Celebrating St. Valentine's Day!
Link to "We're Gonna Stay" http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4768267
This coming week, seven or eight couples in Living Waters will be going for a St. Valentine's get-away! This is a decades long tradition. The group has produced a bevy of wonderful marriages and families, quite inter-related by blood, marriage and Sacrament ties. In the past, we've been given 'homework' at these gatherings: to write a poem, a song, or even haikus! I think we just want to REST this time. I'm sure we will have great fun - we always do.
It got me to thinking about the original martyr story. Valentinus had such enthusiasm for life & learning that his love more than triumphed over his seeming tragedy, just as Christ did on the Cross. The jailor took his blind daughter Julia to be educated by him. With the power of the charity that is chastity, he was free enough to open her mind and heart to a whole world and to the power of God's love. In the end, she miraculously received her physical eyesight, too, but that was just a 'sign' of the true eyesight given to hearts which love with God's sacrificial agape love. Valentinus was martyred on February 14, 270. There were actually several martyrs of this name, but I would look up this most popular story.
My wife's name is Julia. I often tell her what a coincidence it is that the Julia in the story is ALso so very pretty, intelligent and wise. (I try not to tell her she's blind! We do try to be blind to each other's weaknesses!) Paul in Ephesians said marriage is like a great 'musterion' ( in Latin, 'sacramentum') which exactly mirrors the union of Christ and the Church. The Risen Christ inhabits such love with all the power of His Spirit. Our song "We're Gonna Stay" is about that Resurrecting Power in the face of seemingly impossible odds. May you all experience this great love within whatever vocation you are called....
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