Come together,
Ideally with your partner,
But you can also come alone.
Arrive,
Just as you are in this moment.
Inside of your heart,
Something's inspired you to come together.
You've been put together and brought into union and reminded time and again to the commitment of marriage that sounds so blissful on our wedding day and then it begins to tug at us as we live in union and we commit again and again to love.
Love is patient and kind.
Love does not envy or boast.
It is not arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable or resentful.
It does not rejoice at wrongdoing,
But rejoices with truth.
Love bears all things,
Believes all things,
Hopes all things,
Endures all things.
From 1 Corinthians 13,
4-7.
Notice how those verses came into the sanctuary of your heart as a prayer or drizzled over you in shame,
Remorse,
Or regret.
Love is an act of will.
Love is not an emotion.
Our love and our marriage are full of emotion,
Sadness,
Grief,
Suffering,
Joy,
Bliss,
But love endures when we willfully plant it into our lives,
Into our marriage.
And so as you come here together,
Possibly your hands touch softly and if you're not together,
Allow your right hand to turn up and your left to turn down.
Softly the left hand exhales and visualize that moving to your partner and your right hand receiving,
Breathing in the willfulness to love despite the challenges and demands of our daily lives,
The busyness that we each can become enthralled in.
We are human.
You are human.
You have come together,
Two of you,
And you have become one.
As your breath flows between you,
Allow it to become one breath,
Merging and flowing,
Receiving and giving,
Inhaling together and exhaling together.
Allow this breath to move between you,
To surround you and run through you.
Continue to breathe together as one.
I'm going to recite a prayer that my husband and I wrote to bless our marriage and to come to again and again,
To live and treat one another with dignity,
Respect,
To honor one another,
To be faithful and truthful and to trust that we have the strength to endure all things and that together as one,
We are stronger,
But that is,
This is an intentional and willful choice to remain one,
United in love.
As I pray over you,
I will repeat the prayer two times,
Once,
Just receive,
And the next time I'll leave a little space and maybe you can recite the words silently or aloud.
If you feel moved to embrace one another,
To bring a hand to your heart or to your partners,
Please do so.
Let the spirit of love and the spirit of the Lord move through you and guide you.
If you find yourself distracted and your mind wandering,
It is not a failure,
It is being human.
If you find your heart longing or doubting,
It is being a human,
But let prayer ground you and let there be time,
If I can offer you wisdom,
Let there be time each day to come together,
To just sit in silence and breathe with one another,
To pray with one another and to make a commitment to love one another.
Heavenly Mother,
Protect and bless our marriage and guide us each day.
Dear God,
May we remain committed to grow together,
To do your will as a couple and individually.
Help us,
Lord,
To cultivate a relationship marked by selflessness,
Trust and faith in your purpose for us.
May we always treat one another with respect and dignity,
Remembering that to love one another is a willful act and a commitment to each other.
We ask you to protect our marriage and keep us faithful to one another and your purpose.
As we learn to do the work you intend for us,
Please grant us the wisdom to join together daily in love and in our decision-making,
To come together daily,
Offering time to build our strong,
Safe foundation and to provide sanctuary between us where you reside and you are at the center of our union.
May we love,
Honor and respect one another,
Always trusting your presence in our life.
In the name of Jesus we pray,
Amen.
Heavenly Mother,
Protect and bless our marriage.
Dear God,
May we remain committed to one another.
May we grow together and do your will as a couple and as individuals.
Help us to cultivate a relationship marked by selflessness,
Trust and faith in your purpose for us.
May we have faith and trust your purposefulness in placing us together,
Your purpose for us.
May we always treat one another with respect.
May we always treat one another with dignity.
May we always remember that to love one another is a willful act.
To love one another is a commitment to each other.
May we remember that.
We ask you to protect our marriage,
Lord.
Please keep us faithful to one another.
Please let us live your purpose as we learn to do the work you have intended for us.
Please grant us the wisdom to join together daily in love and in making decisions.
Please remind us to make time to build our strong,
Safe foundation.
May we love,
Honor and respect one another,
Always trusting your presence in our life.
May we love,
May we honor and may we respect,
Always trusting your presence in our life.
In the name of Jesus we pray,
Amen.
May you sit together in silence,
May you hold one another's hearts when you're together and may you hold one another in your heart when you're apart.
Each day,
Showing up willfully committed to love and bringing prayer and bringing daily commitment that you made on your wedding day into the ways that you show up in the world and into your union.
Know that I'm praying for you and with you.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
In the name of the Blessed Mother,
May she guide us and bring her wisdom as wife and mother and her commitment to us as our Holy Mother to our marriage.
And may the wisdom of the Father also be present,
The wisdom of the masculine to honor and to protect.
May you find sanctuary within the hearts of each other,
Amen.
