Paul & Peggy Krzmarzick Wedding Vow Renewal

Charge

Dear friends, we are here assembled in the presence of God to unite Paul and Peggy in a validation and recommitment of their marriage vows on their 50th wedding anniversary.

The Bible teaches that marriage is to be a permanent relationship of one man and one woman freely and totally committed to each other as companions for life. Our Lord declared that man shall leave his father and mother and unite with his wife in the building of a home, and the two shall become one flesh.

Word of Encouragement

The home is built upon love, which virtue is best portrayed in the thirteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; … So, faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:4–13, RSV).

Marriage as you’ve known and experienced is a companionship which involves mutual commitment and responsibility. For fifty years you’ve shared alike in the responsibilities from the major things like buying your first home or taking a new job, to the mundane of maintaining the orderliness of your house, and the joys of life such as the birth of your children, reaching milestones, planning their weddings, being there for the birth of your grandchildren. But your marriage has not been without sorrow from the trivial arguments over the finances to the tragedy of losing your son Matthew. But as God would have it, when companions share a sorrow, the sorrow is halved, and when they share a joy, the joy is doubled.

From the beginning you are exhorted to dedicate your home to the Lord God almighty, and to such as you were able, you did by raising your children in the Catholic faith, praying for their souls before bed, and ensuring the values you instilled would be pleasing to the Lord.

Today I would continue to charge you take God’s Word, the Bible, seriously as your guide in the golden years of your marriage. Continue to give loyal devotion to His church, thus maintaining the unity of the mutual strength of these two most important institutions (the church and the home), living your lives as His willing servants, and seeking Christ above all as your true happiness now and for all eternity.

Prayer

Let us pray. O Lord of life and love, bestow Your grace upon this marriage, and seal this commitment of Your children with Your love. As You have brought them together by Your divine providence, sanctify them by Your Spirit, that they may continue to give themselves fully one to the other and to You. Give them strength and patience to live their lives in a manner that will mutually bless themselves and honor Your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Vows

Paul, will you take Peggy to be your wife; will you continue to commit yourself to her happiness and her self-fulfillment as a person, and to her usefulness in God’s kingdom; and will you promise to continue to love, honor, trust, and serve her in sickness and in health, in adversity and prosperity, and to be true and loyal to her, so long as you both shall live?

Paul: I will.

Peggy, will you take Paul to be your husband; will you continue to commit yourself to his happiness and his self-fulfillment as a person, and to his usefulness in God’s kingdom; and will you promise to love, honor, trust, and serve him in sickness and in health, in adversity and prosperity, and to be true and loyal to him, so long as you both shall live?

Peggy I will.

Rings

The wedding ring is a symbol of marriage in at least two ways: the purity of gold symbolizes the purity of your love for each other, and the unending circle symbolizes the unending vows which you are taking, which may be broken honorably in the sight of God only by death. As a token of your vows, you will give and receive the rings (or ring).

Paul, you will give the ring and repeat after me: Peggy, with this ring I pledge my life and love to you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peggy, you will give the ring and repeat after me: Paul, with this ring I pledge my love and life to you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Will both of you please repeat after me:

Entreat me not to leave you

or to return from following you;

for where you go I will go,

and where you lodge I will lodge;

your people shall be my people,

and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)

Pronouncement

Since they have made these commitments before God and this assembly (or, these witnesses), by the authority of God and the laws of TN, I declare that Paul and Peggy have renewed their vows as husband and wife.

And Paul and Peggy, just as you have been for the last fifty years, so you are now, no longer two independent persons but one. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matt. 19:6).

Paul, you may kiss your wife!

Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Benediction

The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace (Num. 6:24–26, RSV).

Or The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:14).

Amen.