Sample Wedding Vows
| Looking for your wedding vows – those special words that will marry you? Here is an assortment of traditional and non-traditional, religious and secular wedding vows to get you started. If you are getting married in a religious setting, check with your officiant as she/he may have specific words that you cannot deviate from. Otherwise, feel free to add your own embellishments, loving words, funny promises (I promise to always make your favorite apple pie!) and inside jokes.
I, (Bride/Groom), take you (Groom/Bride), to be my (wife/husband), to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; from this day forward until death do us part. I, (name), take you, (name), to be my [opt: lawfully wedded] (husband/wife), my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live. I (name), take you (name) to be my (husband/wife), my partner in life and my one true love. I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before. I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through good times and bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together. I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live. In the presence of God and these our friends I take thee to be my husband/wife, promising with Divine assistance to be unto thee a loving and faithful husband/wife so long as we both shall live. I, (name), take you, (name), to be my friend, my lover, the (mother/father) of my children and my (husband/wife). I will be yours in times of plenty and in times of want, in times of sickness and in times of health, in times of joy and in times of sorrow, in times of failure and in times of triumph. I promise to cherish and respect you, to care and protect you, to comfort and encourage you, and stay with you, for all eternity. I, [name], choose you [name] to be my [husband/wife], to respect you in your successes and in your failures, to care for you in sickness and in health, to nurture you, and to grow with you throughout the seasons of life. I, (name), take you, (name), to be my partner, loving what I know of you, and trusting what I do not yet know. I eagerly anticipate the chance to grow together, getting to know the (man/woman) you will become, and falling in love a little more every day. I promise to love and cherish you through whatever life may bring us. After both have said individual vows, they may wish to say something in unison such as: Entreat me not to leave you, or to return from following after you, For where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do with me and more if anything but death parts you from me. ********************
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Spiritual Leadership
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Spiritual Awakening
Christian Ethics
Myrna L. Durr
Dr. of Christian Ethics
Lessons XI & XII
1. Define Caritas & Cupitas
A. As used in Lesson XI and defined by Augustine, the definition of Caritas is man’s love of God. The Latin translation would be a reference to charity, virtue, or love for all.
B. Lesson IX refers to Cupitas as the love of the world. The Latin reference is to desired.
2. Knudson’s view on the disjunction of agape and eros is a false abstraction.
A. Knudson states that to exclude self-love and duties to self are non-Christian and to limit Christian love unmotivated towards others would be to create an abstract Christian ethic and fall into sentimental immoralist.
3. Text for “to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” is found in: Eph. 4-16.
4. To the Christian, the ultimate source of strength is God, who’s will is the final standard of what is good.
5. The statement: “within the immediacy of interpersonal relations lies mans greatest capacity for self giving love and his worst temptations to love” is True.
6. “Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” is found in I Cor: 10-12 in the Bible.
7. Four things that moral dullness may be the result of are:
A. Ignorance
B. Willful moral blindness
C. Unconscious self -deception
D. A mixture of the three above
8. “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”, is found in Romans 12:2 in the Bible.
9. Three types of Christian actions open to us in challenging and changing the gigantic structure of social evil and social sin that infests our world are as follows:
A. Social Service=Projection of Christian love through sympathy and compassion and responding to human need.
B. Social Education=Understanding social issues that may negatively effect society. Through education and speaking truth in love can have a positive outcome on social action.
C. Political and economic= Combining coercion with love may result in justice but must be spearheaded by love, it must not be just the seeking of justice.
10. The force that is relevant to every situation is LOVE.
My Master of Metaphysics Essay By Rev. Armando U. Arbolay
From the moment we are born, our minds begin a journey. It is a spiritual journey. I believe that. This course has helped me focus on that a little better. In this life journey there is so much negativity. We have things to learn, things to get rid of, things to fix. To be able to forgive, and to be able to let go of hate and anger, are some of of the most important lessons in my life and I have been working on it hard. And it has transformed me, into a better man. I have learned to be more connected with myself and with mother earth, and with the universe. The universe is fully alive and filled with energy, ans so is the earth. And I have opened my eyes and my mind to that energy. Hate and anger are energies that drag me down, it is something that destroys minds and spirits. Cosmic energy is like a cure for the spirit, the mind and the body. I have learned how to protect myself from the negativity that other people spread around (the roses and the suns). So much jealousy, so much competition. But I know that we have the ability to let all of that pass by and not affect us. Through meditation, through forgiveness, kindness and compassion we can overcome the hate and the negativity.
We come to this life, we are born, to learn. And there are so many lessons to learn. Many opportunities to grow. Situations with family and friends and even co-workers can be chances to grow spiritually. I agree that we have a choice to accept the teachings and to learn, or to dismiss them and not learn anything. I choose to grow and to learn. I agree that we are able to change our thoughts, and move in a new direction away from the negative. It is our choice. Just as it is our choice to get closer to God, or move away from him. I choose to get closer. I choose to think and speak positive, and it does work! Speaking gently and in a positive way, I get better reactions from people, and get more things done. Changing our belief system works. For many years I lived my life taking things too seriously, mostly at work. Now thinking back, I would have done it a bit differently; a bit loose and a bit happier maybe. I was an english instructor years ago, and i still remember 2 other instructors saying hello to me, and because I was in that state of mind, I didn’t answer back. I even noticed their reaction, they probably thought I was a stuck up, or that i was arrogant. I didn’t mean to be that way, but it came our that way. Nothing I can do about that, except to be a more humble person, be more loving and I have been. I have been becoming more aware of th real me, the spiritual me. I was not aware that the spirit communicates in numbers and colors and music. So from now on that is something I will pay much more attention to.
Another chapter I liked is the one on telepathy. I believe I have experienced it. The times that i have thought of someone and that person has called. The many times that words are not necessary, me and someone else, like my brother for example, sometimes we look at each other and we already know what we are saying to each other. And this has happened many times with other people as well. I also agree that it is important to ask the right questions, because the result may not exactly be what we really want. I think on each question we have to include a bit of love and kindness in it, whatever the question is. If we ask questions in anger or passion, we might not get the right response. We must be clear, and gentle, and patient. I hope I am able to see in my daily life, the chances that appear in front of me, to do some good. I want good karma, I want to be a clean and good spirit.
I liked the chapter on dreams. I believe we do get out of our bodies during sleep, we get to experience life in another dimension. Some dreams can be strange but life is strange sometimes. I also liked the chapter on reincarnation. I believe in it. We come to this earth to learn, to become stronger and better spirits, and to go back to the light of God. I agree that as we age, we have a clearer mind (most of us) and we are able to understand this concept better. Life has become more beautiful for me, even with all the violence and ignorance that goes around lately. And I say lately because it was not like this years ago. It feels like there are two extremes; violence seems to be taking over more people, and more people are looking into the spiritual world at the same time. Time is another important subject. For a long time, I have been trying to hold on to some aspects of my past. But for a while now, I have started to let go. Obviously some things of the past are good for us, the values our parents taught us for example. Some other bad habits like smoking (I smoked for 16 years) can stay in the past. The way i look at my life now, is certainly with my mind in the present and in the future. I am living a better life now, and I am happy for it. I hope I can continue to learn, become more spiritual every day. I know that I am.
Biblical Egyptology
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Week two
What arises out of this week’s reading is not necessarily the xenophobia, or the religious/national wars as explained. Rather I would like to zero in on the list of `Deities’. As you explore the Egyptian Pantheon, similar patterns emerge, an omnipotent deity, virgin birth, sun/son imagery, a fallen/darker god that is a tempter. Within these religious systems similar patterns are found emergent in the Judeo-Christian-Islamic world, but also within indigenous religions. As noted in other writings where universal stories and patterns emerge (the flood, creation, origin of language and diversity, etc)…we are noting the rise and fall of different systems of thought, belief, that eventually grows into a system of polarity. This shows the circularness of history, but also the eternal truths that speak through the many different wells that the Holy Mystery manifests itself to humanity throughout the ages.
Shalom, Ty Ragan, DD, PhD., Psy.D. A Robin Hood’s Musings (http://www.tyragan.wordpress.com) |