Happy Valentine’s Day, dear Pilgrims of Hope!
What does love look like?
Oh, the butterflies in the stomach. There is nothing like that feeling. And at least this year the Catholics can celebrate Valentine’s Day unlike last year when it fell on Ash Wednesday. It is kind of hard to appreciate the flowers and chocolates when the poetry of the day contains, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust”.
But maybe it was a fitting picture for the day after all. Because is love just butterflies and gooey feelings? When you think of love, what do you see in front of your inner eye?
My perception of love has changed over the last few years. I thought to find love was to make ME happy. I never thought of the other person and that it is a way to get each other to heaven.
The pictures that come to my mind now when I think about love are more like this: Today I saw a young nun pushing an elderly nun in the wheelchair. I think of a priest tired from his day getting up at night to give someone the Anointing of the Sick on their deathbed. I think of a friend who is taking care of this wife that is suffering from dementia while he struggles with his own health. And I see love when I look at Christ crucified. Because the only reason he did what he did, to die voluntarily one of the most horrific deaths, was because he loves us.
But love is not always suffering. I also think of a young couple in my parish that got married before Christmas and them holding hands and laughing together while we were hiking. Their relationship has deepened since their Nuptial Mass and it can be seen outwardly. They have truly become “one”.
Let us pray today, dear pilgrims of hope, for holy marriages, vocations to the priesthood and the religious life and for all the couples that are discerning marriage. We also pray in a special way for everyone that is feeling lonely and forgotten today. God loves you, allow Him into your heart and to be your Valentine. When we do something for someone else, we get to share in each others happiness. Let us go out and show the true mark of a Christian to the world on Valentine’s Day: Joy and love for one another in service to each other.
PS: Remember that Holy place I told you about yesterday, the Convent of the Poor Clares? The spirit of St Francis is truly present when even the butterflies let themselves be picked up.