Aahhhh February! This has to be one of my favorite months. For a month that only has 28 or 29 days, there are a lot of days that we celebrate this month. Of course, we have Valentine’s Day. This is the day Saint Valentinus is remembered and honored for his faithfulness to The Church.
St. Valentinus was a Priest of Rome. Judge Asterius had issued an arrest warrant for him for discussing Christianity, and while he was under arrest he was heard discussing the validity of Jesus. He was reported to the Judge and was summoned to use his faith to cure the judge’s daughter who was blind. He placed his hands upon her eyes and she was cured of her blindness. The day this happened was Feb. 14, 269 AD.
He was ordered by Claudius to renounce his religion, but Claudius was disobeyed so he ordered that St. Valentinus was to be beheaded. Just prior to his death, St. Valentinus sent a message to the girl whose eyes he had cured. He signed it “Your Valentine.” Do you suppose that’s where the whole Valentine greeting came from?
You do remember that this is the month of love and one where we share our thoughts about love and faithfulness with those who are closest to us, right? Originally this day was set aside to honor and to render to their better half all the things that are romantic. It was originally called St. Valentine’s Day. Let’s talk about the title we give each other in marriage on this date. Don’t we tend to call our loved ones, “our better half?”
Whether it is a wife or husband, they are our better half because we would be nothing without them. We must never take them for granted or fail to show them respect. They may be the husband or the wife in your family, but they are also the glue that holds the family together. Our mates are usually the very best thing about us and it is they who make us complete.
Are you of an age when we used to trade or give Valentine’s cards while receiving one from the other kids in school? I can remember it, but I don’t really put a lot of thought to the day because even though the cards were available in just about any store and sold for about 50 cents for 20 or 30 cards, I was informed that there was no money in the Worthy budget for the Valentine’s card exchange. The exchange of cards was done quietly, so there were no bad reactions. You could also make your own card, as paper and glue was available.
Since this issue will get delivered before Valentine’s Day, can I tell you how we used to celebrate this day of love? It was a long time ago when I was young. I was attending a small country school with two rooms. The fifth grade through the eighth grade was in one room, and the little kids were in another.
In our school we all knew each other pretty well. My girlfriend was Shirley Bognuda; well OK, I wished she was my girlfriend. She wasn’t aware that I was going to ask her to be my Valentine. She was a grade ahead of me and our circles of friends were different.
Even if my piggybank was empty, I didn’t have to buy a Valentine’s Day card, I could make her a card! I wouldn’t even have to sign it. I was going to put it on her desk while the class was in recess. However, my insecurities forced me to forgo that part of the day. It would have been easy because you could hand the Valentine to another kid and ask them to give it to Shirley or you could put it in the empty inkwell we had on our desks back then on the way into class from recess.
It’s OK if you never had those in-school celebrations. We don’t do celebrations in classrooms anymore. Shoot! We don’t even have classes anymore.
I must speak of my lovely Valentine, Lorraine. She is a lot of things to a lot of people: wife, mother, chef, best friend and lover. She also has taken the responsibility of our piggybank when needed and makes sure our bills are paid on time. She taught me love and has made my life complete. She has shown me what true love is; she will always be my Valentine.
God Bless.
