Patrick and Ciara’s wedding

 Photos are loading out of order… but wedding happened in order! The mass, photos, trolley to reception, beautiful dinner… it was a hot day and we are waiting for photographers’ photos. The cake turned out beautiful and I was able to give the speech with no mishaps. It was such a well-organized and lovely day and evening! A personal highlight was the hymn to Our Lady of Knock sung while bride and groom took a bouquet of flowers to the Marian altar… I had never heard it before… it filled my heart with beauty and joy and gratitude! 

Speech below.

Our Hearts are so full of JOY to be here all together celebrating Ciara and Patrick and their exchanging of the sacrament of marriage. 

I’ll open with a message sent by one of Patrick’s two absent sisters today: 

To the best big brother and a wonderful new sister:

 

While I am not with you today

I am witness to your generosity

your joie de vivre 

and all the love you have in your hearts

for each other and for those around you.

Thank you for having my back

for loving my daughter

for exhibiting so many values we aspire to.

You can do amazing things together!

Side by side you are adventurous, yet grounded.

Incredibly smart and capable,

always good company,

and a five star chef team.

From a thousand miles away

under the shadows of the Rocky Mountains

we wish you only the best today

and all the days and years to come.

Keep being attentive to one another

keep looking at each other with all that love in your eyes

and keep finding things to laugh about

each and every day. 

 

All my love,

Claud (and Liza Lou too!) 

As I was preparing these words, and loving the process, ismiled remembering when Patrick was in high school. Hours of daily homework, two jobs, daily mass often, plus what a huge help he was to us at home, in so many ways. — Isabel, you may never had started your music journey if it were not for big brother Patrick driving you to campus for piano lessons! 
There was one task however, with which he allowed me to help him: writing essays that touched on personal matters.
 I mean ... Patrick would jump at writing any 20-pageresearch paper, but assign a personal paragraph and he would simply collapse. ... (It’s really amazing that he got accepted into any college at all.) 

So he was one of the finalists for some presidential award to be given in Washington DC and he was supposed to write what other parts of his life were prodigious or amazing besides academics… they were looking for prodigy cello players or Olympic medalists and so on! I remember talking to Patrick and telling him that his servant heart and presence in our family as the oldest child, in my eyes, were way beyond any of those other prodigious gifts. All of the times and ways he helped through our many moves and adventures, how reliable he always was, his loving and generous heart at home.…. 

 

Well … He may not have received that presidential award in Washington DC that year… but WOW I was so grateful  for the opportunity to tell him if what i saw as his prodigious qualities… maybe not so in the eyes of the world, or the judges in DC, but definitely so in the eyes of his parents, his family, and in the eyes of God. 

 

Since the beautiful and dear Ciara entered our lives we have seen our son growing in kindness and love, now part of a beautiful relationship. We love the way she interacts with him, and of course the girls and I love love love all her pretty dresses!

Our hearts are full today as we welcome Ciara in our family with open hearts, —although I will think of her new hyphenated last name every time I write my own. I think Jessie will agree. 

 

So here is to a bright future, not because they’re beautiful and thoughtful and gifted, and they are all that, but because Patrick and Ciara possess already what many couples dream of, the age-old recipe for a happy and lasting life together: the exercise of virtue! Patrick and Ciara are thoughtful, generous, they show respect, and hard work, they are committed to a life devoted to family and to all that is enduring and true in this life. Their life attentive to what is truly important, it is centered in God, and they are most certainly bound to be light in the world! 

And now Geoff will propose our toast:

GEOFF
Raise your glasses please:
As Ana referred to one of Patrick’s absent sisters, I’ll bring up his other absent sister, Sr Maria Perpetua, whom we heard from at mass during the petitions. Quoting st Claire, sister Maria brought up how quote “Love that does not suffer is not worthy of that name “ quote. 
So here is our toast:
Patrick and Ciara:
May the sorrows in your marriage be GREATLY outnumbered by the many, frequent, and multiples JOYS. 

To Ciara and Patrick!