As you know, some weeks are more
interesting than others – and for me, the week beginning on the 18th was one of those weeks. . .
On Sunday, I did a baby blessing
for Don and Leslie (all names changed). I officiated their wedding seven years ago.
They both had been raised Catholic but are not regular church goers and so they
didn’t want a formal baptism. Their
Catholic roots, though, tugged at them – they wanted to do something to welcome
and celebrate little Brett’s arrival in this world, in their family.
And so we had a blessing with
family and close friends – people I first met seven years ago on another day of
blessing. It was all so simple and so
poignant. Leslie read a quote I had used
at their wedding:
“A
wise woman of old once wrote that, ‘It is the quality of life that matters
most. The taste of the food on the
table; the light in the room; the peace and wholeness of the moment. Perfect love casts out fear and the only
perfect form of love found on earth is the wordless commitment of family.’”
Into such a world we welcomed
Brett.
On Tuesday I was on line at a
Starbucks in Glendale. I was checking
email when a man tapped me on the shoulder.
He was smiling, “JP, you probably don’t remember me, but I’m Fred and
you married me and my wife Rosanna almost ten years ago.” I did remember them and I was so happy to
reunite. Fred went on, “We still smile
when we think on our ceremony and I just want you to know that I’m probably
more in love with Rosanna than I’ve ever been.”
Starbucks was never so good. . .
On Thursday afternoon I went to the
Pasadena home of Mark and Terry. They’re
both at an age when AARP regularly sends them materials and because they’ve
been together many years they’ve decided it’s time to marry and legally protect
their life together. BUT, they really do
want a big wedding celebration – later in the year, though. And so they decided to have a “secret
wedding” with just two close friends. It
was held in Terry’s home, which had belonged to her grandmother.
Warm. Cozy.
Intimate. It was a lovely way to
spend a weekday afternoon!
And then on Saturday I was off to
Orange County to officiate the wedding of RJ and Alice, who were more than half
the age of Mark and Terry. Over 200
friends and family came to cheer them on in their commitment.
Maybe it’s because their wedding
culminated for me a week of special moments, I found myself especially moved as
they offered their vows to each other.
There is so much hoopla surrounding
a wedding, as well there should be. But what
this ceremony-packed week showed me, reminded me, is that a wedding celebrates
a couple’s commitment to honor and relish and live the ordinary routine of
daily life.
WHAT do they all this week’s
moments have in common? I think it can
be summed up in this quote from the movie, “Shall We Dance?”
“We
need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet… I mean,
what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care
about everything. You're saying, 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I
will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your
witness.’”
That’s what all these couples were
doing – bearing witness to each other’s lives.
And I couldn’t be happier or more honored that they invited me to share the
celebrating of that witnessing!
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