An Easter Season Wedding

I, too, had an Easter season wedding.  After being a widow for 9 years, I got married a second time; a new life, spring after winter, Easter after Good Friday...

"My beloved said to me,

‘Come then, my love, my darling,

The winter is over;

The rains have stopped;

In the countryside the flowers are in bloom.

This is the time for singing...

Song of Songs 2:10-12

Yes, a time for singing.  And this is the song that we sang as I walked down the aisle that day nine years ago...

We are the children of Easter morning
We sing to celebrate our new lives
The dawn of an eternal morning
The fulfillment of our ageless desires
We sing with joy in our hearts overflowing
We sing to beckon those who dwell in the dark
We'll keep on singing till all men celebrate
This Easter morn

We are the children of Easter morning
We sing to proclaim the Lord's might
Now there's meaning to our life of dying
For the Lord, our God, has conquered the night
With joy we dedicate our lives to the service
Of the God of Life whose goodness we've known
Until our lives be themselves our song of Easter morn

May our simple lives be a song of praise
To the goodness of the Lord
May the Lord delight in this song we sing
This song we live with joy
If we had to sing just one song
To the Lord, Creator of life
May our lives be that song resounding in praise
To the goodness and glory of God

As I watched the Royal wedding yesterday, I was struck by some of the words spoken by the Anglican Bishop of London, Dr. Richard Chartres (Excerpts copied from this post)...

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves...

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A spiritual life grows as love finds its center beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centeredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love...

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art...

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practice and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace...

Indeed, in marriage we must die to ourselves just as the song says, and "wean ourselves away from self-centeredness."   More important than a lavish wedding ceremony is how we live out our marriage.  And indeed, no matter how simple, "every wedding is a royal wedding!"

April 20, 2002

Linking up to Then Sings my Soul Saturday
and Spiritual Sundays.