Earn cash as you plan. Get a $20 gift card for every 200 points with The Knot Rewards
Catholic Weddings
Adding Poem Reading to Catholic Wedding Ceremony
Hello all,
My name is Bob, my fiance and I are having a Catholic ceremony. I am a practicing Catholic, she is not. While we have agreed to have a church ceremony, she is becoming a bit dissappointed at all the 'rules' the church has in place. While the priest at my church is more accomodating and 'liberal' than most, there are still limits on what we can have.
My fiance found a poem that she LOVEs that pertains to marriage which she wanted to have read in lieu of a bible reading. I understand this is not possible, however, has Anyone out there added something like this to their Catholic ceremony? Like, after the old testament readings, but before the gosple, have a poem read, or a special tribute to a family member? Simply adding the poem to the program, or having it read at the reception is not acceptable.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly apprecaited. I would hate to have her disappointed since I am the one who was pushing so hard to have the wedding in the church.
Thank you!
-Bob
My name is Bob, my fiance and I are having a Catholic ceremony. I am a practicing Catholic, she is not. While we have agreed to have a church ceremony, she is becoming a bit dissappointed at all the 'rules' the church has in place. While the priest at my church is more accomodating and 'liberal' than most, there are still limits on what we can have.
My fiance found a poem that she LOVEs that pertains to marriage which she wanted to have read in lieu of a bible reading. I understand this is not possible, however, has Anyone out there added something like this to their Catholic ceremony? Like, after the old testament readings, but before the gosple, have a poem read, or a special tribute to a family member? Simply adding the poem to the program, or having it read at the reception is not acceptable.
Any help anyone can offer would be greatly apprecaited. I would hate to have her disappointed since I am the one who was pushing so hard to have the wedding in the church.
Thank you!
-Bob
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Adding Poem Reading to Catholic Wedding Ceremony
All you can really do is ask your priest, and also be prepared for him to say no. Some priests will allow non-liturgical poems and readings depending on the topic, where they came from, etc. Example, my friend realy loved a poem and wanted it in liew of a reading. The priest said he would look into it and then said he didn't feel comfortable with it because the poet was a very open atheist.
But, the worst he can say is no.
I ask because thought my FI is not Catholic and would ideally prefer an outdoor ceremony, he knows how important it is to me to have a Catholic ceremony and it wasn't a dealbreaker for him. If it had been we would have tried to find some middle ground. Does your FI want to get married in the church at all?
Also, assuming the poem is ok in nature.theme with the priest, maybe ask him if he could work it into his opening prayer/homily if he's doing one at your ceremony. I've been to weddings where the priest has a favorite poem of verse (non-liturgical) of the couple and read it and then works it in to his homily.
Good luck!
We had a couple readings that we like that can't be read in church, so we are putting them in the program like pp said.
I think it might make sense in the homily.
I think the priest might not be too keen on substituting his homily with the reading of a poem. Again, not likely to be done.
Thanks for everyone's help and opinion. I spoke to the Priest via email and he said it was totally fine, in fact, he was fine with tons of things include non-traditional music, bare shouldered bridesmaids, a poem reading, and more.
I have read on here about how some priests can be real sticklers, glad to see mine is pretty open minded.
Thanks again all,
Bob