Friday, August 22, 2008

Nondenominational Prayers and Blessings for Weddings

Nondenominational Prayers and Blessings for Weddings

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 will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other. Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you. May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead
and through all your years remaining.
Go now to your dwelling place,
And enter into your days together.
May happiness be your companion and your days be good and long upon the earth.

Cherokee Prayer

God in heaven above please protect the ones we love. We honor all you created as we pledge our hearts and lives together.
We honor mother-earth - and ask for our marriage to be abundant
and grow stronger through the seasons. We honor fire - and ask that our union be warm and glowing with love in our hearts.
We honor wind - and ask we sail though life safe and calm as in our father's arms.
We honor water - to clean and soothe our relationship - that it may never thirst for love. With all the forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony and true happiness as we forever grow young together.

Nature prayer

We give thanks for places of simplicity and peace.
Let us find such a place within ourselves.
We give thanks for places of refuge and beauty
Let us find such a place within ourselves.
We give thanks for places of nature’s truth and freedom, of joy, inspiration and renewal places
Where all creatures may find acceptance and belonging.
Let us search for these places: in the world, in ourselves and in others.
Let us restore them. Let us strengthen and protect them and let us create them.
May we mend this outer world according to the truth of our inner life and
May our souls be shaped and nourished by nature’s eternal wisdom.

Navajo Wedding Blessing

Now you have lit a fire and that fire should not go out.
The two of you now have a fire that represents love,
understanding, and a philosophy of life.
It will give you heat, food, warmth and happiness.
The new fire represents a new beginning -
a new life and a new family.

The fire is to be kept burning; you are meant to stay together.
You have lit this fire for life, until only old age separates you.

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!

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