Be my Valentine?

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!  

   Now, as a secular holiday, this one can get pretty depressing.  I mean, all over the place we see ads for chocolate, and here it is the beginning of Lent.  Talk about bad timing.  Not that it works out that way every year, but hey, it happens.  Oh, not to mention the high expectations getting dashed and the longing that gets multiplied in every lonely single heart out there.  We shall conveniently ignore the immorality that abounds out there.   Wait!  Don’t go!  I do have something good to say!!!  Sorry for the sad start, but hey, it’s out there.  Hopefully you’ve never experienced it, but I’ve read enough blogs and forum posts to know that lots of people do find this a horrible tradition, best to be defended against either with no expectations or with “making their own fun” so they don’t feel so left out.  All because of this false, worldly idea of “love.”  But what, pray tell, is love?  And what does a priest martyred for his faith eons ago have to do with romance?

   Don’t get me wrong here.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with “romantic” love.  Actually, I think it’s awesome, and great fun.  Flowers, love letters, chocolates....Mmmm, chocolate...What’s not to love?  It’s all wonderful.  I mean, I’m a hopeless romantic, probably too much of one.  But don’t tell anyone.     Yet I can’t help but feel that romance is the wrong focus for this feast. True, St. Valentine is the patron of married and engaged couples, but I mean, think about it.  When I ask someone to “be my Valentine,” am I really asking them to “be my sweetheart”? Shouldn’t it be “be my holy friend, who will instruct me in the truth and bring me closer to Christ, regardless of the cost”?  Which, if you think about it is absolutely, totally, brilliantly, awesome.  And it’s what friendship is all about. Not to mention true love.  
   May your St. Valentine's Day be full of many true Valentines.  And chocolate, even if you have to save it for Sunday.  Because both good friends and chocolate are further proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.Love and God Bless,Rae