"I DO!"

                                               "I Do!"

The following are the marriage rites. I took this from the site http://www.catholicweddinghelp.com/topics/text-rite-of-marriage-mass.htm

For purposes of this blog, I will write in our names.

Rite of Marriage

All stand, including the bride and bridegroom, and the priest addresses the couple and the guests in these words:

My dear friends, you have come together in this church so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church’s minister and this community. Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions. 

The priest then questions them about their freedom of choice, faithfulness to each other, and the acceptance and upbringing of children.

Dong and Nikka, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?

Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?

The following question may be omitted if, for example, the couple is advanced in years.

Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?

Each answers the questions separately.

Consent

The priest invites the couple to declare their consent.

They join hands.

First the priest asks the bridegroom:

Dong, do you take Nikka for your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?

The bridegroom: I do.

Then he asks the bride:

Nikka, do you take Dong for your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?

The bride: I do.

Receiving their consent, the priest says:

You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. 

                  What God has joined, men must not divide.

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I wonder how many of us couples who got married in church really, from the depths of our hearts took seriously our wedding vows?

Sharing Before Loved Ones my Faith Experiences

I reiterate:  We promised before God and man that we would have and hold our beloved husband
for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do we part...

and yet, it seems that when the going gets tough, we simply give up! Didn't we VOW just the opposite? Let us remember that in Matthew 5:37 it states:

Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than this comes from the evil one.

Mateo 5:37 

Datapuwa't ang magiging pananalita ninyo'y, Oo, oo; Hindi, hindi; sapagka't ang humigit pa rito ay buhat sa masama. 

For those of us undergoing difficult trials in marriage at the moment, let us remember that before God and before Man, we said "I DO." Umoo tayo. We said YES to 

• loving
• cherishing
• understanding

our husbands, regardless of what and who they become after the wedding.

It is my prayer that we remember and relive our marriage vows. Not upholding them is actually a sin.

Ecclesiastes 5:4

When you make a promise to God, don't be slow to keep it because God doesn't like fools. Keep your promise. 

Eclesiastes 5:4

Pagka ikaw ay nananata ng panata sa Dios, huwag kang magliban ng pagtupad; sapagka't siya'y walang kaligayahan sa mga mangmang: tuparin mo ang iyong ipinanata.

    Our "I DO!" to our husbands is also our "I DO" to God.

Let us be DOERS then of all that is good, beautiful and true. May God richly bless us all. :)