Saturday, February 14, 2009

The liturgy certainly offers some appropriate thoughts for this Valentine's Day: the second reading from the Office of Readings was Bl. Isaac of Stella on charity, and in the Gospel today, Jesus tells us what is in his heart as he looks on "the great crowd without anything to eat." Jesus came to their rescue before the people even had time to get anxious about the situation. ("Your Father knows what you need before you ask; seek first his kingdom and way of holiness and everything else will be given you in addition.")

After our Wednesday Theology of the Body session, I find myself reflecting on St. Valentine. All we know about him is that he was a priest and martyr. But in the light of the Theology of the Body, the connection of this priest with romantic love makes more sense than ever. Because in the Catholic sacramental system (and even more in the Eastern Churches), the priest's role is not only that of a representative of the people before God: he represents the Divine Bridegroom before his Bride, the Church. So... St. Valentine's Day is perfectly suited to the celebration of the love that finds its full expression in marriage, and that mirrors the love of Christ and the Church.

2 comments:

Association of Pauline Cooperators said...

Thanks for all of your thoughts Sr Anne. If you had titles on your blog entries they would show up on paulinelaity.blogspot.com and would be even more enticing for readers to link to.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Sr. Margaret Kerry for her suggestion. Whatever spreads His word.