Words of Love on Valentine's Day!

Who was Valentine?

Christian tradition recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and  families & outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine defied Claudius and  continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret—until his actions were discovered & he was put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine  may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend,  an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself  after befriended a young girl–possibly his jailor’s daughter–who visited him  during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter  signed “From your Valentine…”

Words about Love

Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.  What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.  It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, what you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.  Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.  Pedro Arrupe, SJ

1 Corinthians 13 from the Common English Bible

If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have love, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all the mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains but I don’t have love, I’m nothing. 3 If I give away everything that I have and hand over my own body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have love, I receive no benefit whatsoever.  4 Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, 5 it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, 6 it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. 7 Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.  8 Love never fails. As for prophecies, they will be brought to an end. As for tongues, they will stop. As for knowledge, it will be brought to an end. 9 We know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, what is partial will be brought to an end. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become a man, I’ve put an end to childish things. 12 Now we see a reflection in a mirror; then we will see face-to-face. Now I know partially, but then I will know completely in the same way that I have been completely known. 13 Now faith, hope, and love remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love.

“An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.” John Wesley

“When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you. Where before there was anonymity, now there is intimacy; where before there was fear, now there is courage; where before in your life there was awkwardness, now there is a rhythm of grace and gracefulness; where before you used to be jagged, now you are elegant and in rhythm with your self. When love awakens in your life, it is like a rebirth, a new beginning.”  from “Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom” by John O’Donohue

“Poem (4)” (To the Black Beloved) by Langston Hughes

Ah,

My black one,

Thou art not beautiful

Yet thou hast

A loveliness

Surpassing beauty.

Oh,

My black one,

Thou art not good

Yet thou hast

A purity

Surpassing goodness.

Ah,

My black one,

Thou art not luminous

Yet an altar of jewels,

An altar of shimmering jewels,

Would pale in the light

Of thy darkness,

Pale in the light

Of thy nightness.

From “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alligeri

 The love of God, unutterable and perfect,

Flows into a pure soul the way that light

Rushes into a transparent object.

 The more love that it finds, the more it gives

Itself; so that, as we grow clear and open,

The more complete the joy of loving is.

 And the more souls who resonate together,

The greater the intensity of their love,

For, mirror-like, each soul reflects the others.