大象传媒

Good morning. Seeing the Rolling Stones perform in Ballymena - the principal rural town of Co. Antrim in Northern Ireland - in the mid Sixties, made my parents confirmed fans; their music formed the sound track to so much of my childhood - especially family parties; and, perhaps because of this, the wedding of Mick Jagger and Bianca Perez-Mora Macias on this day in 1971 registered in our home perhaps more significantly than weightier world events.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I could have had no idea then, that presiding at weddings would become for me, a frequent and frequently delightful duty of ministry.

The anniversary of Mick and Bianca's nuptials recalls how for me no wedding seems the same - despite the formal architecture of vows and prayers required by the liturgy. Within those boundaries, somehow whoever they are, the persons, their expansive, brave hearts, their courage - always touch me with a radiance that is uplifting and never fades however many times I accompany other people at the frayed edge of marriage breakdown as happened to the Jaggers.

I've wondered how it should be that the forswearing of marriage I have made as a priest in imitation of Jesus' celibacy - at least for me - feels enhanced by the beauty of the commitment I am witnessing at every wedding?

Maybe it's because both are acts of defiance at the start of a great adventure where there is no ultimate certainty?

Last week, I heard a father express his admiration of his son and daughter in law: when you commit your lives to each other in trust, you are taking each other by the hand, he said, and God by the hand. You are never alone.

Father, who made the marriage commitment a symbol of your love for the Church, give strong hearts to all who are married or will be; strengthen their commitment even in adversity; take by the hands and guide all those you have joined in love. Amen.