Valentine’s Day has become so commercialized, like Christmas, that it has lost most of its original meaning. Many are aware that it is a day that is all about “love”. But they believe it is a day that is all about sexual love. Which, although our sexuality can be expressed in love, many times it is not.
The love that Valentine’s Day is meant to express is “Christian Love”, “Perfect Love”. It is an expression of the “Royal Law” which Saint James speaks about it his Letter in the Bible, James 2:10.
Think about this…
If God is Love [1 Jn. 4:8, 16], as we know that He is, then our best “connection” to God is to live in Love. When we “live outside of Love” through sin, we disconnect ourselves from God… from Love! St. James is saying that when we sin and it “reaches maturity it gives birth to death” [James 1:15]. That “death” is our life, our “connection”, if you will, with God. Remember, God does not disconnect from us, it is us who disconnect ourselves from God by our “Free Will” decision to sin.
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February 15th, 2007 at 7:35 p02
The roots of St. Valentine’s Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year.
Pope Gelasius I was, understandably, less than thrilled with this custom. So he changed the lottery to have both young men and women draw the names of saints whom they would then emulate for the year (a change that no doubt disappointed a few young men). Instead of Lupercus, the patron of the feast became Valentine. For Roman men, the day continued to be an occasion to seek the affections of women, and it became a tradition to give out handwritten messages of admiration that included Valentine’s name.
Excerped from an article on the origin of Valentines day in the American Catholic
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/ValentinesDay/default.asp
February 15th, 2007 at 7:35 p02
Thank you for your informative comment!