Created for the wedding of my daughter, Emily
1. Blessed is the fruit of the vine, that we may drink of it now to celebrate this union. May you both always be full of the wine of life, drunk with its joy, and merry with its infinite pleasures.
2. Blessed is the miracle of love that brought you both together. May you know a love so great you must grow to contain it, so rich it becomes your greatest possession – since unlike anything else we may own, only love has the rare distinction of growing larger the more we give it away, the more we share it with the world and with each other.
3. Blessed is the life of sharing you both now enter. May you know all the highs and lows, all the joys and all the sorrows, the problems and solutions, the fury and the ecstasy. May you learn in time that great irony of love: that you are never more your own person, your best and truest self, than when you join with another in love.
4. Blessed is the natural world, which offers free of charge sunrises and sunsets, mountains and oceans, gentle winds and hard rains. Blessed is the existence of this world that has people of different genders, so you may know the wonder of touching an “other” who is both part of you and also very different, the difference that allows us to love. And blessed also is being free to love whoever we choose; may we all know the depth and wholeness of life in the sharing of whatever kind of love we find, as we delight in the wonder of sharing our life with another.
5. Blessed are those who came before us, the previous generations whom we know and those whom we will never know, the lives lived and the decisions made, on purpose and by accident, joining with an endless stream of the others who lived before us and brought you to this day as the unique people you stand here as right now.
6. Blessed is the gift of friendship, the warmth and love that emanates from those who will share the journey you embark on today, and celebrate with you in person and in spirit. Blessed is all community, which enriches us beyond measure, the friends and family who keep us from ever being totally alone, unless we want to be.
7. Blessed is this moment, this very moment, which has never come before and will never come again. May you treasure it, and live it and all those that come after it fully aware how precious and unique each moment is, much as you, in your bonding today, your joyous joining together, are precious and unique. May you both always know how sacred each and every moment is, every look, every touch, every word, and live it in the fullness of your love.
And let us say, Amen
