A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou.....

Tomorrow is a special day.

It marks forty years of wedded bliss for Mrs Linen and me.

The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is one that is so often taken for granted. But, it is not a one off sacrament; it remains with you throughout your married life and its graces will rise and fall according to how much one applies the required acts of patience, humility, love and forbearance that a successful union demands.

We have been blessed with a happy marriage and four children. What more could one desire?

And we now crave the simple life, no bright lights and swish restaurants for us. We plan to celebrate tonight (as we shall be at Mass on Sunday and it's a long drive back - thank you Bishop).

We shall wend our way far from the throng to a lonely beach (weather permitting).

In my knapsack will be a bottle of wine and.......err.....um.....fish and chips for two...ahem.....to hell with the expense!

That is how we wish to celebrate our first forty years together. How romantic say some; how mean say others...but it's our choice.

So, "A jug of wine, fish and chips and Thou..."  may not quite have the same poetic ring to it that Omar Khayyam may have intended but it will do nicely for us.

Not quite what Omar had in mind

And just for the record we were married at The Church of the Holy Name, Esher, Surrey.
Father Richard Sutherland RIP (son of the famous Halliday) did the necessary and provided a fine sermon that I can still remember quite well today.

He took the Wedding Feast at Cana as his homily (an obvious choice perhaps but Fr S had a fine way with words).

One sentence in particular still rings in my ears:


"Love has no levels; you cannot half love someone, you either love them wholly and fully or not at all. A married couple must remember that and ensure that their marriage reflects that fact; just as Almighty God loves us all wholly and without reserve."