Wedding Mass
Lauren and William Mann
Basilica of the Assumption
May 5, 2025
Lauren and Will,
What a joy and privilege it is to preside at your wedding . . . thank you! And what a blessing it is for you to be surrounded by family and friends on this happy day.
Lauren, since your mom labors day in and day out in my office, I have tracked preparations for your wedding the way NORAD tracks Santa Claus. And I have come to realize that the outward beauty of this occasion betokens a deeper, inward beauty, a spiritual beauty. It’s the beauty of two people who have fallen in love and have decided to anchor their love for one another in the Lord’s love. This is what we celebrate today.
You’ve known each other since you were freshmen at the University of Maryland. You joined your sorority and fraternity about the same time. Your talents and professional life definitely tend toward the technical, something a low-tech person like myself greatly admires. The marriage proposal was made two years ago, in 2023, and it was announced in my office, just so you know, with great joy. Will, when you visited the lower church of this Basilica, I am told that something touched your heart, something changed within you. And thanks in large measure to Lauren, you found your way into the Church. She reports, Will, that you found the OCIA program at St. John’s in Severna Park to be a good and life-giving experience . . . Fr. Erik, thank you! Last year, at the Easter Vigil, you received the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist, becoming fully a member of the Catholic Church. And so, at long last, here we are!
To be sure, you are surrounded by family, friends, and clergy. But in this moment of joy and grace, you are also surrounded by angels and saints, the great multitude in heaven, who are praying for you, led first and foremost by the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother. They are rooting for you. And so are we!
So, what shall we ask for? What gifts do you want from the Lord as you stand before his altar to profess your undying and faithful love one for another? To answer that, let us consult the Scripture readings you chose for your wedding.
Beginning with Tobiah & Sarah whom we meet in our passage from the Book of Tobit. It describes their honeymoon . . . not exactly what we think of as a honeymoon. On their wedding night, this couple got up and prayed. They blessed God and thanked him.
They asked God to keep their love for one another pure and noble. And they asked to live together in love to a happy old age. Notice, they didn’t ask for something soon to be old, worn-out, or outmoded. No, they asked for the blessing of a lifetime . . . a love that would never fail.
What does that love look like? I’d say that St. Paul gives us good description of the love you desire in the reading you chose from his 1st Letter to the Corinthians. It’s the kind of love that’s often in short supply in this world of ours: a love that is patient, kind, generous, sincere, forgiving, and authentic, a love that rejoices with the truth, a love that endures, come what may. Paul’s hymn to love finds its perfect complement in the Gospel, the Beatitudes. Here Jesus links love and happiness; we are happy when we love as Jesus loves. Jesus was poor in spirit – he emptied himself of glory out of love for us, just as he will call you, Will and Lauren, to give of yourselves to one another and to your children in ways you cannot now imagine. In his love for us, Jesus mourned everything that could harm us; so too, you will mourn all that could bring harm to you and your loved ones. Just as Jesus desires our holiness, so you are to desire one another’s holiness. Just as Jesus was meek, merciful, and pure of heart, so too must you be in your love for one another.
About now, you might be saying, “Gee, we set the bar pretty high! How can our love be like that?” The answer for both of you and for all of us is that we have to go to the Source. We have to go the Source of all hope and the Source of all love. That is why you are being married in the celebration of Holy Mass. As we celebrate Mass, Christ speaks his Word to us, and then he gives himself to us in the glory of his sacrificial love as we receive his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. In receiving the Eucharist, you ingest the very love you seek to give to each other. In deepening your communion with the Lord, you deepen your communion of love with each other. In your married life, many things will compete for your attention. Make the Eucharist the center. Be sure to encounter the Source of your love Sunday after Sunday.
For now, let us rejoice and be glad. And let us all pray for Will and Lauren that their love will be fruitful and that they will be witnesses to love itself. God bless you both and keep you always in love!