I guess the day will come when officiating at weddings will be more commonplace for me. Geez I really don't hope so. Every wedding that I have had the honor to officiate at has been a blessed moment in my ministry and holds fond memories.
Today I officiated at the wedding of Ashley and Billy at one of the grand Northshore churches, St. Peter's in Covington, La. I met the couple many months ago and knew this would be a special case. You see Billy is active U.S. Navy and assigned to Norfolk, Va. And a few months ago Ashley found a job up there too. Since Billy is active in defending our country I knew there had to be a way to complete the required steps of marriage prep and lo and behold, with the help of a veteran deacon, I found it. An approved online course that requires plenty of reading, reporting and follow up with a mentor couple. Awesome!
Of course I had completed the initial prep and knew the groom personally since about the 5th grade and his family over the past dozen or so years. And here we were; arriving today at the wedding day. As is always the case the bride was stunning, the groom happy and the ceremony was beautiful. Again, this couple provided me an opportunity to preach on St. Paul's awesome description of love from 1st Corinthians. I love personalizing that passage with the names of the bride & groom where St. Paul used the word "love".
After the homily, vows and exchanging of rings and the blessings, the new couple walked out of St. Peter's as husband and wife. And just as I have done to date with the other weddings I've officiated at, I pray for the new couple; grateful that they chose sacramental marriage, and joyful and hopeful that their love will endure, with the help of Christ, through the years.
Ad multos annos Ashley & Billy!
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