You asked me to read some poetry about love at your wedding ceremony.   The first surge of love I feel today is the warmth, honor, and pride that comes from the fact that you would ask me to do such readings in celebration of your wedding.   What greater gift could any father ever receive from a child than to be asked to be spokesperson for the greatest spiritual force in life at that beautiful time when the woman he loves is finally wed to him, forever and ever.

When you find someone you can love and who can love you, then love one another.   And, as you love one another, remember this:  Make your love a joyous, freedom-loving adventure.   Let your love be a moving sea    between the shores of your souls.   Sing, dance, and be joyous together, and yet, let each of you have moments alone.  Let there be spaces in your togetherness so that the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Remember, the strings of the lute are together, yet alone as they quiver with the same music.   As the pillars of the temple stand apart, they serve a common goal.   Fill each other’s cup, and yet, allow each to drink at their own choosing.   Give one another of you bread,  while allowing each to season it to their own taste.

Give your hearts to each other, while providing space for each other's heart to be free,  for there is much in life to be loved.   Let your lover's heart be free to answer the call of life.

Stand together, yet not too near each other, for in the garden of life,  the oak tree & the cypress each have air to breathe and a little earth to call their own,  where the sun can reach down & touch them bringing forth the hidden beauty that lies within each one.   Yes, be together, and be yourself.   Be free, and always be together.

Love  has no desire other than to fulfill itself.
But if your love must have desires, let these  be yours:

To melt and be  like a running brook
that sings its melody into the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And still give from that wound,  willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon’s hour and meditate on love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart
and a song of praise upon your lips.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

In a simple way I love you.
That’s something I can do.
I’ll make music while you sing your song.
When I can, I’ll join in  and sing along.
I’m filled with love, I care for you
And I understand what you are going through.

In a simple way I love you,
That’s so easy for me to do.
When you reach out to take my hand.
I’ll be there and beside you stand
Because you’ve made a friend of me.
I’ll help you become whomever you shall choose to be.

I hear your voice as it  sings out.
Speak your piece  and  let it go
I’ll give you room to breathe, and space to grow.

In a simple way I love you.
I’m here to see you through.
I’ll make music while you sing your song.
While you do whatever you choose to do.
I’ll stand beside you rain or shine.
Love has many faces, and one of them is mine.

I love you because the Earth turns around the sun;
Because the north wind blows north;
Because winter flows into spring,
And the air clears after a storm;

I love you because only my love for you
despite the charms of gravity
keep me from falling off the Earth
into another dimension.

I love you because
it is the natural order of things.
I am helpless in my love for you.
It makes me so happy to hear you
call my name.

I am amazed you can resist
Locking me in an echo chamber
Where your love reverberates
Through the four walls
Sending me into spasmodic streams of ecstasy. 

I love you because it has been so good for so long.
That if I didn’t love you
I’d have to be born again.
The Angles tell me love is so simple,
And yet, I'm almost pitiful in my love for you.

The very thought of you
Sends incredibly delicious,  multitudinous
thrills throughout and through
my body.  

I love you because no two snow flakes are alike 
and because it is possible, if you stand tippy toes,
to walk between the raindrops. 

I love you because I am afraid of the dark
and can’t sleep in the light.
Because I rub my eyes
when I wake up in the morning
and find you there beside me.
Because you, with all your magic powers,
determined that I should love you.
Because there is nothing else for you
but that I would love you.

I love you because you made me want to love you.
More that I love
My privacy
My freedom
My commitments
And responsibilities.

I love you because I’ve changed my life to love you.
Because you saw me one fateful night
and decided that I would love you.
I love you more than any words can say,
I love you!
Yes, indeed, I do love you!

We are  lovers because of
the love we make,
the love we have, 
and the love  we share.

We are friends because
of the laughs we spend
and the tears we save.

I love being near you
for the thoughts we share
and for the words
we never have  to speak

When we are apart,
I do miss you
because of what we do together,
but, mostly,  I miss you
because of what we are together.

I know that love is  tucking you in 
and kissing you “good night”
no matter how young
or how old you are.

Love is listening,  laughing
and asking questions
no matter how silly
those questions may sound.

Love is commitment to you
responsibility with you
and most of all,
love is fun because love is
you and me together. 

I promise myself to be so strong
that  my peace of mind is infinite in depth,   and ever-present;
To speak only of health, happiness and prosperity
to every person I meet;
And to make all of my friends aware
of those special qualities within them.

I promise myself to look at the sunny side
of everything, everyone, and every situation I encounter;
To look at life with optimism and with positive emotions;
thereby eliciting the infinite power of entire universe
in making my dreams come true. 

I promise myself to think about, take action toward
and expect only the best for myself and for everyone else;
And,  to be just as enthusiastic about the success of others,
as I am about my own success.

I promise to forget past mistakes;
Both my own and of those around me.
As an ever unfolding flower,
I promise myself to press on toward a greater future;
To be sincere, to be genuine;
To wear a cheerful countenance, at all times;
And to smile from my heart with warmth and love.

Promise myself to give so much thought and feeling
to the improvement of my own nature
that you have no time or interest in criticizing others.
To be too wise to worry,    too allowing to anger
and too centered in my Divine nature to fear anything outside of myself.

Promise to seek and share joy as my first priority,
to invite personal growth through the new and unexpected
to be free, to encourage others to be free
and above all,   to be happy. 

May the road rise to meet you,
And the wind be always at your back. 

May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May green be the grass you walk upon,
And blue be the skies above you.

May pure be the joys that surround you,
And true be the hearts that love you.

May God be with you, guide you,  and bless you;
So that you see your children's children. 

May you be poor in misfortune,
And rich in blessings.

May you know mainly happiness,
From this day forward.

Now you will feel no storms,
for each of you is shelter for the other,

Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you is warmth to the other,

Now there’s no loneliness,
for each of you is companion to the other,

You are still two persons,
and now there is only one life before you.

Go this day to your dwelling place
and enter into your days together.

May your days be good and long
upon the earth.

Now you will feel no storms,
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 loneliness,
for each of you is companion to the other,

You are two persons,
but there is one life before you, and one home.

Turn together to look at the road you traveled,
to reach this---the hour of your happiness.
It stretches behind you into the past.

Look to the future that lies ahead.
A long and winding, adventure-filled  road,
whose every turn means discovery,
new hopes, new joys, new laughter,
and a few shared tears.

May happiness be your companion,
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead;
And through all the years to come.

Go this day to your dwelling place
and enter into your days together.

May your days be good and long
upon the earth.
Your  adventure has just begun!

One night a man had a dream.   He dreamed that he was walking along the beach with the Lord.   Across the sky, flashed scenes from his life.   For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,  he looked back at the footprints in the sand.   He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.   He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him, and he questioned the Lord about it, “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way.    But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints.    I don’t understand why, when I needed you the most, you would leave me.”

 The Lord replied, “My precious child, I love you  and I would never leave you.   During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”

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, 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 kept 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.

Oh the comfort of feeling safe
with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts,
nor measure words,
but to pour them all out
just as chaff and grain together,
knowing that a faithful hand
will take   and sift them,
keeping what is worth keeping
and with a breath of kindness,
blow the rest away.

Somewhere between friends
came conversations touching
new ways of seeing each other

Somewhere beyond admiration
eyes met and looks lingered
And the moment shimmered with magic;

Somewhere between laughing and liking
barriers fell away and two souls met
revealing secrets and dreams

Somewhere beneath
the sharing and the smiles
the warmth and the words
there emerged love.

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 never taking the other for granted;
the courtship should not end with the honeymoon,
it should continue through all 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 in 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 expecting the husband to wear a halo or the wife to have wings of an angel.

It is not looking for perfection in each other.
It is cultivating flexibility, patience, understanding and a sense of humor.

It is having the capacity to forgive and forget.
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
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.

Our Father,   who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us this day   our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us. 

 Lead us not into temptation,
And deliver from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom,
The power and the glory
For ever and ever.     
Amen.

Our Father, Mother
Sister, Brother
who are the source of heaven
Hallowed are Thy names.

Thy kingdom this day is in my heart. 
Thy will is now by me done  
Here on Earth as it is in heaven. 

Thank you for this day
and for my daily bread.
Thank you for guiding me
with your love and wisdom;
and for forgiving me my trespasses.

Thank you for filling me
with kindness, love, and freedom;
and for teaching me
how to love  and forgive those
who have trespassed against me.

Thank you for leading me
along the path of right action,
and for guiding me into
joy, love, and wholesomeness.

For Thy Love is the Kingdom,
in which Wisdom is the Power,
Truth is the Glory,
and Freedom is the Joy.
forever and ever.

Amen.

.

Today I hear and live your words:

“That which you do onto
the least of mine
you do onto me.”

“In the Beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God;
and the Word was God."

The Word was God.
The Word is God.

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Love is patient;
love is not jealous or boastful;
It is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on it’s own way;
It is not irritable or resentful;
It does not rejoice at wrong,
but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never ends.

*   Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

*   And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

*   And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

*   Love suffers long, and is kind.  Love envies not.  Love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,

*   Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;

*   Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

*   Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things

*   Love never fails, but where ever there be prophecies, they shall fail.  Where ever there be tongues, they shall cease.  Where ever there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

*   For we know in part, and we prophecy in part.

*   But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

*   When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child.  But when I became a man, I put away childish things

*   For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.

*   In the end, three things will last—faith, hope, and love.

*   But the greatest of these is love.

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If I  speak in the tongues of men and of angels, 
but if I have no love, 
my speech is no more than a noisy gong 
or a clanging bell.   

I may have the gift of prophesy;
and be able to  fathom mysteries
and  all knowledge;
I may  have faith
that can  move mountains,
but if I have not love, I am  nothing.

I may give all my possessions to the poor
and  surrender my body to be burned;
but if I have not  love,
I gain nothing.
But,  If I have love, 
I have everything. 

Love is patient;   Love is kind;
It does not envy;   Nor does it boast;
It is not proud;  It is not rude. 
It is not self-seeking
nor easily angered; 
It does not keep record of wrong;

Love does not delight in evil; 
But rather,  rejoices in the truth,
It always protects,  always trusts
Always perseveres
Love never fails.
Love always prevails

.

Love is courteous; 
love is kind.
Love  rejoices in the truth,
yet sometimes 
chooses to act blind. 

Love is forgiving 
and love if for giving.
Love is neither snobbish,
arrogant, nor crude.
Love is not  prone to anger,
and never acts rude.

Love is faithful, hopeful,    
and consistent,
Love is patient, allowing,
and ever persistent.

Love is thoughtful, gentle, and kind
Because love is eternal,
when all else fails, turn to love,
for Love always prevails. 

Love loves to love love.  Nurse loves the new chemist.  Constable 14A loves Mary Kelly.  Gerty MacDowell loves the boy that has the bicycle.  M.B. loves a fair gentleman.  Li Chi Han loves up kissy Cha Pu Chow.  Jumbo, the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant.  Old Mr. Verschoyle with the ear trumpet loves old Mrs. Verschoyle with the turnedin eye.  The man in the brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead.  His Majesty the King Loves Her Majesty the Queen.  Mrs. Norman W. Tupper loves officer Taylor.  You love a certain person.  And this person loves that other person because everybody loves somebody but God loves everybody.

How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints!  I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!  And, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.

            So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

            So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined for life, to strengthen each other in all labor, to rest on each other in sorrow, to minister to each other in all pain, to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories at the moment of the last parting?

O my luve’s like a red, red rose,

            That’s newly sprung in June;

O my luve’s like the melodie

            That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

.

As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,

            So deep in luve am I;

And I will love thee still, my Dear

            Till a’ the seas gang dry.

.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear,

            And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;

I will love thee still, my Dear

            While the sands o’ life shall run.

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And fare thee weel, my only Luve!

            And fare thee weel, a while!

And I will come again, my Luve,

            Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!

Please note the difference between the above title and the traditional statement,  "God Bless this marriage."  The latter is a request for what isn't and the former is a statement of what is.

You might recall that, in the Christian Bible, Jesus never asked or begged for anything.  In his prayers, He simply said "Thank you, Father" knowing full well that as a co-creator with God, he was declaring his reality.   So, rather than beg for favors,  you might want to do as Jesus did and simple declare what is.
"God Blesses this marriage."  

The above two paragraphs are obviously not a wedding reading.   They do; however, exemplify one of the functions of our ministry, that function being the teaching of Spiritual Awareness° 

h.