WEDDING CEREMONY

For Raphael & Dana

PROCESSIONAL

MUSIC – Pachelbel Canon in D Major

Raphael and Dana  have asked those of you who are most important to witness and to celebrate this marriage ceremony with them. They are taking the first step of their new beginning; their new life together.  Gathered with you in the presence of God, they have come to make public their love and commitment to live and grow together as husband and wife.  It is their wish that by being here today, we will all come to feel a real and intimate part of their declaration, and thus make it even more significant and powerful.

The ability and desire for one human being to love another is perhaps the most precious and fulfilling gift that has been entrusted to us. It is an all-consuming task, a lifelong endeavor.

Loving someone is a reason to stretch beyond our limits, to become more for the sake of the other. It is to look into the soul of your beloved and accept what you see. Loving is the ultimate commitment which challenges humans to become all that we are meant to be. As they join in marriage today, Raphael and Dana  are announcing to the world that they are welcoming that challenge.

Are you all willing  to show your support of the commitment they are making today?

Please say YES!

CONVOCATION –:

We are gathered here today to joyfully  celebrate and to add our support as two separate lives with their individual memories, desires, and hopes merge into one. We rejoice with them on this special day.  As a result of their marriage, WE are all becoming one Family.  This, then , is not on Wedding day, but a day to celebrate the coming together to create Family.

INTRODUCTIONS

Let’s take a moment to acknowledge that fact now — by having each person here introduce him or herself to at least 2 other people who you DO NOT know —              but with whom after this day, you will share a common bond.

Love is one of the highest experiences that we can have, and adds great meaning to our lives. The day to day companionship, the real pleasure in doing things together, or   in doing separate things but delighting in the exchange of experiences, is a continuous and central part of what a man and a woman who love one another can share. This sharing should not diminish but should enhance the individuality of each partner.

We are here today, then to celebrate the love which Raphael and Dana  have for each other  and to add our recognition to their decision to accept each other totally and permanently.

Marriage is the joining of two lives, the mystical, physical, and emotional union of two human beings who have separate families and histories, separate tragedies and destinies. It is the merging and intermeshing not only of two persons, and two personalities, but also of two life stories.  Two   individuals, each of whom has a unique and life shaping past, willingly choose to set aside the solitary exploration of themselves to discover who they are in the presence of one another.

Raphael and Dana  have both  been on individual spiritual journeys for some time… Our Readings today represent the various Religions and Philosophies that have been part of their quest.

I welcome Peter Heatley to do the first READING representing the Episcopal and Christian traditions:

 

TONI:  Our second reading represents the Buddhist tradition that has also been part of both of their lives.

READING 2 — Donna’s brother

 

 

Marriage is a conscious choice of a greater connection into which two individuals, already whole and complete, now step.

The person that we choose to marry is someone we love, but his depths, her intimate intricacies, we will come to know only in the long unraveling of time. To our knowledge we add our willingness to embark on the journey of getting to know him, of coming to see her, ever so wonderfully more.

 

Even though you step today into a new life, you always bring your past – and who you have been up until now.

Toni: We now invite the fathers -Michael Heatley and Terry Tutaan to share some reflections on Raphael and Dana’s childhood days.

 

We now invite the mothers to speak for a moment about the gift they see their new son and daughter bringing to their lives.

CONNIE — to speak about DANA

ISABELLE – to speak about RAPHAEL

 

The Candlelighting Ceremony

The candle you are about to light is a candle of Marriage. It is magical

because it represents the light of two people in love.  This candle before you is a candle of Commitment because it takes two people working together to keep it a flame.

We invite your parents to first light the separate candles – Symbolizing that  both must come together  giving spark of themselves, to create the new light.

and now – from these candles — light the ONE CANDLE –

As you light this candle today, may the brightness of the flame shine throughout

your lives. May it give you courage and reassurance in darkness; warmth and

safety in the cold; and strength and joy in your bodies, minds, and spirit.

May your union be forever blessed.

 

 

We now invite David Heatley to do the Third reading coming from the Sidi Yoga tradition:

Moved by mutual attraction, appreciation, admiration, and a certain measure of recognition, we agree to come together for the mysterious future, to see where the journey will take us. This companionship on life’s journey is the hallmark of marriage, its natural province, its sweetest and most primal gift.

 

In marriage we are delivered from our most ancient aloneness  in which we are born, embraced in human company, creating the miracle of loving companionship.

 

Marriage is also the incubator of love, the protected environment in which a love that is personal and touching and real can grow and, as a consequence of that growth, develop in us our highest capabilities as loving human beings.  We are each still and always becoming, and when we marry, we promise not only our own becoming but also our willingness to witness and withstand the ongoing becoming of our partner.

 

In promising always, we promise each other time. We promise to exercise our love, to stretch it large enough to embrace the unforeseen realities of the future.  We promise to learn to love beyond the level of our instincts and inclinations, to love in foul weather as well as fine, in hard times as well as good.

 

We change because of these promises; we shape ourselves according to them; we live in their midst and live differently because of them; we feel protected because of them. Marriage, the bond, makes us ???

 

Toni:  Raphael and Dana, I have confidence in your love for and friendship with one another and I know that it will enable you to continue to grow individually and together. I support you – as I know we all do with our own deep and basic confidence.

You have chosen each other as partners in life’s journey.  Are you ready to be married?  If so, please say,  “We are”

 

The Consent

Raphael ,  do you come here today, in the presence of these witnesses, with love in your heart and with the conscious desire to be united in marriage with Dana? Do you promise to share the responsibility for growth and enrichment of your life together and to give to Dana all the loving support she needs to become the person she is destined to be?

RAPHAEL :”I do”

 

Dana, do you come here today, in the presence of these witnesses, with love in your heart and with the conscious desire to be united in marriage with Raphael ? Do you promise to share the responsibility for growth and enrichment of your life together and to give to Raphael  all the loving support he needs to become the person he is destined to be?

Dana: “I do”

 

I invite you then to offer each other your VOWS.

Raphael  first, then Dana

 

VOWS

 

To the congregation:

Will all of you, family and special friends, do everything you can to honor, uphold and care for Raphael  and Dana as they walk the sacred path of marriage?

 

RESPONSE:  We will.

This commitment is truly a Sacred union – it brings with it opportunities for growth, for full self-expression, for lifting your lives to their highest potential, for healing any small idea you ever had about yourself and ultimately for true communion with God.

 

Let us pause now to listen to MUSIC as we reflect on the commitments each of us has made in our lives.

 

 

RINGS and ROSES

I’d now like to offer each of you a white rose.  It is a symbol of your larger understandings, of your spiritual nature, and your spiritual truth.  It stands for the purity of your Real and Highest Self, and for the purity of God’s love, which shines upon you now, and always,

 

Rev. Toni gives Dana the rose with Raphael ’s ring and Raphael , Dana’s.

 

What symbols do you bring as a reminder of the promised given and received today.

 

(They remove the rings and give them to Toni)

 

A circle is a symbol of the Sun, and the Earth, and the universe.  It is a symbol of holiness, and of perfection and peace.  It is also the symbol of the eternality of spiritual truth, love and life…that which has no beginning and no end.  And in this moment,

 

Raphael  and Dana choose for it to also be a symbol of unity, of joining, and of encirclement. These rings represent an inward belief and trust in togetherness. They express an outward sign of spirit and commitment, signifying to all who see them, the bonds of marriage the two of you share.

Now, Raphael  and Dana, take these rings you wish to give one to the other.

Raphael  – please repeat after me.

Dana, I offer you this ring// as a symbol of our marriage vows.// As you wear it,// know that I will love and cherish you always.

 

Dana – please repeat after me:
Raphael , I offer you this ring// as a symbol of our marriage vows.// As you wear it,// know that I will love and cherish you always.

Expression of Intent

 

Bride:  I do.

Will you promise to offer Raphael  your

Here’s another version without the roses —

Exchanging of the Rings:  “May we have the rings, please?”

 

The act of giving and receiving ring reminds us that love itself is an act of giving and receiving the most that life has to offer. These shining and eternal circles are the natural symbols for enduring love.  They represent an inward belief and trust in togetherness. They express an outward sign of spirit and commitment, signifying to all the bonds of marriage the two of you share. These rings are a symbol of the unbroken unity of Love now and forever to be manifested in your married life. The substance from which they are made symbolizes both great purity and great value, just as the love you share.

 

*Raphael places the ring on Dana’s ring finger. Then Dana places the ring on Raphael’s finger.

 

Repeat after me:

 

I offer you this ring/as a symbol of our marriage vows./As you wear it,/know that I will love and cherish you always.

 

Reading

 

And now ******** would like to share with you these words written a long time ago by the Apostle Paul in a letter to the Church at Corinth:

 

“There is nothing Love cannot face. No limit to its faith, its hope, its endurance.   In a word:  There are three things that last forever:  Faith, Hope, and Love…but the greatest of these is Love.”

 

 

Now, inasmuch as you, Raphael and Dana have consented together in the holy bonds of matrimony, and have pledged your faith to each other, and have witnessed the same before God and these your chosen witnesses;

 

By the authority vested in me by my ordination, and even more so, by the power of your own love and commitment to each other,

 

I now pronounce you husband and wife.  In the name of the One Living Spirit of God. Amen.

 

You may now kiss the Bride.

 

Bride and Groom Kiss

 

May I now present Mr. and Mrs. Raphael and Dana Heatley/LaMotta ???