Please let the priest know the readings you have chosen by indicating e.g. Gold Four, Blue two etc., and he will use these at the Wedding Mass or Wedding Service.
INTRODUCTION.
The Rites of Marriage include a
wide selection of Scriptural Readings for use during the several different
celebrations of Marriage. It is
customary to ask the Bride and Groom to select the readings to be used during
their wedding. In making their selection
they should seek to promote and express two ideas: the dignity of marriage
within the Christian context; and the uniqueness of their own particular bond
and commitment to each other.
For
the opening pages of the Sacred Scriptures and consistently throughout the Old
and New Testaments the bond of marriage is seen as a God given blessing, the
foundation of society and for the mutual up building and happiness of the two
individuals concerned. At the same time
the Sacred Scriptures openly proclaim the uniqueness of the individual before
God. In the light of this second
constant teaching of the Scriptures it is clear that each marriage has its own
distinctive quality, the product of the cooperation and common vision of the unique
individuals involved.
The
readings should declare both ideas to those assembled to celebrate the marriage
and should publicly announce the hopes, visions, the sense of unity, the
firmness of conviction and presence of God for the Bride and Groom and the set
out on their married life.
Please choose one reading from either those entitled GOLD pages or from
those entitled GREEN pages, a responsorial psalm from the BLUE pages and a
gospel acclamation from the WHITE page.
The priest will choose a gospel reading from those entitled Red pages.
Please let the priest officiating at your
wedding know of your choice of readings well in advance of the ceremony.
"God
created humankind in his image;
in
the divine image he created them;
male
and female he created them."
Genesis 1:27.
GOLD
ONE
GENESIS
1:26-28,31.
MALE
AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM.
A reading from the book of
Genesis.
God said, “Let us make man in
our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the
fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all
the reptiles that crawl upon the earth.”
God
created man in the image of himself,
in
the image of God he created him,
male
and female he created them.
God blessed them, saying to
them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the
earth and conquer it. Be masters of the
fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, and all living animals on the earth.” God saw all he had made, and indeed it was
very good.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD TWO
GENESIS
2:18-24.
THEY
BECOME ONE BODY.
A reading from the book of
Genesis.
The Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be
alone. I will make him a helpmate.” So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all
the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven.
These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would
give it. The man gave names to all the
cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found
for him. So the Lord God made the man
fall into a deep sleep. And while he
slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken
from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. The man exclaimed:
“This
at last is bone from my bones,
and
flesh from my flesh!
This
is to be called woman,
for
this was taken from man.”
This is why a man leaves his
father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD THREE
GENESIS
24:48-51, 58-67.
ISAAC
LOVED REBEKAH.
A reading from the book of
Genesis.
Abraham's servant said to Laban,
“I blessed the Lord, God of my master Abraham, who had so graciously led me to
choose the daughter of my master's brother for his son. Now tell me whether you are prepared to
show kindness and goodness to my master;
if not, say so, and I shall know what to do.”
Laban and Bethuel replied, “This
is from the Lord; it is not in our power to say yes or no to you. Rebekah is there before you. Take her and go; and let her become the wife
of your master's son, as the Lord has decreed.” They called Rebekah and asked her, “Do you
want to leave with this man?” “I
do,” she replied. Accordingly they let their sister Rebekah
go, with her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men. They blessed Rebekah in these words:
“Sister
of ours, increase
to
thousands and tens of thousands!
May
your descendants gain possession
of
the gates of their enemies!”
Rebekah and her servant stood
up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebekah and
departed.
Isaac, who lived in the Negeb,
had meanwhile come into the wilderness of Lahai Roi. Now Isaac went walking in the fields as
evening fell, and looking up saw camels approaching. And Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac. She jumped down from her camel, and asked
the servant, “Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?” The servant replied, “That is my master;” then she took her veil and hid her face. The servant told Isaac the whole story, and
Isaac led Rebekah into his tent and made her his wife; and loved her. And so Isaac was consoled for the loss of
his mother.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD FOUR
TOBIT
7:6-14.
THE
LORD GRANT YOU GRACE AND PEACE.
A reading from the book of
Tobit.
Raguel kissed Tobias and
wept. Then finding words, he said,
`Blessings on you child! You are the son
of a noble father. How sad it is that
someone so virtuous and full of good deeds should have gone blind!' He fell on
the neck of his kinsman Tobias and wept.
And his wife Edna wept for him and so did his daughter Sarah. Raguel killed a sheep from the flock, and
they gave Tobias and Raphael a warm-hearted welcome.
They washed and bathed and sat
down to table. Then Tobias said to Raphael, “Brother
Azarias, will you ask Raguel to give me my sister Sarah?” Raguel overheard the words, and said to the
young man, “Eat and drink, and make the most of your evening; no one else has
the right to take my daughter Sarah - no one but you my brother. In any case I, for my own part, am not at
liberty to give her to anyone else, since you are her next of kin.... Very
well. Since, as prescribed by the Book
of Moses, she is given to you, heaven itself decrees she shall be yours. She is given to you from today for ever. The Lord of heaven favour you tonight, my
child, and grant you his grace and peace.”
Raguel called his daughter Sarah, took her by the hand and gave her to
Tobias with these words, “I entrust her
to you; the law and the ruling record of the Book of Moses assign her to you as
your wife. Take her; take her home to
your father's house with a good conscience.
The God of heaven grant you a good journey in peace.” Then he turned to her mother and asked her
to fetch him writing paper. He drew up
the marriage contract, how he gave his daughter as bride to Tobias according to
the ordinance in the Law of Moses.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD FIVE
TOBIT
8:4-8.
BRING
US TO OLD AGE TOGETHER.
A reading from the book of
Tobit.
On the evening of their
marriage, Tobias said to Sarah, “You and
I must pray and petition our Lord to win his grace and protection.” They began to praying for protection, and this
was how he began:
“You
are blessed, O God of our fathers;
blessed
too, is your name
for
ever and ever.
Let
the heavens bless you
and
all things you have made
for
evermore.
It
was you who created Adam,
you
who created Eve his wife
to
be his help and support;
and
from these two the human race was born.
It
was you who said,
“It
is not good that the man should be alone;
let
us make him a helpmate like himself.”
And
so I do not take my sister
for
any lustful motive;
I
do it in singleness of heart.
Be
kind enough to have pity on her and on me
and
bring us to old age together.”
And together they said, “Amen, Amen”.
This is the word of God.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD SIX
SONG
OF SONGS 2:8-10,14,16, 8:6-7.
LOVE
NO FLOOD CAN QUENCH.
A reading from the Song of
Songs.
I hear my Beloved.
See how she comes
leaping on the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My Beloved is like a gazelle,
like a young stag.
See where he stands
behind our wall.
He looks in at the window,
he peers through the lattice.
My Beloved lifts up his voice,
he says to me,
“Come then, my love,
my lovely one, come.
My dove, hiding in the clefts of
the rock.
In the coverts of the cliff,
show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet
and your face is beautiful.”
My beloved is mine and I am his.
Set me like a seal on your
heart,
like a seal on your arm.
For love is strong as Death
jealousy relentless as Sheol.
The flash of it is a flash of
fire,
a flame of the Lord himself.
Love no flood can quench,
no torrents drown.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD SEVEN
ECCLESIASTICUS
26:1-4. 13-16.
THEY
WILL BE GLAD OF HEART.
A reading from the book of Ecclesiasticus.
Happy the husband of a really
good wife;
the number of his days will be
doubled.
A perfect wife is the joy of her
husband,
he will live out the years of
his life in peace.
A good wife is the best of
portions,
reserved for those who fear the
Lord;
rich or poor, they will be glad
at heart;
cheerful of face, whatever the
season.
The grace of a wife will charm
her husband,
her accomplishments will make
him stronger.
A silent wife is a gift from the
Lord,
no price can be put on a
well-trained character.
A modest wife is a boon twice
over,
a chaste character cannot be
weighed on scales.
Like the sun rising over the
mountains of the Lord
is the beauty of a good wife in
a well-kept house.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD EIGHT
JEREMIAH
31:31-34.
I
WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT.
A reading from the prophet
Jeremiah.
“See, the days are coming” - it
is the Lord who speaks - “when I will make a new covenant with the House of
Israel and the House of Judah, but not a covenant like the one I made with
their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt. No, this is the covenant
I will make with the House of Israel when those days arrive - it is the Lord
who speaks. Deep within them I will
plant my Law, writing it on their hearts.
Then I will be their God and they shall be my people. There will be no further need for neighbour
to try to teach neighbour, or brother to say to brother, “Learn to know the Lord!” No, they will all know me, the least no less
than the greatest” - it is the Lord who speaks.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
GOLD NINE
REVELATION
19:1. 5-9.
LET
US BE GLAD AND JOYFUL.
A reading from the book of
Revelation.
I, John, seemed to hear the
great sound of a huge crowd in heaven, singing,
“Alleluia! Victory and glory and
power to our God!”