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Introduction One Two Three Four Five Order Twenty-Vow Collection

Five. Enter Days of Togetherness

Minister:
We are gathered here today to take part in the most time-honored celebration of the human family, uniting a woman and a man in marriage. ____________ and ____________ have come to witness before us, telling of their love for each other. We remember, theirs is a love whose source is the affection of those who loved them into being.

We remind them that they are performing an act of complete faith, each in the other; that the heart of their marriage will be the relationship they create. In a world where faith often falls short of expectation, it is a tribute to these two who now join hands and hearts in perfect faith.

Minister to Groom:
____________, will you receive ____________ as your wife? Will you pledge to her your love, faith and tenderness, cherishing her with a husband's loyalty and devotion?

Groom:
I will.

Minister to Bride:
____________, will you receive ____________ as your husband? Will you pledge to him your love, faith and tenderness, cherishing him with a wife’s loyalty and devotion?

Bride:
I will.

Minister:
_____________ and _____________, receive each other from your fathers and mothers, who give you into each other's keeping, by saying now, each to the other, words which will tell of your love.

Groom:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ to be no other than yourself, in all the ways life may find us, tending you in sickness and rejoicing with you in health, as long as we both shall live to love.

Bride:
I, ____________, take you, ____________ to be no other than yourself, in all the ways life may find us, tending you in sickness and rejoicing with you in health, as long as we both shall live to love.

Minister:
Will you now give and receive a ring?

Bride and Groom:
We will.

Minister:
This circlet of precious metal is justly regarded as a fitting emblem of the purity and perpetuity of the Marriage State. The ancients were reminded by the circle of eternity, as it is so fashioned as to have neither beginning nor end; while gold is so incorruptible that it cannot be tarnished by use or time. So may the union, at this time solemnized, be incorruptible in its purity and more lasting that time itself.

Minister hands the ring to the Groom, who places it on the Bride’s finger:
Wear this ring forever, ____________, as a symbol of love and peace and of all that is unending.

Minister hands the ring to the Bride, who places it on the Groom’s finger:
Wear this ring forever, ____________, as a symbol of love and peace and of all that is unending.

Minister:
We speak to ____________ and ____________ of love, in which the trust and freedom of the other person becomes as significant as the trust and freedom of one's self. We speak to them of generosity, which gathers the beauty of earth for riches, and the kindness which turns away the wrath of foolish men and women. We speak of each of our hopes for their continued growth through patience, one for the other. We speak of our confidence that new levels of understanding, discovered by them in experiences of sorrow and tribulation, shall bring ever new surprises of strength and fortitude they do not now know.

In the years which shall bring ____________ and ____________ into greater age and wisdom, we pray that their love shall be ever young; that they shall be able always to recover from moments of despair, the lithesome ways of buoyant youth. In this hope may they keep the vows made on this day, in freedom, teaching each other who they are, what they yet shall be, enabling them to know that in the fullness of being, they are more than themselves and more than each other; that they are all of us, and that together we share joyously the fruits of life.

Inasmuch as ____________ and ____________ have declared their love and devotion to each other before family and friends, I now greet them with you as husband and wife.

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be sanctuary to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no isolation for you. Now there is no more loneliness. Now you are two, but there is only one life in front of you.

Go now and enter into the days of your togetherness.