wedding ceremony reading

Hey,
I am meeting with my priest this weekend and I have to bring a reading with me. I am searching online but, nothing is really grabbing me. Anyone have any links. I dont want anything from the Bible.

I copied a word doc I have..there are bible and non in here...

Reading 1
A Reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians
Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love never comes to an end. In the end there are three things that last: faith, hope and love – and the greatest of these is love.
Reading No. 2
A Reading From Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Let love be without any pretense.
Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good.
In sincere love, let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression
and regard others as more important than yourself.
In the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly
but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit.
Be joyful in hope,
persevere in hardship;
keep praying regularly;
share with any of God’s holy people who are in need;
look for opportunities to be hospitable.
Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them.
Rejoice with others when they rejoice,
and be sad with those in sorrow.
Give the same consideration to all others alike.
Pay no regard to social standing, but meet humble people on their own terms.
Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom.
Never pay back evil with evil,
but bear in mind the ideals that all regard with respect.
As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability,
be at peace with everyone.
Reading No. 3
A Reading from the Book of Ruth
… Ruth said, 'Do not press me to leave you and to
stop going with you, for
wherever you go, I shall go,
wherever you live, I shall live.
Your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I shall die.
Reading No. 4
A Reading from the Gospel of John
Jesus said to his disciples:
'As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Live on in my love.
You will live in my love if you keep my commandments,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and live in his love.
And this I tell you that my joy may be yours
and that your joy may be complete.
This is my commandment:
Love one another as I have loved you.'
Reading No. 5
A Reading from the First Letter of John
My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God
and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.
This is the revelation of God’s love for us,
that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.
Love consists in this:
it is not we who loved God,
but God loved us and sent his Son
to expiate our sins.
My dear friends,
if God loved us so much,
we too should love one another.
No one has ever seen God,
but as long as we love one another
God remains in us
and his love comes to its perfection in us.
This is the proof that we remain in him
and he in us.
that he has given us a share in his Spirit.
Reading No. 6
A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew
Seeing the crowds, he went onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
How blessed are the poor in spirit:
the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are the gentle:
they shall have the earth as inheritance.
Blessed are those who mourn:
they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness:
they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful:
they shall have mercy shown them.
Blessed are the pure in heart:
they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers:
they shall be recognized as children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness:
the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
Reading No. 7
A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew
To put him to the test, one of them asked him a question:
“Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”
Jesus said to him,
“You must love the Lord your God
with all our heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second resembles it:
You must love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments hang the whole Law,
and the Prophets too.”
Reading No. 8
A Reading from the Gospel of John
I have loved you
just as the Father has loved me.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this that my own joy may be in you
and that your joy be complete.
This is my commandment:
love one another,
as I have loved you.
Reading No. 9
A Reading from The Prophet
By Kahlil Gibran
You shall be together forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
You shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
Let there be spaces in your togetherness,
and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love;
let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of
you be alone,
even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet 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.
Reading No. 10
A Reading from ERIC FROMM
Love is not simply a relationship to a specific person;
It is an attitude; an orientation of character,
which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole,
not toward one “object” of love.
If a person loves only one other person
and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow person,
this love is not love but a selfish attachment, or an enlarged egotism.
If you truly love one person,
you love all persons,
you love the world,
you love life.
If you can say to somebody else, “I love you”
you must be able to say,
“I love through you the world, I love in you also myself.
Reading No. 11
A Reading from CARL SANDBURG
I love you for what you are, but I love you yet more for what you are going to be. I love you not so much for your realities as for your ideals. I pray for your desires that they may be great, rather than for your satisfactions, which may be so hazardously little. A satisfied flower is one whose petals are about to fall. The most beautiful rose is one hardly more than a bud wherein the pangs and ecstasies of desires are working for larger and finer growth. Not always shall you be what you are now. You are going forward toward something great. I am on the way with you and therefore I love you.
Reading No. 12
“LOVE ME”
Love me because I try to touch life
within the framework of uncertainty.
Love in me the shadows of my indecision
as I strive to gain knowledge.
Love in me the silence of my hurts
and the noise of my confusions.
Love me for the feeling of my heart
not the fears of my mind.
Love me in my search for the truth
though I may stumble upon fallacy.
Love me as I pursue my dreams
sometimes retarded by illusions.
Love me as I grow to know myself
even during the times of stagnation.
Love me because I seek God’s harmony
not man’s discord.
Love me for my body that I wish to share
with affection, wrapping you in warmth.
Love me because we are different
as we are the same.
Love me that our time together will be spent
in growing, kindling the world with understanding.
Love me not with expectations
but with hope.
I will love you the same.
Reading No. 13
The Apache Wedding Blessing
Now you will feel no rain,
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 more loneliness.
Now you are two persons.
But there is one life before you.
Go, now, to your dwelling place
to enter into the place of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
Reading No. 14
“A TOUCH OF HEART”
There was a time ... a moment
I felt all alone
but then
the sun shined upon me
bearing gifts of love,
friendship and harmony
Everlasting love
shared and expressed through you to me.
The prayers, the cares, the gestures
brought forth to me heal my soul
For at times I’d only known to give
but failed to accept and receive with grace.
I’m not alone now for your warmth overwhelms me
your spirit fills my soul, and
I am ALIVE with your love.
Reading No. 15
Sonnet XXIV, by William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with Fortune and Men’s eyke’s,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate,
For thy sweet love rememb’red such wealth brings,
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Reading No. 16
Dance Me To The End Of Love
Dance me to your beauty, with a burning violin,
Dance me through the panic, till I’m gathered safely in,
Lift me like an olive branch, and be my homeward dove,
Dance me to the end of love.
Let me see your beauty, when the witnesses are gone,
Let me feel you moving, like they do in Babylon,
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of,
Dance me to the end of love.
Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on,
Dance me very tenderly, and dance me very long,
We’re both of us beneath our love, we’re both of us above,
Dance me to the end of love.
Dance me to the children, who are asking to be born,
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn,
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn,
Dance me to the end of love.
Dance me to your beauty, with a burning violin,
Dance me through the panic, till I’m gathered safely in,
Touch me with your naked hand, touch me with your glove,
Dance me to the end of love.
Reading No. 17
Sonnet XVII - Pablo Neruda
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
Reading No. 18
Sonnett XLIII, from 'Sonnetts from the Portuguese'
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
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.
Reading No. 19
FROM THE GIFT OF THE SEA
By Anne Morrow Lindbergh
When you love someone, you do not love them all the time,
in exactly the same way, from moment to moment.
It is an impossibility.
It is even a lie to pretend to.
And yet this is exactly what most of us demand.
We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb.
We are afraid it will never return.
We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity;
when the only continuity possible, in life as in love,
is in growth, in fluidity -- in freedom
in the sense that dancers are free
barely touching as they pass,
but partners in the same pattern.
The only real security is not in owning or possessing,
not in demanding or expecting,
not in hoping, even.
Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back
to what it was in nostalgia,
nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation
but in living in the present relationship
and accepting it as it is now.
Relationships must be like islands;
one must accept them for what they are here and now,
within their limits ...
islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea,
and continually visited and abandoned by the tides.
Reading No. 20
On Marriage
By Edmund O’Neill
Marriage is a commitment to life - to the best that two people can find and bring out in each other.
It offers opportunities for sharing and growth that no other human relationship can equal, a joining that is promised for a lifetime.
Within the circle of its love, marriage encompasses all of life's most important relationships.
A wife and a husband are each other's best friend, confidant, lover, teacher, listener, and critic.
There may come times when one partner is heartbroken or ailing, and the love of the other may resemble the tender caring of a parent for a child.
Marriage deepens and enriches every facet of life.
Happiness is fuller; memories are fresher; commitment is stronger; even anger is felt more strongly, and passes away more quickly.
Marriage understands and forgives the mistakes life is unable to avoid.
It encourages and nurtures new life, new experiences,
and new ways of expressing love through the seasons of life.
When two people pledge to love and care for each other in marriage they create a spirit unique to themselves,
which binds them closer than any spoken or written words.
Marriage is a promise, a potential, made in the hearts of two people who love, which takes a lifetime to fulfill.

Reading No. 21
Blessing For A Marriage
By James Dillet Freeman
May your marriage bring you all the exquisite excitements a marriage should bring,
and may life grant you also patience, tolerance, and understanding.
May you always need one another –
not so much to fill your emptiness as to help you to know your fullness.
A mountain needs a valley to be complete;
the valley does not make the mountain less, but more;
and the valley is more a valley because it has a mountain towering over it.
So let it be with you and you.
May you need one another, but not out of weakness.
May you want one another, but not out of lack.
May you entice one another, but not compel one another.
May you embrace one another, but not out encircle one another.
May you succeed in all important ways with one another,
and not fail in the little graces.
May you look for things to praise, often say, 'I love you!'
and take no notice of small faults.
If you have quarrels that push you apart,
may both of you hope to have good sense enough to take the first step back.
May you enter into the mystery which is the awareness of one another's presence –
no more physical than spiritual, warm and near when you are side by side,
and warm and near when you are in separate rooms or even distant cities.
May you have happiness, and may you find it making one another happy.
May you have love, and may you find it loving one another!
Reading No. 22
The Art Of A Good Marriage,
By Wilfred Arlan Peterson
Happiness in marriage is not something that just happens.
A good marriage must be created.
In marriage 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 at no time 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 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 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.
Reading No. 23
THE ONE, By Bernie Taupin
I saw you dancing out on the ocean
Running fast along the sand
A spirit born of earth and water
Fire flying from your hands
In the instant that you love someone
In the second that the hammer hits
Reality runs up your spine
And the pieces finally fit
All I ever needed was the one
Like freedom feels where wild horses run
When stars collide like you and I
No shadows block the sun
You are all I have ever needed
Baby, you’re the one
Reading No. 24
Thoughts In a Garden, By R. Gerhardt
This is a special place, a place where people have brought beautiful living plants, here to establish them, to nurture and care for them, that they may forever surround us with the beauty we now see. And into this place where we stand, you have brought something beautiful -- the relationship that is becoming your marriage. Here you are declaring it and pledging it, promising to establish and nurture it. We are aware of the special beauty between the two of you, just as we are aware of the special beauty of this place. We are with you now in this appropriate place to celebrate your relationship as it is and as it is yet to be, and in doing so, we ask only that you remember how your life together will have the same seasons and needs as this garden. There will be growth like spring and loss like fall; there will be giving as the blossoming flower, and rest as the seed beneath the snow. All the seasons will be yours, but remember, too, that gardens are not must happenings. The more wonderful the garden, the more skilled the gardener. So you will have to care deeply for the life that is yours together, and nurture it. You will have to appreciate your differences and cultivate them. You will have to take care of yourself, if for no other reason than out of love for the other. And you will need the support of family and friends to reach full growth. As you caringly chose this place to declare your marriage, so remember its lessons for your life together through the seasons that are yours to share. And may those seasons bring you and yours joy and happiness.
Reading No. 25
The Covenant of Marriage
Marriage has certain qualities of contract, in which two people take on the housekeeping tasks of living, together, to enhance life’s joy.
However, marriage is more than a contract. Marriage is a commitment to take that joy deep, deeper than happiness, deep into the discovery of who you most truly are. It is a commitment to a spiritual journey, to a life of becoming -- in which joy can comprehend despair, running through rivers of pain into joy again.
And thus marriage is even deeper than commitment. It is a covenant -- a covenant that says:
I love you.
I trust you.
I will be here for you when you are hurting,
And when I am hurting I will not leave.
It is a covenant intended not to provide haven from pain or anger and sorrow. Life offers no such haven. Instead, marriage is intended to provide a sanctuary safe enough to risk loving, to risk living and sharing from the center of oneself. This is worth everything.
Reading No. 26
I do…
Want to laugh with you,
Learn with you,
Grow with you.
I do…
Want to be with you
All my life through,
For I love you with all of my heart,
And today I’m so happy to tell you…
I do
Reading No. 27
Memories Within my book of memories are special thoughts of you, and all the many nice things you often say and do.
As I turn the pages and recall each single thought, I realize the happiness that knowing you has brought.
There are memories of the times we’ve shared both bright and gloomy days.
There are memories of your kindness and your friendly thoughtful ways.
There are memories of your laughter and your bright and cheery smile, that add a bright note to each day and make life more worthwhile.
There are memories of the things we planned, each friendly little chat, when we would get together and just talk of this and that.
And when I recall these memories I go along life’s way, and find they grow more precious still with every passing day.
Reading No. 28
TRIBUTE
I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart, and passing over all the foolish and frivolous and weak things which you cannot help dimly seeing there, and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful, radiant belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find.
I love you for ignoring the possibilities of the fool and weakling in me, and for laying firm hold on the possibilities of good in me. I love you for closing your eyes to the discords in me, and for adding to the music in me by worshipful listening.
I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life not a tavern but a Temple, and of the words of my every day not a reproach but a song.
I love you because you have done more than any creed could have done to make me good, and more than any fate could have done to make me happy.

Reading #29
(Sonnet 116) Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Reading #30
William Shakespeare
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
(Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.139-41)

Reading #31

Ecclesiastes Chapter 3
3:1. All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven.
3:2. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
3:3. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build.
3:4. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
3:5. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
3:6. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
3:7. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
3:8. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace.


Reading # 32
Reading from “The Buddha”
Buddhism is a path of transformation of one’s inner potential. It is a path dedicated to serving others, helping them awaken their potential. Marriage is the vehicle to practice serving others. It is a practice ground. Love is wishing others happiness. Marriage is the equal commitment to the happiness of your partner, toward their awakening. Our inner potential is developed through taking on challenges, not just through joy. We need people in order to practice compassion

Since marriage is dedicated toward the happiness of all living beings, those gathered here are the representatives of all living beings.


Reading # 33
Unlimited Friendliness

This is what should be done by the man and woman who are wise, who seek the good, and know the meaning of the place of peace.

Let them be fervent, upright and sincere, without conceit of self, easily contented and joyous, free of cares. Let them not be submerged by the things of the world. Let them not take upon themselves the burden of worldly goods. Let their senses be controlled. Let them be wise but not puffed up. And let them not desire great possessions, even for their families. Let them do nothing that is mean or that the wise would reprove.

May all beings be happy and at their ease. May they be joyous and live in safety. All beings whether weak or strong – omitting none – in high, middle or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, near or far away, born or to be born, may all things be a happy and at their ease.

Let none deceive another or despise any being in any state. Let none, by anger or ill will, wish harm to another.

Even as a mother watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things. Radiating friendliness over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit. So let them cultivate a boundless good will toward the entire world, unlimited, free from ill will or enmity.

Reading # 34
Touched by an Angel Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.




Reading # 35
THE SYMPOSIUM
~ By Plato
Our original nature was by no means the same as it is now. There was a kind composed of both sexes and sharing equally in male and female. The form of each person was round all over; each had four arms, and legs to match these, and two faces perfectly alike. The creature walked upright, and whenever it started running fast, it went like our acrobats, whirling over and over with legs stuck out straight, swiftly round and round.
Now they were so lofty in their notions that they even conspired against the gods. Thereat Zeus and the other gods were perplexed; for they felt they could not slay them, nor could they endure such sinful rioting. Then Zeus said 'Methinks I can contrive that men shall give over their iniquity through a lessening of their strength.' So saying, he sliced each human being in two. Now when our first form had been cut in two, each half in longing for his fellow would come to it again; and then would they fling their arms about each other and in mutual embraces yearn to be grafted together. Thus anciently is mutual love ingrained in mankind.
Well, when one happens on his own particular half, the two of them are wondrously thrilled with affection and intimacy and love, and are hardly to be induced to leave each other's side for a single moment. These are they who continue together throughout life. No one could imagine this to be the mere amorous connection: obviously the soul of each is wishing for something else that it cannot express. Suppose that Hephaestus should ask 'Do you desire to be joined in the closest possible union, that so long as you live, the pair of you, being as one, may share a single life?' Each would unreservedly deem that he had been offered just what he was yearning for all the time.
The craving and pursuit of that entirety is called Love. If we make friends with the god and are reconciled, we shall have the fortune that falls to few in our day of discovering our proper favorites. Love is the god who brings this about; he fully deserves our hymns. If we will supply the gods with reverent duty, he will restore us to our ancient life and heal and help us into the happiness of the blest.