Reflection: Saint Valentine and Love

Saint Valentine’s Day is a day we celebrate romantic love. A great love, a romantic love, is good and it brings an abundance of blessings!

My lover speaks; he says to me,"Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!" For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the dove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. "Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,and come!" Song of Songs 2:10-13  

Let us pray for all marriages and for the return to the sanctity of Life and Marriage. This Scripture from Corinthians is often prayed at marriage ceremonies. May we always remember that "Love never fails."

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Romantic love, eros, has a purpose in God’s plan to draw man and woman toward marriage, family and ultimately toward God. The deep desire that man and woman have for each other is a sign of the desire of the human heart for deep union with God.

There is an even greater love, agape love. Agape love is loving God above ourselves, above all things and above all people. There is no greater example of agape love than that of the martyrs. They were willing to give up everything for Christ, paying the supreme price of love, the gift of their very own life.

Christian tradition recognizes the Roman priest Valentine who became a bishop. Bishop Valentine was a renowned healer. He was imprisoned for converting people to Christianity. An attempt was made to force him to sacrifice to pagan gods. When he refused, an attempt was made to club him to death. When that failed, he was beheaded in 273 AD for the crime of trying to convert a member of Emperor Claudius.

In the Reading from Genesis, God made woman out of man. Out of Adam, God made Eve.

So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that He had taken from the man. Genesis 2:21-22

Saint Valentine, Protector of Marriages, pray for marriages and for all those we pray for.