Catholic reading for a secular wedding

jennprosser

Hi all,
I posted this first under ceremony ideas, then someone suggested that I ask the Catholic Wedding board about it, so I'm reposting it here.
My fiancé and I are having a secular ceremony (my brother is officiating), but both of us come from Catholic families. In honor of our parents, we want to find a reading that is based in Catholicism, but not particularly religious. Does anyone know of any Catholic readings about love or marriage that are not particularly preachy? My fiancé, who studied philosophy in college, was hoping to find something from Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas or another philosopher saint, but we can only seem to find quotes, rather than actual readings or really dry philosophy speak. 
Does anyone have any suggestions?
It's really important to us that we honor our mothers' religion, but neither of us have the religious education to know what all is out there. We're kind of stuck at this point.
Thanks!

katetw

You could do a Bible passage that speaks to you and your fiance about love and marriage -- I would say that there are no particularly Catholic readings, just Bible readings. (I am ready to be corrected by other people on this board, though!)

I wouldn't do a reading from the Gospel, because in the Catholic church only a priest (or deacon, I think) can read from the Gospel -- definitely not laypeople. While I know your wedding is secular, if your moms are religious they may not appreciate it.

A lot of suggestions for popular Old Testament and New Testament readings for Catholic weddings can be found here: http://catholicweddinghelp.com/wedding-planning/06-choose-readings.htm

doctabroccoli

One of our readings is the one from Song of Songs.  Click on the picture to make it bigger!

catarntina

These were my readings:

Genesis 2:18-24 talks about how God created woman to be man's partner. 

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:8 is all about love.  It's used quite a bit at weddings.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  ⁸ Love never fails"

Our Gospel reading was John 15:12-16.

www.catholicweddinghelp.com has a lot of reading choices.