Celebrating

 Christina's wedding was fabulous!  It lasted five days!!!!!  The first day was a dinner to meet everyone.  After all, people came from across the globe. The wedding was in California.  The groom and myself live in Massachusetts.  The bride's mother was Austrian.  So, everyone got together for appetifs at a restaurant, then to the bride's father's house for food and snaps.  The next day was the wedding rehearsal, followed by dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant.  Finally--the big day.  The wedding was a nuptial Mass.  It was beautiful.  After the Mass, Christina took a bouquet and placed it at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  They said it was an old Catholic custom.

Following the wedding was a reception on a cruise ship.  While the revelry went on, the ship cruised Newport Harbor.  What a fantastic experience!

My!  I know I'm using a lot of exclamatory statements, but how else to describe this event?  Lastly, the next morning was a brunch, at a restaurant.  

May God bless this marriage of Christina & Ian.

The Power of Love

 This is my niece's pick for a reading for her nuptial Mass.  To better understand and read it, I'm doing a Lection Divina on it.

LECTIO:    Songs of songs   2: 8-10, 14-16: 8: 6-7

STUDIUM:

This is a narrative poem about the love between a young maiden and her lover.  Metaphorically, it can be the love God has for His Church.  

MEDITATIO:

This Reading begins with the lover rushing to find his beloved.  Sometimes, I can't wait to get to my prayer time to be with God.  I do feel like this Lover, rushing like a gazelle.  And God is waiting for me.  I begin with "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  This sign of the Cross is blazed on my body , like a blazing fire and water cannot wash it away.

ORATIO:

Thank you Jesus, for loving me.

CONTEMPLATIO:

Love is stronger than death.  I accept the love of God and strive to make my love for Him a reflection of perfect love.

Wedding Invitations

Have you ever given a party and no one came?  I have.  And so I sympathize with the host of the wedding banquet in Matt. 22: 1-14.  It's incomprehensible how people don't RSVP.  The first invited guests in Matthew's Gospel do respond negatively.  Their excuses were poor and insulting.  Then the hosts try again and the invitees kill the messengers!

The host reciprocated in kind.

So others were invited and enjoyed the feast.  There is one however, who wasn't dressed properly.  Not only that, he gave no reason for not being prepared.

Are you ready for heaven?  Or will you be unprepared?  You are invited.

R.S.V.P.

Wedding Jitters

I'm not nervous. In fact I had the best sleep, last night, than I've had all week. But not so the bride. I called her this morning to find out the address of the hair salon we're going to. She said she had to look it up on her computer.

While we were waiting for her computer to warm up, jump through its hoops, etc., we chatted. We talked about "sleep," jewelry, and how she wasn't nervous at all, then she said, "Well, bye, see you tonight."

"Wait, WAIT!" I said. "You never gave me the address you're looking up."

"Oh yeah...."

And she said she didn't have the jitters.

Three More Days

There's an old Buddy Holly song that goes, "It's a gettin closer, goin faster than a roller coaster.."

The wedding is only THREE days away! Yikes! I think we're all ready. I've just finished making cranberry muffins for the welcome bags (something new, which I still don't get...oh, well) and ramen noodle salad. Tomorrow I'll make the potato salad for the rehersal dinner. Then that's it. I just have to get myself and hubby there.

The readings are speacial, I think: Tobit 8: 4b-8 and Hebrews 13:1-4a, 5-6b. I hope people are listening and are moved. I hope the wedding couple find meaning in them.

I also pray that the priest is kind and compassionate and makes everyone, (all my religion impaired relatives) feel good about the sacrament of marriage and the Eucharist, and feel the urge to go to church more often. This I pray.