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What about something from Song of Solomon? The entire book is full of beautiful nature and love imagery.
Quick google Search: Song of Solomon 9:6-7
Place me like a seal over yor heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyeilding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all welath of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Here's another one:
Song of Solomon 2:10-13
My beloved responded and said to me,
'Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along.
'For behold, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone.
'The flowers have already appeared in the land;
The time has arrived for pruning the vines,
And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land.
'The fig tree has ripened its figs,
And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance.
Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
And come along!'
oooh I like those! I am dealing with the unique readings conundrum as well, and always love seeing everyone's suggestions!
I have also always liked 1 Corinthians 13:4-13. It's traditional, but doesn't have that more submissive language in it. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+13&version=NIV
Have you talked to your church yet? I had readings picked out that I liked. Then when we talked to the deacon, he gave us a list of acceptable readings that we have to choose from. Mine were not among them, so we were back to square one. So when you say non-traditional, that might not fly with your church.
I really like the Adam and Eve bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh reading. It reminds me of that saying, "God made Eve from Adam's rib so they could stand side by side." :)
I was going to suggest something from Song of Solomon as well - so many pretty verses there :)
Our first reading is from the book of Ruth. "Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God."
I absolutely love it. It's a bit more obscure because it's actually Ruth talking to Naomi, not her spouse. Check out foryourmarriage.org for lots of Catholic reading options.
You guys are GREAT!! Thanks so much! I will definitely be looking into all of these! : )
I was also going to suggest the Ruth reading; it wasn't even in the booklet of suggestions they gave us, but I saw it on the bee and knew that we would use it!
@AprilJo2011: The readings in Together for Life are just suggestions. Any passage in the appropriate part of the Bible can be used for the OT, NT, or Gospel reading. The only reason they have suggestions in Together for Life is to make your preparation easier by suggesting what the author of Together of Life feels are the most appropriate passages for a wedding.
I hear you:) In my brother's wedding many non-catholic (female) guests that attended the mass got offended by the readings so we were really careful this time. For the first reading these 3 were on my list of options:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Song of Songs 8:6-7
Place me like a seal over your heart,
like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death,
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
It burns like blazing fire,
like a mighty flame.
Many waters cannot quench love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If one were to give
all the wealth of one’s house for love,
it would be utterly scorned.
Genesis 2:18-24
The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
So the Lord God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
This one shall be called ‘woman,’
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one body.
@CatholicBee: I have never seen "Together for Life". We have our parish's own wedding planning booklet. Not marriage prep, just plain old "these are the times when your florist may deliver the flowers" kind of stuff. And a planning sheet to be filled out and to give them at the rehearsal. The booklet has the readings numbered as OT-1, OT-2, etc. And the planning sheet specifically says to use those numbers when we fill in what readings we chose. They even have a shorter and a longer version of the same reading (Ephesians 5:2; NT-6a and NT-6b, respectively). We had to choose the psalm in a similar way, with the organist reading to us what we could choose from. They also told us straight out that they tell all brides they will say no to most requests and won't budge.
We had a hard time picking the readings, because many are variations of "Wife, go in the kitchen and make your husband a sandwich!" or just forever long. So we picked Proverbs 31:10, although we're not crazy about it, and Hebrews 13:2, which is nice. I would have loved Ecclesiastes 4:9!
@AprilJo2011: They took those passages and number from Together for Life, which is a small booklet that most churches hand out to couples to plan their wedding: https://www.avemariapress.com/product/0-87793-616-1/Together-for-Life/
Talk to your priest. You are allowed to choose a reading outside of the list given to you.
@CatholicBee: UPDATE We talked to our priest. We asked if we could do Ecclesiastes 4:9 and he said NO! We MUST choose from the booklet he gave us. We can shorten any of the readings listed if we want, but we are NOT allowed to use readings outside of those in the booklet.
@AprilJo2011: Wow! That's his personal decision and certainly not a Church rule. I selected Ecclesiastes 4:9 for my wedding. Sorry he's being so difficult :(
I was really hopeful after I read all the postings here. But our parish is pretty big and they really treat you like just another chore in their daily business. They just want to get us in and out as quickly as possible, and everything is very cookie cutter. We also had just one one-on-one meeting with the deacon, and we never did the FOCCUS either. :-(
Since we can shorten the readings, I am tempted to do:
A reading from the Proverbs:
Blessed is the husband of a good wife.
The Word of the Lord.
JK
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Hey Bees, I need some help. My fiance and I are getting married in a Catholic church. We were both born and raised Catholic but haven't been that stead-fast in our faith as we do disagree with the church on several issues.
Regardless, our families are all Catholic, as are we, hence the reason we are getting married in a church. I would love some help with choosing our readings. I would like unique bible passages that don't suggest women being submissive etc. I'd like readings that talk about love and nature. Does that make sense?
If any of you non-traditional Catholic brides can help me out I'd SOOO appreciate it! Thanks in advance!