each others best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, and, listener.

There may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child. Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life.

He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relationship, and will consequently lack the noblest comfort of a married life. Happiness is fuller; memories are fresher; commitment is stronger; even anger is felt more strongly, but it passes away more quickly. Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes that life is unable to avoid. It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences, and new ways of expressing love through all the many seasons of life.

Between a man and his wife nothing ought rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.

A husband and wife that love one another show their children that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by their contempt of one another, and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.

Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety, and of an enduring nature; sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.

Nothing can be more entire and without reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented than such a couple, nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them.

Marriage is the greatest happiness of all by Michele Gallagher

In a marriage, two people become as one,
Yet they are individuals,
Each with their own ideas and goals.
In a marriage, two people share their thoughts,
They give advice, sharing their feelings,her
Being open and loving.
They must trust each other and hold onto faith,
While going through ups and downs.
They have their smiles,and they have their tears.
When one is low, it is up to the other to support them,
to get them back on the right track.
Communications is the key.
Two people united learn so much.
They learn to depend yet be independent,
Sometimes letting each other have time to themselves.
They care for each other and protect;
They make a family and become a lifeline.
They bring their dreams, their future,
Loving and growing together.
With their commitment and true love
They find happiness.

Never Marry But For Love-William Penn (1644-1718)

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.
He that minds a body and not a soul has not the better part of that relationship, and will consequently lack the noblest comfort of a married life. Between a man and his wife nothing ought rule but love. As love ought to bring them together, so it is the best way to keep them well together.

A husband and wife that love one another show their children that they should do so too. Others visibly lose their authority in their families by their contempt of one another, and teach their children to be unnatural by their own examples.

Let not enjoyment lessen, but augment, affection; it being the basest of passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

Here it is we ought to search out our pleasure, where the field is large and full of variety, and of an enduring nature; sickness, poverty or disgrace being not able to shake it because it is not under the moving influences of worldly contingencies.

Nothing can be more entire and without reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented than such a couple, nor greater temporal felicity than to be one of them.

Of Shared Love in Marriage 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.

Oh! The places You’ll Go! by Dr. Suess (excerpt)

You may kiss your bride. And one final word of advice from Dr. Seuss:

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft and never mix your right foot with your left. And will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed! 98 and ¾ percent guaranteed!

So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai. Ali Van Allen O’Shea. You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting…so get…get on your way!

Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to great places! You’re off and away! Oh! The places you’ll go! You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing new sights; you’ll join the high fliers you’ll soar to great heights!

You’ll get mixed up of course as you already know, with many strange birds as you go, so be sure when you step, you step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a great balancing act!

On Marriage-The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, Master?
And he answered saying: You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, 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.

The Art Of A Good Marriage by Wilferd Arlan Peterson

Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens. A good marriage must be created. In 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 a day. It is never going to sleep angry. It is at no time taking the other for granted; the courtship should not end with the honeymoon, it should continue through the years. 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 the whole family.
It is doing things for each other, not in the attitude of duty or sacrifice, but in the spirit of joy. It is speaking words of appreciation and demonstrating gratitude in thoughtful ways. It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humour.
It is having the capacity to forgive and forget. It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow old. It is a common search for the good and the beautiful. It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual and the obligation is reciprocal. It is not only marrying the right partner, it is being the right partner.

This is Friendship by Mary Carolyn Davies

I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love your for the part of me that you bring out.
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart and passing over all the frivolous and weak things that you cannot help seeing there, and drawing out into the light all the beautiful radiant things that no one else has looked quite far enough to find.
I love your for ignoring the possibilities of the fool in me and for laying firm hold of the possibilities of good in me.
I love your for closing your eyes t o the discords in me, and adding to the music in me by worshipful listening.
I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life, not a tavern, but a temple, and of the words of my days, not a reproach, but a song.
I love you because you have done more than any creed 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. After all, perhaps this is what being a friend means.

When a Man and a Woman are in Love

When a man and a woman are in Love, his life lies within hers and her life lies within his. Each lives as an individual, yet they also live for one another. Each strives for independent goals, but they also work together to achieve their goals.

When a man and a woman are in Love, They will give to one another what they need to survive and help fulfill each other’s wants. They will turn one another’s disappointment into satisfactions. They will turn one another frustrations into contentment. They will work as a mirror, reflecting to each other their strength sand weaknesses. They will work together to alleviate the emotional walls that may separate them. They will work together to build a better understanding of one another. They will learn to lean on one another, but not so much as to be a burden on the other. They will learn to reach out to one another, but not so much as to suffocate the other. They will learn when it is time to speak and when it is time to listen. They will be there to comfort each other in times of sorrow. They will be there to celebrate together in times of happiness. They will be one another’s friend; guiding each other to the happiness that life holds. They will be one another’s companion, facing together the challenges that life may present.

When a man and a woman are in Love, his life lies within hers and her life lies within his. Together they will love one another for the rest of their lives and forevermore.

TODAY I MARRY MY BEST FRIEND

Today is a new beginning for us, but is it really?
We began to walk this path, hand in hand, and side by side, on a journey of exploration. Not knowing where the path would lead, and not caring, because we knew we were facing it together...As friends, we knew we’d face the challenges without wavering. We knew we’d look after each other, and we’d keep the other safe and free from strife
Along the way our friendship changed. It grew; It blossomed; It became more than we’d anticipated; we fell in love...It’s fitting that on this day we should find the two of us like this together, as we’ve always been.
Today, I marry you, my best friend...our journey now continues. The path before us is clear and wide, and on it we shall walk the miles together. Together as friends, as a couple, as lifelong partners, bound forever by our love.

The Meaning by Kellie Spehn

To love is to share life together to build special plans to work side by side and then smile with pride as one by one, dreams all come true.

To love is to help and encourage with smiles and sincere words of praise to take time to share to listen and care in tender, affectionate ways.

To love is to have someone special one who you can always depend to be there through the years sharing laughter and tears as a partner, a lover, a friend.

To love is to make special memories of moments you love to recall of all the good things that sharing life brings love is the greatest of all.

I've learned the full meaning of sharing and caring and having my dreams all come true; I've learned the full meaning of being in love by being and loving with you.

BLESSING FOR A MARRIAGE by 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 succeed in all the 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 in distant cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it in making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it in loving one another!

I Will Be Here For You by Margaret A. Keip

I will be here for you when you are hurting, and when I am hurting, I will not leave.
It is a covenant intended not to provide haven from pain or from anger and sorrow. Life offers no such haven. Instead, marriage is intended to provide a sanctuary safe enough to risk loving, to risk living and sharing from the center of oneself. This is worth everything.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides.
And when it subsides you have to make a decision.
You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is.
Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being "in love" which any fool can do.
Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away,
and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.

Where There Is Love by Helen Steiner Rice

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's quiet peace,
A tranquil place where turmoils cease Love changes darkness into light
And makes the heart take "wingless flight".

Why Marriage? Author Unknown

Because to the depths of me, I long to love one person,
With all my heart, my soul, my mind, my body...because I need a forever friend to trust with the intimacies of me, who won't hold them against me, who loves me when I'm unlikable, who sees the small child in me, and who looks for the divine potential of me...because I need to cuddle in the warmth of the night with someone who thanks God for me, with someone I feel blessed to hold...

Because marriage means opportunity to grow in love in friendship...
Because marriage is a discipline to be added to a list of achievements...
Because marriages do not fail, people fail when they enter into marriage
Expecting another to make them whole...
Because, knowing this, I promise myself to take full responsibility for my spiritual, mental and physical wholeness. I create me, I take half of the responsibility for my marriage. Together we create our marriage...
Because of this understanding the possibilities are limitless.

Wedding Prayer by Robert Lewis Stevenson

Lord, behold our family here assembled.

We thank you for this place in which we dwell, for the love that unites us,

for the peace accorded us this day, for the hope with which we expect the morrow,

for the health, the work, the food,and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;

for our friends in all parts of the earth.

Amen

Excerpt from The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach

A soulmate is someone who has locks that fit our keys, and keys to fit our locks. When we feel safe enough to open the locks, our truest selves step out and we can be completely and honestly who we are; we can be loved for who we are and not for who we're pretending to be. Each unveils the best part of the other. No matter what else goes wrong around us, with that one person we're safe in our own paradise. Our soulmate is someone who shares our deepest longings, our sense of direction. When we're two balloons, and together our direction is up, chances are we've found the right person. Our soulmate is the one who makes life come to life.

from First Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke
Understand, I’ll slip quietly
Away from the noisy crowd
When I see the pale
Stars rising, blooming over the oaks
I’ll pursue solitary pathways
Through the pale twilit meadows,
With only this one dream:
You come too.