Wedding Bells Ring

"Do you take this man as your lawfully wedded husband, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish till death do you part?"

"Take this ring as
a sign of my love and fidelity
in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"

"In the most Holy presence of God, I now pronounce you man and wife."

"What God has joined together, man must not divide."


Since I was 10 years old, I would periodically attend weddings in church as an altar server and, more recently, as a choir boy. The Catholic rituals remain the same. The roles at the altar remain the same. But the feelings that are aroused in me have changed without me noticing.

As a little boy of 10, all I ever looked forward to was the angpow that we got at the end of the mass. Sometimes $20, sometimes $8, rarely $10 (its a Chinese custom to give odd multiples of $10 at funerals). As I grew a little older with puberty setting in, I started staring at the brides. And I realized that a girl really looks the prettiest on her wedding day. Its the love and excitement in her eyes I think.

And now as I grow into a little man, I have absolutely no idea what I feel when I sing for a wedding. The sensible part of me claps and smiles at two people in love finally tying the knot; the coming together of two families formerly oblivious to one another, now joined as relatives.

The emotional part of me just collapses to reject what an idealistic teenager who thought that his was the only girl in the world untouched by promiscuity, vanity and materialism would have bled for not too long ago.