COUPLES who were married in St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney and are this year celebrating significant anniversaries have returned to the altar to renew their vows.
A total of 27 couples accepted invitations from the Diocese of Kerry to return to the cathedral on Saturday night where they received a special blessing from celebrant and parish administrator Fr Kieran O’Brien.
Those in attendance were celebrating either their golden or silver jubilees or 30 or 40 years of marriage.
At the invitation of Fr O’Brien, they held hands and faced each other to renew the vows they first exchanged several years ago.
Fr O’Brien said that while every anniversary is worth celebrating, the parish was very pleased to be in a position to mark particularly significant milestones.
He said not every marriage is successful or, in many cases, the husband or wife may have died but he urged those that are still together to continue to love and support each other in the years ahead.
There is no such thing as a perfect marriage and many of the couples renewing their vows had experienced sorrows, bereavements, illnesses and other unforeseen circumstances, he said.
“No book or person could have prepared you for that.
“It’s a very different world now to the time you were married. The thinking is different and the values of today are very different,” Fr O’Brien said.
“The Church was in a much healthier state back then but the marriage ceremony has remained exactly the same as it was,” he added.
