Sunday, October 10, 2010

Crafting Our Ceremony - The Readings

I've talked a lot about the details of our wedding, but I haven't said much about the ceremony - the meat and bones of our wedding. I haven't said much about it simply because we hadn't finished it - but now we have! The ceremony is by far, the most important part to me. It's the root of our marriage, and who we will be in the future. I know I'm going to cry through most of it, but I'm excited nonetheless.

For the Catholics out there - there isn't much customization available in the ceremony. We were given a book to choose readings from, a list of songs to choose from, and other than that, it pretty much all fits into a normal Sunday mass. To me though, this is the best part. Sean and I had to go through each and every reading, discussing them, and narrowing them down to what fits us best - what means the most to us, and what describes our relationship. We knew that we wanted readings that portrayed an equality between the male and female, and that centered on community life rather than something that can only exist in the church. Our religion means a lot to us, but most of that is helping others - not secluding ourselves in prayer. We "pray" through service.

That being said, we had to choose 3 Biblical readings. In the Catholic mass, the first reading is from the Old Testament, the second is from the New Testament, and the third is a Gospel. Here are the readings we chose, and why:

The First Reading:  Jeremiah 31:31-32A, 33-34A

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-12 

Gospel Reading: John 2:1-11

All of these readings are about love: the meaning of love, how love doesn't just affect us, and how God is important in love and Catholic marriage. I think they're all wonderful. The gospel reading is the traditional wedding at Cana, which to me, resonates with how people need to be prepared for a wedding and not just assume that "everything will fall into place".

Our next step? Music!!

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