"I made this blog because a photo of my husband and I has gone viral on the internet. I wanted to share the story behind the photo for the hundreds of thousands of people who found inspiration through this sweet moment we had.
The Story Behind the Photo
Moments before I was to walk down the aisle my soon to be mother in law came in the dressing room where my bridesmaids and I were all gushing with giggles and fluttering about finishing last minute details.
“Sweetheart, your groom has called for you!”.
In a nervous tizzy I said, “What?! I’m not ready! I have to get my shoes and…” She had already taken my hand and led me to a corner, where my groom was waiting. I barely sat down; I was filled with so much anticipation! So much excitement! So many nerves!
“Is he going to like my dress? Does my hair look pretty? Can he see me?!”
Right around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous he might see me yet secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In my excited state I was the first to speak,
“Hi sweetie! We’re getting married today!”
“I know baby and I want to pray with you before we do.”
There we sat around the corner hand in hand, and together we bowed our heads. People were rushing about; the wedding coordinator directing people here and there, the photographers snapping photos and the bridal party enjoying each others company. Yet in that moment, in the quietness of our hearts and minds, my husband and I were alone in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband prayed that God would bless our marriage, that through thick or thin together we would never lose hope in one another. That instead of focusing on each others imperfections we would always rely on Christ’s perfection. That we would wake up every day and chose to love one another not through our own strength but by the power of Christ’s perfect love.
With our hands clenched tightly to one another together we said “Amen”, both with shaky voice and just like that I was whisked away to blot the tears off my face and put on my veil.
After my bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law and every other girl in the room had finished zipping, curling, tucking and blushing me up I looked in the mirror. There I stood wearing my pure white wedding dress, ready to walk down the aisle to my Prince Charming.
See, he is not only my Prince Charming because of his incredibly handsome looks, or wonderful humor, or the fact that we have so much in common. He is my Prince Charming because he helped me protect the most precious gift that I owned, my purity.
Soon after we had started dating I nervously told my Prince that I was a virgin and planned to be until the night of my wedding; to which he replied he would have it no other way.
Throughout our dating relationship and engagement we constantly fought, what at times felt like a losing battle. We fought temptation with prayer, scripture and accountability. I had friends checking up on me if they knew we were together late at night and he regularly met with other Godly men to pray for strength. At times, especially as the wedding grew closer, we thought we were attempting to do the impossible.
“Why are we doing this?” I would ask in my weakness, and he would remind me, that it’s because God had told us too.
“I can’t do it, I can’t… this is too hard!” he would confess to me and I would pray for his strength.
When I walked down the aisle in my white dress, I looked straight into the eyes of the man that had laid himself down to protect and honor the wife that God had given him.
When his eyes first caught mine he looked into the face of the woman that had waited for him, the woman that would support him and love him for the rest of His life, through good times and bad.
I share all of this because in that prayer we prayed, which was captured here on camera we asked the Lord to use our wedding to bring Him all of the glory that He rightfully deserved. We had not gotten where we were by our own strength, but by His hand of protection on our relationship.
God has used this photo to inspire hundreds of thousands of people already and for that we are humbled and honored! I wanted to take it a step further and give God praise and thanks for how we arrived at that quiet corner, holding hands and ready to begin our lives together. "
I found this on facebook this morning and am sharing it here.
After sharing mass with my parents to start the day, a doctor's appointment with encouraging news, and then sharing much good conversation and praying the rosary... a wonderful 24 hours with my parents! At mass we read the beautiful passage from Tobit - where Tobiah kneels down to pray with his wife at the occassion of their coming together as man and wife - their wedding. Fr commented that this would be a good verse to be used at a wedding, but he had never seen it used. Pat and I did! It was our first reading and I sat there reading it with new eyes of appreciation from this perspective of almost 35 years of living out the sacrament of Marriage! What did I see? I saw in using this prayer of a husband and wife kneeling down at the beginning of their becoming one flesh - how much we could see that sharing HIM and prayer was of the most importance in carrying our Most Cherished Cross/spouse and embracing it and finding LIFE eternal. This seems to be next to impossible these days with divorce at an all time high! The prayer:
"Blessed are you , O God of our fathers, praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended. You said, 'It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.' Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy/Sacred Heart on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age."
They said together, 'Amen, amen,' and went to bed for the night." Tobit 8:4-9
While visiting my parents - I once again was so thrilled to share in the healing of my dad's hearing through his cochlear implant! He went from closed inside a silent world, to now sharing and visiting and hearing and responding appropriately! So amazing! He said that he can hear the birds and had not been able to do that for many years - "I forgot how noisy they are, but it is wonderful to hear them and all the world again!" It is a true healing with the new strides taken by medicine to assist us on our journey called life with HIM! I have my dad fully back and I sit at his feet and soak in his wisdom! He has always been a man that listens with his spiritual ears to the Holy Spirit in our lives! For this story you can read the page I have written on our journey into the True Church - http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html Today being the feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus..."The essential nucleus of Christianity is expressed in the Heart of Jesus... the LOVE that saves us and already makes us live in God's eternity." Pope Benedict XVI
One of my mom's paintings...
I am reminded today of how important our communication to His Sacred Heart/Mercy is on our journey... listening to HIM with our spiritual ears to the call of the Holy Spirit to follow down the path that He has laid out before us. I thank HIM for the family/journey of faith I was blessed with! There continues to be great blessings that come to me through that family!
Jesus, I long to come to the Truth with each day of this journey of LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT! There is so much to show me your Truth - I am on a huge ocean of LOVE and JOY and Truth and the Sonshine comes down upon me as the waves wash over me again and again. I feel no fear - only a pureness and holiness that comes from YOU and Your Holy Spirit as Your heart bleeds the cleansing waters and life-giving Blood! There is too much LOVE to take in and I am so unworthy of YOUR unconditional love and forgiveness of all my sins. We lift up your Church to YOU this day and ask that many may stop picking and choosing what they believe of her truth, but may embrace it all with great Peace and JOY! Your Church is there to help us to get to Heaven and your LOVE from your Most Sacred Heart envelopes Your Bride - The Church with LOVE to last forever! This prayer to the Sacred Heart -
"O most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore you, I love you, and with lively sorrow for my sins I offer you this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to your will. Grant, Good Jesus, that I may live in you and for you.
O most Sacred Heart if Jesus, I trust in you!" Jesus, I trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"If you are very quiet , you hear, at the very center of the universe, a pulse, a beat. You hear the birds and the honking horns, the suffering and the joy. You hear the Sacred Heart of Christ.
So in the middle of a city... I decided to pray the rosary.
And praying the rosary after a couple of minutes what I "heard" was the people waiting for a biopsy results, the husband to show up, the electricity to be turned back on, and I saw that these are people who are sweating tears of blood with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane..." Heathe King is a contemplative laywoman and convert who lives in LA. Her blog is shirtofflame.blogspot.com
Child of Prague we lift up Ruth and her new little one to YOU, and all those women that are holding LIFE within their wombs. End all taking of innocent LIFE, O Lord!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCR24-tkWI If I touch HIM by Danielle Rose
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=othmFqaw0Yk Who am I - Casting Crowns
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