Love is not boring, love does not use cliches.

February 15, 2008 2:05 PM

Help me find non-traditional bible readings for my Catholic wedding.

We're having a Catholic ceremony, and I've been tasked with picking out the readings. However, the suggested options suck, and it doesn't seem like I can pick any secular readings (like poetry or non-religious prose). All the listed options are either very cliched (Love is kind... blah blah blah) or don't say anything terribly interesting. Can you help me choose a new testament reading and a gospel reading that are interesting, moving, and have beautiful imagery?

Let me give you an example of what I'm looking for.

I chose the following reading for our old testament choice:

Hark! my lover - here he comes
springing across the mountains,
leaping across hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!"

"O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely.

My lover belongs to me and I to him.
He says to me:

"Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
for stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether-world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away."

I love the imagery here, and that's what I'm looking for in a new testament reading as well as a gospel passage. The only requirement is that these readings must be available in the Catholic bible, and that the gospel reading must come from one of the four gospels.

posted by santojulieta to religion & philosophy (14 comments total)

Do you need to use a particular version/translation?
posted by Greg Nog at 2:15 PM on February 15, 2008

How long of a passage are you looking for? The New Testament doesn't contain nearly as much poetry as the Old Testament does.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:20 PM on February 15, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Greg: The only stipulation is that it must be available in the Catholic bible. (No King James, young woman's bible, etc.)

Pink: There aren't any length requirements as far as I know. Outside of the fact that it must come from the new testament or one of the four gospels, there are no other requirements.
posted by santojulieta at 3:23 PM on February 15, 2008

There isn't anything quite like Song of Songs in the New Testament. You've got the Gospels, which include a lot of parables about prodigal sons and sheep and the end times (but not marriage so much), and then you've got the letters which are mostly concerned with theology of the new covenant, and then Revelation, which is weird.

You could jump past the divorce bits in this: Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?" He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate." (Matthew 19:3-6, New American Bible).

There may be some appropriate passages talking about husbands and wives as a metaphor for Christ and the church, but other than that, I think the Corinthians "love is patient, love is kind" passage is as good as you'll get in the letters.
posted by heatherann at 3:28 PM on February 15, 2008

This, for example, is what to expect from Paul (the bulk of the NT outside of the Gospels):

Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

"For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself, and the wife should respect her husband.

(Ephesians 5:22-33, New American Bible)
posted by heatherann at 3:37 PM on February 15, 2008

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So (also) husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

I think this passage is really cool, myself. Wish IT would get preached more. ;-)

Actually, it might help to know whether you are particularly religious or not...passages that might really really be cool to someone devout might leave someone less so a bit...cold?
posted by konolia at 4:37 PM on February 15, 2008

I'm not particularly religious and my fiance is atheist, so religiosity of the passage is not nearly as important to me as the words themselves.

And none of that crap about "wives should be subordinate to their husbands."
posted by santojulieta at 5:21 PM on February 15, 2008

Many people like I Cor 13

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially,but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
posted by MasonDixon at 6:37 PM on February 15, 2008

Oops. Didn't read your question closely enough.

But, um, FYI the NT is primarily 1) Stories about Jesus; 2) Stories about the Early Curch; and 3) Paul and a couple others as the pedagoges to early churches scattered across the Mediterranean so there's just not the same material to work with as with the NT.
posted by MasonDixon at 6:42 PM on February 15, 2008

I've always loved the Song of Songs, myself. Of course, you want to make sure that your spouse-to-be doesn't mind the whole gazelle reference. Some guys might be embarrassed.

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
posted by misha at 7:04 PM on February 15, 2008

And none of that crap about "wives should be subordinate to their husbands."

Well, you may be out of luck then. You're not going to find inspiring poetry about equal relationships in the New Testament. There are 66 books in the Christian bible, and that's not the subject or genre of any of them except Song of Songs. You've picked a very unique section of the Bible, so you're going to need to adjust your expectations for the other readings.
posted by heatherann at 12:17 PM on February 16, 2008

Here is a concordance for the New Testament. You can search it for key words, perhaps it will help.
posted by oddman at 7:31 PM on February 18, 2008

You're not going to find inspiring poetry about equal relationships in the New Testament.

Balony. One of the core themes of the new testament is reconciled relationships, specifically Jew and Gentile and male and female. However, things that are said in the context of one culture can sound harsh to readers in a different culture.


How about something from 1 Cor 12? Paul is speaking about the Christian community as a whole, not specifically about marriage (same as with 1 Cor 13), but these things certainly apply to marriage quite well:

12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
posted by jpdoane at 12:01 PM on February 19, 2008

For a gospel reading, how about

Matt 5, from the sermon on the mount?

13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.

14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
posted by jpdoane at 12:07 PM on February 19, 2008