Marriage.

My first Easter break was tremendously packed, as I expected it to be. On top of Holy Week and all the wonderful Easter celebrations, my friends got married. His fiancée having just been baptised and confirmed into the Church this Easter, had the great privilege of receiving four sacraments over the Easter octave! WOW.

Anyway, the whole event allowed me the opportunity to the reflect on the rite of Holy Matrimony in the Extraördinary Form. From my  missal:

I, N., take thee, N., to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love, and to cherish, till death do us part; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

I, N., take thee, N., to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health, to love, cherish, and obey*, till death do us part; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

*biblically and theologically correct ;)

I love that last phrase, 'plight thee my troth'. Of course, plight here takes the verb, which means to pledge, and troth means truth and fidelity and loyalty. Though that said, to love is to suffer, and to be married, to deny oneself for one's spouse, marriage would be a plight, though a good one, no?

On a lighter note, I think my future fiancée and I are gonna end up fighting a lot when we plan our wedding. For sho'. This is what happens when you are a tad...okay...a huge liturgical geek. I foresee,

'No sweetheart, we can't have spirit wings! It's a hideous song, besides, it's not liturgical and it sounds horrid on organ. What about some Victoria?'

'But no one can understand Latin!'
'It doesn't matter, only the Mass is in Latin, they don't need to understand that. Adds to the mystery and the priest is really praying to God anyway. It won't be too silent, there'll be Josquin des Prez!'

'What's wrong with Marty Haugen....?'

'Dear, your programme draft seems to have huge boxes saying, 'please do not applaud, you are in a sacred space' on every page. That's a bit excessive isn't it?'

Actually I want Mozart at my wedding, but I'm not important enough.

I jest. I probably won't be getting married anyway, seeing how things are going. Oh well. Here's a nice video on chastity and fidelity before marriage.