Yes, there was a Saint Valentine. In fact it seems there were many early Christian martyrs named Valentine.
But people do not think of these saints when they celebrate St. Valentine’s Day. February 14 is a more superficial celebration of ‘romantic love’, popularised by Medieval artists, Renaissance poets and contemporary commercial entrepreneurs.
This is far from the witness of early Christian Valentines who died as martyrs in love of their God.
Don’t accept anything you find written here without first verifying it in your own experience.
Salvation is not the addition of a programme to our already full hard-drives, or a reboot, but the offer of abundant life
The central question is not about who is in, who is out, who is right or who is wrong, but Is there love?
I usually spend a day with the following day’s scripture so that in the evening I have something to share in these FFF posts.
We know, in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers, that our only hope is in God. Our only hope is in God.
I’ve been a part of a few great end-of-year gatherings in recent weeks and there’s always some great conversations
And this is a problem we share. We are all runners – running from God’s love, escaping the relationship in which we are most loved
Then, before sundown that evening, something remarkable happened. We heard the Muslim family of faith in our city, wives and husbands, parents and children of those who had died, speaking of love
Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.
Latest Posts
If you are ready for a broader faith perspective you might appreciate this offering – something a little different
In every encounter, local and afar, with people of every age and at every stage of life, the struggles and joys of people are remarkably similar.
Humans too often make the fatal mistake of separating body and soul, yet our deep desire is for unity of body and soul.
Both readings are personal favourites and every time I hear them and ponder them these texts speak to me in new and powerful ways.
Too often we settle for an existence of lurching from one satisfaction to the next.