Attending a wedding yesterday :(

[Marie5890]

For a dear and beautiful niece.

She was brought up in the Church, went to Catholic schools etc.

I sat there listening to a secular service by a JP and how they were entering into a “contract”

I now am hearing the thoughts and the words of praise from all other family members how how much of a wonderful wedding it was, yada yada yada. All happy for the bride and groom and overflowing with their congratulations.

All I felt was sadness, emptiness. God wasnt even welcome yesterday.
I was honestly able to get her what a beautiful bride she was, but I couldnt congratulate her.

I think I was the only one there in the family who felt this way.
I dont know what to do. I feel so alone in all of this. Like an odd ball.

And I dont know what to do with it all. I dont know who to react to others when they talk so glowingly of yesterday. I cant honestly join in because I dont feel it.

Anyone out here have any similar happenings? What did you do?

 

[kage_ar]

I do not attend invalid weddings.

Prayers that your niece repents and comes back to the Faith.

 

[MercyMia]

I understand your sadness…you know there can be so much more for them in only they would invite God into thier marriage. You can seek some comfort in the fact that they are married according to the natural order of things, as man and wife. God will always be there for them with an invitation to be with Him and they are blessed to have you caring about them and praying for them. People come into the Church in different ways, conversion and reversion stories are everywhere and it is often the most serious of Catholics who were once fallen away. Just keep praying and be a soft voice for them to be led back into the Church.

 

[rep140]

How sad. There was a comment about not attending invalid weddings. I have a practising Catholic aunt with 3 children. Two married outside the Church and one in a Catholic ceremony. We attended all weddings and it must have hurt my aunt who hosted the receptions. Well, a bunch of years later the 2 who married outside the Church had their marriages blessed and the wife of her son came into the Church via RCIA. Would this have happened had my aunt ignored the weddings?

BTW, the one who married in the Church is divorced and sharing an abode with a guy without the benefit of marriage.

Getting back to sadness. We just attended a wedding of a non Catholic relative. There was such an emptiness because God was so completely absent from the ceremony.

 

[distracted]

wasn’t there time to talk to her about getting married in the CAtholic Church??

or did she just ignore that kind of thing or what??