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About Wedding Blessings |
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A Few Words Concerning Wedding Blessings
Wedding blessing is a form of prayer uttered on behalf of the couple either by the wedding officiant or the family members of the bride and the groom. Typically, it’s the officiant who pronounces the blessing. In some cultures it might be also the parents who say the blessing over either their own child or over both their child and his or her spouse to be. While the priest, minister, or rabbi would say the official blessing most likely during the wedding ceremony, the parental marriage blessing might be pronounced before, during, or after the ceremony.
As a prayer wedding blessings contain the elements of 1) entreaty on behalf of the couple directed to God, and 2) good wishes offered for the spouses that are submitted to a Higher Power for their fulfillment. In this way wedding / marriage blessing assumes a form of an intercessory prayer. Because of its references to God as the Power, Assistant, and Reinforces of good things for the bride and the groom, the wedding blessing has a spiritual and religious character. There are other beautiful expressions of good wishes to the couple just beginning their marriage that don’t contain any direct invocation to or a mentioning of God. A typical example of such a blessing is the so-called “Apache Wedding Blessing.” From the theological perspective it is rather questionable whether good words or wishes devoid of the concept of God or a Higher Power should be called a “blessing.” Nonetheless, such a “secular blessing,” a paradox indeed, can beautifully fit into the wedding ceremony.
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