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PAGE 2—The Georgia Bulletin, March 13,1980
Getting Married?
BY CHARLIE MARTIN
First In A Ten Week Series
Our engagement was an
exciting time in our lives.
As we began planning for
the wedding, we decided
to give special attention to
the wedding liturgy. We
began by asking a priest
friend to be the celebrant.
He helped us realize the
freedom we had to
personalize the liturgy. We
wanted our liturgy to be a
celebration of the love
between us, but also a
remembering of God’s love
for all of us as his church
and people.
The most important
element in planning a
wedding liturgy is to start
early. Time is needed to
pick readings, choose
songs and decide what
people will have roles in
the liturgy. We found it
helpful to pick a theme for
the liturgy. The theme
guided our choices of
readings and songs. The
Scriptures are a treasury of
appropriate wedding
themes, but alternatives
are to be found in modern
writings and music. We
asked two artistic friends
to represent our chosen
theme by making a banner
to be hung in the church
sanctuary. We continued
the theme in our
invitations and in a
booklet that we designed
and gave to the guests
upon their arrival at the
liturgy.
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The wedding is not
only a celebration for the
couple marrying but also
for both families involved.
We asked our families to
take active roles in the
liturgy. We saw that the
love we were celebrating in
our marriage was first
given to us through the
caring we experienced in
growing up. The liturgy
offered a way of
symbolizing our gratitude
to our families for this
special gift of love. We
asked our parents,
brothers and sisters to
walk before us as we
walked together up the
aisle. We chose to have
only one couple as
witnesses, and thus we
were able to emphasize the
role of our families. We
also asked our parents to
come up and stand by us
after the recitation of the
marriage vows. They then
lit our individually held
candles that we used to
light a larger candle as the
symbol of our union in
marriage.
We suggest giving
special thought to the
choice of the best man and
the maid of honor. We
chose a couple who were
close friends and also
people whose marriage and
lifestyle were a model for
us. We knew that the
couple would be involved
in our lives long after the
wedding. We could count
on their support and
challenge to help our
marriage continue
growing. Many people
prefer to have several
friends in the wedding
party, but we wanted the
simplicity of having a
single couple. We hoped
such simplicity would
enhance the prayerfulness
of the celebration.
Most parishes now
allow the couple to
formulate their own vows.
We weighed carefully the
words we would speak to
each other. Emphasis
should lie on the meaning
to be communicated, not
on the number of words.
The traditional wedding
vows are rich in meaning
and, if a couple chooses to
write their own vows,
these words are valuable
guides for other
formulations. The sharing
of the wedding vows
belongs to the whole
community, so a good
microphone should be
near. Also this is not the
moment to begin an acting
career. Typing the words
to be spoken on a small
card removes the pressure
of trying to memorize
lines but does not sacrifice
authenticity.
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Music fills out any
celebration and especially
adds joy to a wedding
liturgy. We chose both
commonly known
liturgical songs and some
modern musical pieces. We
wanted to preserve the
important element of
giving the community a
chance to sing, but also
wanted a creative way of
sharing some of the
discoveries our love had
made. Music met both
these needs. The music
should be appropriate for
a liturgical celebration. No
matter how personally
meaningful, some music
belongs only at the
reception. One criterion to
use in choosing songs for
the liturgy is to measure
how well the song will
express the sacramental
meaning of marriage.
One practical
suggestion is to ask a'
friend to tape the liturgy.
Our wedding day was a
time of powerful
emotions, and all these
feelings can cloud
memories of events and
words. Having a
permanent memory of the
liturgical ceremony
ensures that the words and
actions 'of the liturgy will
not be lost in a maze of
other feelings and
memories. Replaying the
tape later has helped us
renew our relationship and
recommit ourselves for the
future.
Planning our wedding
liturgy was a chance for us
to learn more about each
other and to grow closer
spiritually. Such is the gift
Christians are given in
their liturgy. A
well-planned liturgy can
renew the meaning faith
brings to the lives of those
who participate in it.
Irish Influence Grows In Georgia
DAY FOR THE IRISH - Members of the
Emerald Society of New York City’s transit
police march past St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the
1979 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, March 17.
There’s a bit of Ireland
in the Archdiocese of
Atlanta. Well, maybe more
than just a bit. Indeed, it
almost seems that
“shamrocks” are growing
like kudzu in North
Georgia - not shamrocks
themselves, but
descendants of those for
whom shamrocks signify
home.
More than 30 priests in
the Archdiocese hail from
the Emerald Isle, and they
are scattered from
Jonesboro to Gainesville,
from Athens to Rome.
One, Father Liam Tuffy, is
even living in South
America doing missionary
work.
Not only are there
many Irish priests in the
Archdiocese, but there are
several families throughout
the Archdiocese who trace
their roots back to a
shamrock.
And, as of last year,
there are even two parishes
in the Archdiocese named
after Irish saints. One is
named after Ireland’s
patron saint himself, and
the other is named in
honor of Ireland’s newest
saint, Saint Oliver
Plunkett.
Saint Patrick’s Parade Planned
Atlanta’s Saint Patrick’s
Day parade will be held,
again this year on a
Saturday, March 15 at 2
p.m. The fun starts at
Peachtree and Forrest
Streets and continues
down Peachtree to the
Central City Park area.
More than 125 units,
representing most metro
Atlanta cities and
counties, will include a
dozen marching bands,
majorettes, colorful floats,
Irish dancers, wolfhounds
and setters, local media
and sport celebrities,
beauty queens, clowns,
doggers and the Armed
Forces. Irish and non-Irish
alike are invited to join in
the “wearin’ of the green”
on a day saluting the Irish
patron saint who
reportedly drove all the
snakes and toads out of
the Emerald Isle.
The parade, sponsored
by the Irish Hibernian
Benevolent Society, is
being held on Saturday
due to the success of last
year’s Saturday
celebration which drew
more than 60,000
spectators, many of them
suburban families with
children.
Green bagels will be
given away along the
parade route by grand
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WPLO’s Len Anthony and
Trooper Jim Albertson, its
helicopter traffic reporter,
will ride the station’s
festive float featuring a
ten-foot-high shamrock.
The large shamrock of the
Hibernian float will call
attention to the lassies and
young leprechauns aboard
wearing new, authentic old
Irish costumes in forty
shades of green.
Among personalities
greeting spectators will be
sports announcer Jiggs
McDonald, for WLTA
Radio, John Patrick and
Virginia Gunn, of TV 5’s
PM Magazine, anchorman
Dave Michaels of 11 Alive
TV, the witty Bill Tush of
WTBS - TV 17, Captain 30
of Channel 30 TV, Atlanta
Mayor Maynard Jackson,
Congressman Dawson
Mathis and Fulton County
Commissioner Lee Roach.
WSB Radio, among other
major media participating
this year, will give on-air
coverage during the
parade.
The Little General
Cloggers, the group Amy
Carter once danced with,
are among dancers
entertaining at the parade.
Scottish are well
represented, with the
Atlanta Bagpipe Band,
Scottish dancers, the
Robert Burns Club and St.
Andrew Society
participating. The
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impressive Forces
Command Color Guard
and Band, the Marines,
Navy, Army and National
Guard march again this
year. Boy and Girl Scouts,
sheriff’s posses and the
City of Atlanta, with
police on horseback and
its shiny red fire engine,
are all represented. And of
course St. Patrick is
expected. Each year a
member of the Irish
Springs youth group of St.
Patrick’s Church in
Norcross dons the
traditional garb of the
Irish saint and takes his
place in the parade. Many
other businesses,
restaurants and
organizations will have
imaginative entries in the
1 9 80 St. Paddy’s
celebration.
The Hibernian
Benevolent Society,
founded in 1858 as an aid
for Atlanta’s Irish
immigrants, has been
hosting parades nearly
every year since its
inception. Chairmen of
this year’s event are Art
Fessenden, and Joe
O’Connor. ' /
Hibernians will also
have activities on March
17, starting with mass at
Immaculate Conception at
10 a.m., celebrated by
Archbishop Thomas A.
Donnellan. A ceremony at
the City Hall gravesite of
Fr. Thomas O’Reilly (who
helped save Atlanta
churches from Sherman’s
Civil War destruction) will
follow, then brunch ard a
ceremony at the Hibernian
plot in Oakland Cemetery.
There’ll be a party at
Hibernian Hall that night.
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Saint Patrick’s in
Norcross is a thriving
parish, (87 new families
have joined since
September), which was at
one time a mission of Holy
Cross. The pastor of Saint
Patrick’s is a man whose
blood is as green as his
bright, shining Irish eyes.
Father Meehan, born in
Dublin, is a Saint Francis
de Sales priest who has
special interest in Ireland’s
patron saint.
“We owe much of our
knowledge about Saint
Patrick to the Book of
Armagh,” he says in
relating the history of the
saint. ‘‘In it are two
documents allegedly
written by Saint Patrick,
The Confession, and
Letter to Caroticus, who
was a British king. From
the letter to the king, we
see Saint Patrick urging
subjects to have nothing to
do with the king, who
had sent soldiers to Ireland
to kill the neophyte
Christians.”
Brought to Ireland as a
slave, in the fifth century
Patrick was put to work
minding pigs. He escaped
his slavery and went to the
Continent where he
studied to become a priest.
After being ordained, he
didn’t forget Ireland,
though. He returned to
bring the message of
Christianity, traveling the
length and bredth of
Ireland. Legend has it that
he used the three-leaf
shamrock, so ubiguitous on
the Emerald Isle, to teach
the Blessed Trinity.
March 17 has come to
be set aside as a day to
toast the Irish saint in the
United States as well as in
Ireland. Yet there are
differences in the
celebrating.
“Saint Patrick’s Day in
Ireland is a Holy Day of
obligation,” Father
Meehan says is discussing
the differences between
American celebration and
Irish celebration of the
Saint’s day. “There’s not
the need to accentuate the
green-ness, either,” he says
with a laugh, “because
everything is green
already.”
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Father Terence Kane,
pastor of Saint Oliver
Plunkett’s, agrees with
Father Meehan.
“The Irish in Ireland
don’t celebrate anything
like they do here,” the
smiling priest says. “It’s
very much a religious
holiday.”
The Railway Cup Final,
a Gaelic football contest,
is held on March 17 in
Ireland, Father Kane says,
making it a big sports day.
“But as far as actual
celebrating goes,” he says
with a grin, “over here, it’s
much better.”
Father Kane was the
founding pastor of Saint
Oliver Plunkett in
Snellville. The naming of
the parish after the
17th-century Saint was of
particular interest to him
because the Saint’s head is
venerated in Father’s
hometown of Drogheda.
Also, Father Kane was
present in the 1975
ceremony in which Pope
Paul VI declared Oliver
Plunkett a saint. Pope
John Paul II, then Cardinal
Karol Wojtyla, was also
there, but Father doesn’t
remember seeing him.
Father Kane does
remember Pope John Paul
II’s historic trip to his
hometown last September,
though. In the Pope’s
message to the multitude
assembled at the southern
tip of the island, he lauded
Saint Oliver Plunkett as
“an outstanding example
of the love of Christ.”
The Pope also told the
crowd that his message
that day, September 29,
1979 was not different
from Saint Patrick’s
message, “a message of
peace and love.”
Monday, March 17 is
the day set aside to honor
Ireland’s patron saint who
helped spread Christianity
throughout the island
republic. While here in the
United States parades will
march through towns
“green for a day,” the
evergreen Emerald Isle will
slow to a halt to remember
the fifth-century Saint
who brought the Good
News to its shores.
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SAINT PATRICK’S DAY PARADE - A
member of the Irish Springs youth group of Saint
Patrick’s Parish in Norcross posed as the Irish
Saint in last year’s paiade.
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