to the index THE SACRED READINGS ARCHIVESubject: Scriptures Read at Weddings Tansen-Muni, Camarillo, CA Great Mother: (From "Song of Songs" as printed in Women in Praise of the Sacred) Come my beloved, let us go out into the fields and sleep all night among the flowering henna. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossoms have opened and the pomegranate is in flower. There I will give you my love. The air is filled with the scent of mandrakes and at our doors rich gifts of every kind, new and old, my love, I have hidden away for you. (Light of the divine Love)
Hindu: (Yogananda) "Breathe in me the way to love
you, that I may learn to faultlessly love You.
(Light of divine Wisdom) Hindu: (From the "Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad") It is not for the love of a
husband that a husband is dear -
(Light of divine Wisdom)
Buddhist: (From "The Gospel of Buddha" by Paul Carus) "The greatest happiness which a mortal man and woman can imagine is the bond of marriage that ties together two loving hearts. But there is a greater happiness still: it is the embrace of truth. Death will separate husband and wife, but death will never affect one who has espoused the truth." "Therefore be married unto the truth and live with the truth in holy wedlock. The husband who loves his wife and desires for a union that shall be everlasting must be faithful to her so as to be like truth itself, and she will rely upon him and revere him and minister unto him. And the wife who loves her husband and desires a union that shall be everlasting must be faithful to him so as to be like truth itself, and he will place his trust in her, he will provide for her. Verily, I say unto you, their children will become like unto their parents and will bear witness to their happiness." (Light of divine Compassion)
Zoroastrian: (From "The Divine Songs of Zarathushtra" by D. J. Irani) These words do I address to
you, maidens marrying,
(Light of divine Purity)
Native Peoples of the World: (Native American Wedding Song from Earth Prayers) Now you will feel no rain, for
each of you will be shelter for the other.
(Light of divine Dignity)
Jewish: (From the "Song of Songs: 2:10") "My beloved spoke, and said
unto me: 'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
(Light of divine Covenent)
Christian: ("1 Corinthians 13:4-13") "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecy, it will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (Light of divine Self-sacrifice)
Islam: (From the "Koran: Chapter, The Women") O ye mankind!
Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan: ("Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan") Is LOVE pleasure, is love merriment?
No, love is longing constantly;
Love that ends, is the shadow
of love; true love is without beginning or end.
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