FEBRUARY 14, 2024 – ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR. & ASH WEDNESDAY.

• Sts. Cyril & Methodius (869). Bishop. (Current) Apostles to the Slavs. Created the Cyrillic alphabet.
• St. Valentine (269). Martyr, Patron or Patroness, Priest. Patron of letter greetings & lovers. see here. (Traditional)

VALENTINE was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecution under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent by the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his promises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him to be beaten with clubs, and afterward to be beheaded, which was executed on the 14th of February, about the year 290 Pope Julius I is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, which for a long time gave name to the gate, now called Porta del Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his relics are now in the church of St. Praxedes. To abolish the heathen’s lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of this month, several zealous pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets given on this day.

REFLECTION: In the cause of justice and truth, prudence should not be held in account; otherwise prudence is mere human respect. St. Paul says: “The wisdom of the flesh is death.”

ASH WEDNESDAY

MAN, drawn from the dust, must return to it, and all that he does meanwhile, with the exception of what good he may achieve, is but dust and vanity; the good alone survives. Such are the truths which the Church wishes to engrave in the memory, but still more in the hearts of her children, by the sprinkling of ashes on this first day of Lent. This custom dates from the first centuries of the Church, and was then observed, not toward all the faithful without distinction, but toward public sinners who had submitted themselves to canonical penance, to obtain thereby reconciliation with the Church and admission to a share in the Divine Eucharist. The bishop imposed on them the obligation of wearing the hair-shirt and penitent garb, placing ashes on their head, and then excluding them from the church until the day of Easter. Meanwhile, they had to remain humbly prostrate at the church-porch, imploring the prayers of those who, more happy than they, might assist at the divine mysteries within the sacred building. The custom of putting ashes on the head in token of penitence is even more ancient than Christianity; the Jews practiced it, and the holy King David tells us that he had submitted to the observance. It may be said rather to date from the first ages of the world; for the holy man Job, long before even the time of Moses, followed the custom. Nothing is, in fact, more calculated to lead the sinner to enter into himself than the remembrance of his last end. Nothing is better fitted to beat down pride and put a check on futile projects and guilty purposes than the terrible and sad memento, “Remember that thou art but dust!” Empires, riches, honors, and dignities, resplendent palaces, triumphal cars, fair adornments, beauty, strength, and power, all crumble away, and their very possessor is but a ruin, and, ere a few days have sped, will have dwindled into dust.

REFLECTION: Bear ever in mind, then, men and sinners, that “you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.”

WORD OF THE DAY

SODOM. A town always coupled with Gomorrah in characterizing places of infamy and sinful living. They were probably located on land now completely covered by the southern waters of the Dead Sea. The most likely explanation for this is that about 1900 B.C. an earthquake depressed the plain on which Sodom and Gomorrah were established (Genesis 13:10). Scripture interprets this catastrophe as Yahweh’s determination to punish an evil population. Abraham tried his best to dissuade Yahweh, lest innocent people be punished with guilty, but evidently the only just man who could be found was Lot, Abraham’s nephew (Genesis 18:20-32). Frequently in Scripture reference is made to the destruction of the doomed cities as proverbial warnings of Yahweh’s punishment of evil (Isaiah 3:9; Lamentations 4:6). Indeed, Jesus himself, in instructing his Apostles, told them that towns that refused to listen to their message would suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:15).

Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)

LENT MEDITATION DAY 1

Enjoy daily meditations this lent from Fr. Richard Clarke, SJ. Short and powerful, written in 1880 for busy lay people to reap rewards through lent. (includes audio) Lent Day 1: Ash Wednesday— The Anticipation of the Passion.

This article, FEBRUARY 14, 2024 – ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR. & ASH WEDNESDAY. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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