Catholic Anniversaries

My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate the first anniversary of being married. A year ago, I had flown from Alaska to Watertown, SoDak, and was busily welcoming friends to my home town, rehearsing the ceremony at my home parish, putting the final touches on our Prayers of the Faithful.

I still have a few favorite moments of the ceremony. Jen opening up the ceremony with a beautiful rendition of "The Wedding Song" by Peter, Paul, & Mary (complete with a few changes to some gendered language I didn't like!). Realizing that my husband's sweaty hands had dried almost instantly after we said, "I do." He and I reading the Prayers of the Faithful, praying in gratitude for our friends, a good ski season, and an end to the war in Iraq. Watching my Catholic friends process through the communion line.

I was not a little girl who dreamed about my wedding dress or planned my wedding day when I was ten. In fact, when my husband and I decided to get married, I was uncertain I wanted us to have a Catholic wedding. I have several gay friends who would like the privilege, but won't have the chance. I have my own misgivings about Catholic approaches to marriage.

But the power of Catholic ceremony that makes me so happy that we decided to have a big, family-filled Catholic wedding. These moments—Jen singing, my husband's hands, my friends' faces—make my marriage and my Catholicism interdependent. Our Catholic wedding makes me believe in the strength and potential of my marriage. And my marriage makes me believe in the power of Catholicism to bring beauty to moments of our lives.

--Kate