Clothe yourself with love

Bride Lisa, dad Terry, groom Dan

Mr and Mrs Senior

I was proud on Saturday 16th April 2016 (16.4.16 – a neat date!) to attend the wedding of my god-daughter, Lisa Marie Billington. She married Daniel James Senior at Trinity Church in Ossett. The church is a lovely building dating from 1806 and was completed in its present form in 1865. Apart from the fabulous windows, the church has famous bells and three pieces of Robert Thompon's Mouseman furniture.

Trinity Church, Ossett

Wedding sounds

Music included The Flower Duet from Delibe’s Lakmé, Handel’s The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (!), Gwendoline Nimmo singing Psalm 23, The Lord is My Shepherd, Daniel Beaumont playing Debussy’s Clair de Lune and hymns Love Divine All Loves Excelling and Blake's and Parry's mighty Jerusalem. I cannot be cynical about marriage and have blissfully blogged about it more than once.

Dan, Lisa, cousin Ann and Terry, me, Sally, sister Teresa and her family, Mick and Jessica, super-stylish Logan and Eliana stealing the show and the Reverend Clive Hicks

One feast, one house, one mutual happiness

Lisa and Dan: two joyful people, two delicious grins, two beating hearts filled with infectious optimism as they embark on their voyage together. They have, like many people, had bruising times in the past so the day’s happiness was all the sweeter. The aptly-named Valentine ends Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona with the words in the sub-heading – “One feast, one house, one mutual happiness” – and Juliet’s words from Romeo and Juliet are always worth quoting when love is in the air (especially in the week I’m celebrating the quadricentenary of Shakespeare’s passing):

My bounty is as boundless as the sea
My love as deep. The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite.

Whenever I look up, there will be you

Shakespeare had a lot to say about love but I also enjoyed Dan’s mum reading an Irish blessing and the words adapted from the dialogue of Gabriel Oak, that steadfast rock of a character (a character that amateur performer Dan could certainly play), in Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd:

We are all on our own paths, all on our own journeys. Sometimes the paths cross, and people arrive at the crossing points at the same time and meet each other. There are greetings, pleasantries are exchanged, and then they move on. But then once in a while the pleasantries become more, friendship grows, deeper links are made, hands are joined and love flies. The friendship has turned into love…. At home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be. And whenever I look up, there will be you.

Terry, Logan and Ann

May the road rise to meet you (Irish blessing)

May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Reading from Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians

God loves you so your new life should be like this: clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you.

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Always be thankful. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom Christ gives. Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts.

Reception at Hotel St Pierre

From Shakespeare’s King John:

He is the half part of a blessed man,
Left to be finished by such as she;
And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him.

Lisa's grandparents, two halves of one whole, and my Mum, ever present at family events