Read this with your eyes, understand it with your heart!

February 14, 2024 Ash Wednesday is Valentine’s Day

Lent is the season of spiritual preparation before Easter done
with fasting, repentance, moderation, self-denial, and spiritual discipline.
During the six weeks of Lent, we go on a 40-day retreat in our inner self to
have self-examination and reflection on the Passion, Death and
Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We make a commitment to fast, or to give up
something, like smoking or drinking, watching TV or movies, dining in
classy restaurants, eating excessive sweets or chocolates. Some Christians
take on Lenten disciplines, like reading the Bible and spending more time in
prayer and reflection to draw nearer to God. Others make spiritual
disciplines like not eating meat on Fridays of the Lenten Season or giving
up luxurious activities. The goal of these spiritual disciplines is to strengthen
the faith of the one who observes the discipline and develop
closer relationship with God.

The 40-day period of Lent is based on two episodes of spiritual readings in

the Bible: the 40 years of wilderness wanderings by the Israelites after
the exodus from Egypt (Numbers 33:38 and Deuteronomy 1:3) and
the Temptation of Jesus after he spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness
(Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). In the Bible, the number 40
holds special significance in the measurement of time.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of the season of Lent, which is 40

days prior to Easter. Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and
important holy days in the liturgical calendar.
Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and
fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes
are made from the blessed palm branches from the previous year’s Palm
Sunday. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the
priest applies the ashes to a person's forehead, he says the words:
"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Alternatively,
the priest may say the words, "Repent and believe in the Gospel."

Observing Ash Wednesday represents our repentance from sin as well

as reflecting on Jesus Christ's sacrificial death to set us free from sin and
death. Following the example of the Ninevites, who did penance in
sackcloth and ashes, our foreheads are marked with ashes to humble our
hearts and reminds us that life passes away on earth. Ashes are a symbol of
penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church, and they help us
develop the spirit of humility and sacrifice. The ashes symbolize penance
and contrition, and they remind us that God is gracious and merciful to
those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His Divine mercy is of utmost
importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls us to seek that
mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.

On Ash Wednesday, we begin to embrace the three pillars of Lent.

Prayer is a 40-day intense prayer experience done in silence,
reflection on the life of Jesus starting from his journey to the desert after
his baptism to the way of the Cross, acts of penance, reconciliation,
increased devotional prayers and Lenten traditions.

Fasting is a form of self-denial and self- sacrifice, and discipline.

Fasting is eating only one full meal, and the other two meals should be
light. Fasting is to be done by those aged 18 years old to 59 years old.

* Abstinence - is refraining from eating meat on Ash Wednesday,

Good Friday and all Fridays during the season of Lent. Those aged
14 above must abstain from eating meat. However, abstinence
goes far beyond meat intake. It may be abstaining from eating other food
that satisfy us or over indulging in activities that give us pleasure or
satisfaction.
 Almsgiving is giving material resources to the poor and the needy.
However, doing charity to our brothers and sisters is not giving only
material things but also giving our time, presence, and attention. It may
include becoming instruments of God so that others may feel loved.

Ash Wednesday is a holy day, so it can't be rescheduled. We hope that

during the season of Lent, we may experience the conversion of heart.

February 14, 2024, is also the Feast of St. Valentine.

Valentine’s Day is an annual festival to celebrate love and friendship. Saint
Valentine was a Catholic priest who also worked as a doctor. He lived in
Italy during the third century AD and served in Rome.

Historians don’t know much about Valentine’s early life. They pick up
Valentine’s story after he began working as a priest. Valentine became
famous for marrying couples who were in love but couldn’t get legally
married in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius II, who outlawed
weddings. Claudius wanted to recruit lots of men to be soldiers in his army
and thought that marriage would be an obstacle to recruiting new soldiers.
He also wanted to prevent his existing soldiers from getting married
because he thought that marriage would distract them from their work.

When Emperor Claudius discovered that Valentine was performing

weddings, he sent Valentine to jail. Here, he befriended his jailer, Asterious.
He became so impressed with Valentine’s wisdom that he asked Valentine
to help his daughter, Julia, with her lessons. Julia was blind and needed
someone to read material for her to learn it. Valentine became friends with
Julia when she came to visit her father in jail.

Emperor Claudius also came to like Valentine. He offered to pardon

Valentine and set him free if Valentine would renounce his Christian faith
and agree to worship the Roman gods. Valentine refused to leave his faith
and encouraged Emperor Claudius to place his trust in Christ. Emperor
Claudius was so enraged at Valentine’s response that he sentenced
Valentine to die.
Before he was killed, Valentine wrote a last note to encourage Julia to stay
close to Jesus. He thanked Julia for being his friend. He signed the note:
“From your Valentine.” That note inspired people to begin writing their own
loving messages to people on Valentine’s Feast Day, February 14th, which is
celebrated on the same day on which Valentine was martyred.

Valentine was beaten, stoned, and beheaded on February 14, 270. People
who remembered his loving service to many young couples began
celebrating his life, and he came to be regarded as a saint through whom
God had worked to help people in miraculous ways. By 496, Pope Gelasius
designated February 14th as Valentine’s official feast day.

The most famous miracle attributed to Saint Valentine involved the farewell
note that he sent to Julia. Believers say that God miraculously cured Julia of
her blindness so that she could personally read Valentine’s note, rather
than just have someone else read it to her.

Throughout the years since Valentine died, people have prayed for him to
intercede for them before God about their romantic lives.
There is one point of connection between these two days – love. Valentine’s
Day revolves around romantic love. Ash Wednesday is a solemn reminder
of Christ’s sacrificial love for us." The cross is the ultimate symbol of divine
love. God, who so loved us, sent His only Son so that we might be saved. It
is a love that is sacrificial as well as life-giving, a kind of love that everyone
should aspire to do.

How can We Celebrate Ash Wednesday when it is St. Valentine’s Day

Go to Mass and receive your ashes.

Mass is beautiful and romantic: we show Jesus our love, and He does much
more for us by giving Himself to us totally, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity!
The Eucharist is Jesus’ holy and intimate gift that we should not take for
granted.
1. Remember to fast.

Fasting is mandatory on Ash Wednesday for Catholics ages 18 to 59. “When

fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller
meals that together are not equal to a full meal.”

2. Don’t forget to abstain.

Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent is a no meat meal for
people aged 14 years old. Abstinence is not only from food but also from
over-indulgence on other food, activities uncharitable thoughts, words, and
actions.

3. Hold on to those sweets, candies and dates

If someone gives you Valentine’s day sweet, candy or chocolate, no

problem! Why not eat it a day early, on Fat Tuesday, or save it for Sunday?
You may schedule Valentine date on Saturday or Sunday.

4. Be grateful

There is no better day to remember the SACRIFICIAL and SAVING LOVE we

received from Jesus Christ than on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday on
Feb. 14 is a "very good opportunity for us to reflect on the magnanimity of
love."

5. Give an Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day card.

Maybe you can take the time to write a note to someone who is lonely, an
elderly neighbor, a friend who’s loved one passed away, or an out-of-state
friend that hasn’t heard from you in a while. Reach out to folks, whom you
know need to be loved even if it takes a little effort. Extend a gentle
presence to them.
6. Learn about the REAL St. Valentine.

Take some time to learn about St. Valentine and his love for Jesus by
keeping his

7. Celebrate VALENTINE meaningfully.

Attend Mass every Sunday, receive Holy Communion, visit Jesus more
often in the Blessed Sacrament, go to confession before Easter. Spend
more time on spiritual introspection.

As an American cartoon strip cleverly puts it, it: