Friends, we are assembled here today, in the presence of God, to witness the vow renewals of these people. There are no obligations on earth more sweet or tender than those you are about to assume. There are no vows more solemn than those you are about to take. There is no human institution more sacred than the home you have formed together.
Your commitment is a spiritual union. It is then the uniting of two souls already attuned to each other. When that bond exists, it is altogether proper that an outward acknowledgment be made. This then is the purpose of this ceremony; that those who love them bear witness to the entry into the closer relationship of committed partners, of these beloved couples who are already one in Spirit.
Today, your lives with their individual memories, desires, and dreams merge just as they did on your initial commitment to each other. Today, you once again join your life with the one in ll the world whom you love the best. It is a blessed privilege. Will you bring to this union, each for the sake of the other, the best that is in you? Seeking always to express the love that you profess today?
COUPLES RESPOND: “I will.”
This renewal represents the uniting of two souls in the most sacred of unions. It also represents the uniting of two circles of life and, as such, the families and loved ones of these coupled are called upon to acknowledge the spiritual nature of these unions. Will the parents, the families, and all the loving friends gathered here also agree to support these unions?
ASSEMBLY RESPONDS: “WE WILL.”
Today, you stand in the charmed circle of love. But true love is not a total absorption in each other, it is rather, a looking outward, in the same direction together. Love makes burdens lighter because you divide them. Love makes joys more intense because you share them. Love makes you stronger individually so that you can reach out and become involved with life in ways that you might not have dared to risk alone.
There will come trials and challenges in your life together, but you can meet them all. Love’s quiet patience and tender wisdom will always prevail, for such is the power of love.
In scripture, it is written:
“Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist upon its 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, endures all things. So faith and hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is Love.”
Let your faith in Love; and the sacred power of love, grow through the years so that you remain unchanged in your devotion. Two souls do have the power to love each other more, indefinitely. True love has been called a golden ring in a chain whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity. May your relationship, through the years, bear witness to this truth.
All that Love is cannot be contained in words, to attempt to give definition to love is to realize the limitations of language. But words are the palette of the poet, and he has painted this picture for those who would see it:
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught from itself.
Love possesses not, nor would it be possessed,
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love, you should not say “God is in my heart,”
But rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
For Love, if it finds you worthy, will direct your course.
For love has no desire but to fulfill itself.
In the fulfillment then, of your deepest desires, which are the desires of the Spirit, which is love itself, will you join right hands. . .
Please turn to your partner and repeat after me:
I give to you my promise
That from this day forward
You shall not walk alone.
May my heart be your shelter
And my arms be your home.
May God bless you always.
Through all things
May you feel deeply loved,
for indeed you are.
May you always see your innocence in my eyes.
I give you my heart
I have no greater gift to give.
I promise I shall do my best.
I shall always try.
I feel so honored to call you mine.
May we feel this joy forever.
I thank God.
I thank you.
Amen.
Today, you begin anew, as you do every day, but today your lives have become part of a larger life, on that had its beginning before time.
Kahlil Gibran has written:
“You were born together and together you shall be forevermore. Aye you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of heaven dance between you. Love one another, but make not a burden of love. Let ti be rather a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Sing and dance together and be joyous. But let each of you be alone, even as the strings of the lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. And stand together, but 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 bond that we witness today has been forged in love and tempered in harmony. Let today, _________________________________, be for you always a joyful memory and a reminder to the commitment of the love that you share.
Repeat after me:
This day I commit to my friend. . . [pause, while the other repeats]
My friend that will laugh with. . . [pause]
Live for. . . [pause]
Dream with . . . [pause]
And, together, make these dreams come true. [pause]
Have faith in each other. Fashion your lives together from the dreams that you bring to this day. And, above all, know that the blessings of God and of man are upon the vows that you have made here today.
There is faith and there is hope, and there is love. . . and the greatest of these is Love.
In love then, go, and live your life together.
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