Our Wedding Vows
Marriage is that relationship between man and woman in which the independence is equal, the dependence mutual, and the obligation reciprocal.
Love is something eternal - the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp, but now it is shedding light, fulfilling its true purpose.
Love gives nothing but itself and takes nothing but 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." And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But when you love and must have desires, let these be your desires:
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love; and to bleed willingly and joyfully.
Top wake at dawn with a winged heart and to give thanks for another day of loving.
To return at evening with gratitude; and then to sleep with a prayer for your beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
You were born together, and together you shall be 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. But let there be spaces in you togetherness, and the wind of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love; let if rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Give your hearts, but not into each others 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 aprt, and the oak and the cypress grow not in each others shadow.
Every married man should believe there's but one good wife in the world and that is his own. When a man enters into the state of marriage he incorporates his heart with hers in love, and crowns himself with her trust. She is God's remedy for lonliness, and God's reward for all the toil of life.
These two people have chosen each other out of all others, with the design to be each other's mutual comfort and entertainment, and have in that action, bound themselves to be good humored, affable, discreet, forgiving, patient, and joyful, with respect to each other's frailties and perfections, to the end of their lives.
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