A wedding and a princess

Did you watch the Royal Wedding? Did you see that lovely dress?? In case you didn’t, please take a look at this:

The bride was nothing short of stunning. (As I have stated several times today- I’d like to get married again just so I could wear that dress!) Later today I actually read an article stating that Kate Middleton’s choice of a modest gown, could go a very long way in quite possibly stemming the recent trend in highly immodest clothing being worn by both mothers and daughters.

This morning I sat with Max and watched the wedding. I had it recorded on the TV as I was not interested in getting up at 2am to watch it live. And the whole time Max was fascinated and kept telling me that I was the princess and I used to live in a castle and that he liked when I was a princess and I got married too. Then he asked me if he could give me a princess hug. Love his little heart, I could tell that he honestly believed that I was a princess and I love him for it.

It was a beautiful service and as I watched Prince William and Princess Catherine and all the adoring crowds screaming and yelling for them- it seemed to me that the couple really looked like they viewed each other as equals and that they were in love and that they truly like each other- and I was so happy for them. And I thought, “I think that I really must be Ernie’s princess because I feel just as happy and content as I think Kate feels right now and she just married the man who is the future king of England.” I wouldn’t trade places with her for anything in the whole world.

My favorite part of the wedding- and there were many things that I liked (especially the choir music)- was the sermon given by the Bishop of London. It was simple and well stated and it was true doctrine. I liked it so much that it bears repeating and I am including it here:

“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day it is today. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.

Many are full of fear for the future of the prospects of our world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in these celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope. 

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and the groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today – “I will” – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

“Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,

Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon.”

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that all of us present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today, will do everything in our power to support and uphold you in your new life. And I pray that God will bless you in the way of life that you have chosen, that way which is expressed in the prayer that you have composed together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.

In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.

Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.