Like a lot of believers, I’ve got a mixed bag of beliefs and experiences with faith.

I was raised in the Episcopal tradition, but then came of adult age and depth of faith more in the Jesuit-infused Catholic tradition.

I’ve attended church off and on my whole life, frequency influenced by those I’m close to. And since adolescence I’ve turned to faith both to express gratitude for things that go well, and to shepherd me through trying times. So my faith today is still rooted in Christianity, still rooted in my history and heritage. Evolved over time, still deep and fundamental to who, how I am.

About six years back I became and ordained minister in the Universal Life Church*. I took this step after being asked by a couple of close friends if I would officiate their wedding ceremony. I officiated as second wedding this weekend, for my brother-in-law and his (now) wife.

In both instances I have been humbled by the request to officiate, these two couples seeing something in me I’ve long felt a part of my particular person, a sense of the spiritual, a sense of the sacred.

Humbled, Blessed, those are the two words I would use to express my feelings about leading a wedding ceremony. I believe deeply in the soulfulness of that particular Nuptial moment, when two people make a life-time commitment to one another, a public declaration of what they want their life to be with the other.

Yep, Humbled and Blessed.

[*The Universal Life Church Monastery is a multi-religious interfaith ministry that has an online ordination program, which allows individuals to preside over weddings, baptisms, and funerals in the United States depending on state and county laws.]