Saint Valentine

Saint Valentine: Feast Day Feb. 14th

Happy Valentine’s Day! During your life time, I’m sure you’ve heard and said this phase numerous times as you’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day, but have you ever stopped to wonder who the saint behind the day actually was? Unfortunately, there is not a lot of factual information known about Saint Valentine, but two stories that have been told about him, through the centuries, are: (1) He was a priest who secretly married couples against the Roman emperor’s law, and (2) that before he was martyred, he gave a letter to his friend, his jailer’s daughter, that said “From your Valentine” (Britannica article). With both of these associations to him, Saint Valentine is the patron saint of lovers and beekeepers (maybe this is why flowers are typically given as presents on Valentine’s Day???). 

As you and your family celebrate Saint Valentine today, reflect on the notion that God loves us with a love that is beyond anything we know here on earth, and that all he wants is for us to love him back and hear, “I love you, God, my Father,” from our lips. God is LOVE! The ultimate meaning of the word, and the greatest lover of our hearts. If you haven’t read Father Michael Gaitley’s book, 33 Days to Greater Glory: A Total Consecration to the Father Through Jesus Based on the Gospel of John, Valentine’s Day is a great day to begin reading and reflection upon the Father’s love for you! This year, I will me finishing my 33 days and making my consecration to the Father on Saint Valentine’s Day, my heart is super excited! 

Celebrating Through Food:

For dinner tonight, make a heart shaped pizza. You can shape your pizza dough into the shape of a heart, or you can make a giant heart on your pizza out of pepperoni and other toppings. You can also add diced artichoke-hearts to your pizza to continue the heart theme. Serve your pizza with sparkling cider and/or a red wine, and toast to love, and to the reality that “God is love,” an agape love we cannot truly comprehend. 

For a sweet treat for dessert, make Sweetheart Cookies  using this great recipe from “Taste of Home,” or make heart-shaped sugar cookies with red and pink sprinkles. We made the Sweetheart Cookies and added a little bit of red food coloring to give them a pink color as well as a few chocolate sprinkles on top of the jam. They were delicious!

Celebrating Through Crafts:

Make valentines cards for family members, neighbors and/or people in nursing homes who might not receive a card. You can also make Valentine’s cards for Jesus and Mary like my daughter did.

Celebrating Through Prayer:

Make a spiritual bouquet 💐that you can offer to the Holy Trinity and/or the Blessed Virgin Mary. Spiritual bouquets are prayers that you will say and/or sacrifices you will make. You can make a Valentine’s card and list what you will do inside it, or like what you will see if you Google spiritual bouquets, you can make several paper flowers and list the prayers and sacrifices you will make on each flower. Spend the day completing the prayers and sacrifices listed on your spiritual bouquet. Here is a template I made that you can print and color. 

You and your family can also write a family Valentine’s Day prayer that you can say together at dinner or pray this Prayer for loving others from the Diocese of Orlando.

Saint Valentine, as we celebrate your feast day today and the emotion and beautiful reality of love, pray that we may grow in love for our Heavenly Father and devote our hearts and lives to loving Him and doing His holy will. Saint Valentine, pray for us!