Life takes on meanings as it becomes composed of many meaningful events, some of which can be specified and planned for. One of these events is marriage.
As you know, no minister, no priest, no rabbi, no public official can marry you.
Only you can marry yourselves. By mutual commitment to love each other, to work towards creating an atmosphere of care and consideration and respect.
By a willingness to face the tensions and anxieties that underlie human life, you can make your wedded life come alive.
On this the day that begins your marriage, you stand somewhat apart from the rest of humanity. You stand within the charmed circle of your love.
Love is not meant to be and cannot be the possession of one person alone. True love serves as a source of common energy, as a fount from which you both draw sustenance to live your loves with creative courage.
From this day onward you must come closer together than ever before, you must love one another in sickness and in health, for better and for worse.
At the same time, let your love give you strength to stand apart as that you may seek out your unique destinies and make your special contribution to the world.
The poet Rilke once said that marriage is not a matter of making a quick community of spirit by tearing down and destroying all boundaries. But rather a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other as a guardian of this solitude.
Once the realisation is accepted that even between the closest of people, infinite distance exist, a marvelous living side by side can grow up for them if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.
The bows through which you will accept each other as husband and wife have no hidden power within them. Only to the extent that they express in words your continuing intention and commitment do they have meaning.
And in a world where the pressure pushing people apart will sometimes feel stronger than those drawing people together, your commitment to one another will need to be creatively re expressed in many different ways in the coming days and years.
The expression in toady's vows is an important and visible milestone in your journey together.
I Paulo take you Ritzye to be my wife from this time onward, to join with you and share all that is to come, to give and receive, to speak and to listen, to inspire and to respond, and in all of our life together be loyal to you with all my being.
I Ritzye, take you Paulo, to be my husband from this time onward, to join with you and to share all that is to come, to give and to receive, o speak and to listen, to inspire and to respond, and in all of our life together to be loyal to you with all my being.
For as much as you Paulo and Ritzye have consented together in marriage, and have pledged your love and your commitment each to each other in the presence of God and of this company, I do now Pronounce you husband and wife.
You may Now Kiss the Bride. :)
Um, what to say...????
