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Valentine’s Day And Ash Wednesday
Today is Valentine’s Day. St. Valentine of Rome was a bishop and martyr and he was the celebrant of several marriages for young couples in peril. Valentine’s Day should be a day we Christians show our culture what true love is: the true love of Jesus Christ.
Today, we also mark Ash Wednesday by receiving a cross of ash on our foreheads that reminds us of our mortality: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It's interesting that we give chocolate to our loved one with ashes on our forehead.
Tonight, we will receive a cross of ashes on our forehead. For forty days, we will repent and renew ourselves by opening our heart to God intentionally. Repentance is not about beating us up but about relaxing, letting go and taking ourselves back out of the driver’s seat and trusting loving God.
On Valentine’s day, we declare that we are loved by God. Therefore, we are privileged to be able to start again. No matter what we have done. Regardless of where we have been. Despite all our past. At this moment we begin again. We start on a journey as we move forward in the way of Love.
On Ash Wednesday, we declare that we come from dust and being human is a holy thing, our mortality is a holy thing because we are sanctified by the Christ who came, the Christ who died, and rose again. For forty days, Happy Valentine’s Day to you all and be a lover! Happy Ash Wednesday and be beloved by God! Let us allow the LOVE of God to touch our forehead and then feel the flow gently descend through us being as we share that LOVE with our loved ones today.
Tonight, we invite you to join us on the journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter and to make everyday Valentine's Day and the opportunity to know in the fullness of our being that WE ARE LOVED.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, let us get to know YOU better and to become aware of YOU more during the Lenten season. Amen
Reflection:
"There are only two major paths by which the human soul comes to God: the path of great love, and the one of great suffering. If we love anything greatly, we will eventually suffer for it. To love anything in depth and over the long term, we eventually must suffer.” (Richard Rohr)
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