ST. VALENTINE'S DAY MARRIAGE RESOURCES

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
5 Feb 2014

Across all cultures and all centuries traditional marriage has been bedrock of society

St Valentine's Day is an opportunity for men and women of faith to proclaim their beliefs and deeply held values. It is also a time to promote and affirm marriage and life-long romantic love.

"In a culture that is increasingly intolerant of Christian values and beliefs, (religious) feasts that have captured the imagination of the secular community such as St Valentine's Day, represent a unique opportunity for the Church," says Bishop Eugene Hurley, Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life.

In the midst of the commercialisation of St Valentine's Day, it is important we highlight the positive good of our values and reinforce the need to protect them for the benefit of the community and for society as a whole, he says.

While St Valentine's Feast Day may no longer be on the Catholic Church's liturgical calendar, he remains one of the world's most well-known saints and is commemorated by Christians and non-Christians alike as the patron Saint of engaged couples and romantic love within marriage.

But in the commercial frenzy of the Feast Day, not only has the Saint of Valentine's Day been dropped but the secular world has replaced the age-old and sacred tradition of honouring romantic love in the context of life-long marriage with a romantic free-for-all where love of all persuasions, genders and degrees is celebrated.

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"It's time we put the Saint back in St Valentine's Day and reclaimed the day as our own," says Chris Meney, Director of the Archdiocese of Sydney's Life, Family and Marriage Centre.

Over the past 50 years, Christians have seen the commercialisation of important festivals on the Church calendar.

The secularisation of St Valentine's Day is no different. But as with Christmas, the Church is taking a stand and on February 14 this year, the faithful are being urged to remember what the day really means.

For  the past five years the Bishops Commission Pastoral Life through the Australian Catholic Marriage and Family Council has created a St Valentine's Day resource kit to reaffirm the importance of the vocation of Christian marriage and the joy and rewards of life-long romantic married love.

Throughout history across all cultures, faiths and periods of time, marriage has been the bedrock of society and provided a stable, loving and ideal environment in which to raise children to become strong, independent adults.

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But in modern times, marriage and traditional values have come under increasing under attack and no longer considered by many in the secular world as important or even necessary.

Private member bills aimed at legalising same sex marriage continue swamp state and federal parliaments with same sex couples not only able to legally adopt children but who have the right to have their names put on the child's birth certificate.

In Australia St Valentine's Day might be celebrated as a day for lovers but in the store promotions, TV ads and excitement touting couples to spend big on long stemmed roses, boxes of chocolates and romantic candlelit dinners for two, marriage is seldom mentioned.

But the true meaning of St Valentine's Day should give all of us pause, and be used as a time to reflect on marriage and the innate joyfulness and deep happiness of life-long romantic love.

St Valentine's is patron saint of marriage and romantic love

Among the resources in the kit for St Valentine's Day 2014, which is also known by the Church as World Marriage Day, are notes for liturgies, prayers of the faithful, readings, blessings for couples, offertory prayers, homily notes for parish Masses and school celebrations, and advice and tips to keep marriages vibrant and alive.

This year's St Valentine's Day resource kit, compiled by the ACBC's Bishops Commission for Pastoral Life, also features Growing in Love, which emphasises the importance of commitment by couples to understanding the sacrament of marriage and how this can strengthen and deepen their love for each other and for God.

Growing in Love also encourages couples to make time for one another. Perhaps putting aside 10 minutes each day for one another is far more important than giving or receiving a bunch of red roses on St Valentine's Day. Equally important is couples praying together with those who are married or contemplating marriage urged to develop a daily habit of praying together.

"We know that as a sacrament, marriage also is a light; it illuminates an aspect of God that is fundamental to our understanding," this year's St Valentine's Day resource kit says and goes on to explain that: "Marriage helps us to 'see' the loving intimacy between the Father, Son and Spirit. Just as the Father gives himself totally to Jesus, the Sun, so does Jesus give himself without reservation to the Father and from their union, the Holy Spirit proceeds giving life to the world. In a similar way, a husband gives himself totally to his wife, as she responds with her own gift of self to him, and from their union, new life springs forth."

Chris Meney, Director of Life, Marriage and Family Centre

In addition to pastoral, spiritual and practical advice to couples, the kit contains a 12-point plan for parishes, schools as well as couples and individuals to help build a marriage-friendly community where the gift of marriage is not only embraced but celebrated and emulated.

As the kit points out, it is also important on this day to remember St Valentine was a real person who lived as a Roman priest in the 4th Century. But when Emperor Claudius II banned all weddings in order to recruit more single young men to his army, St Valentine defied him. Showing great bravery and determination as well as a soft heart, he married young couples in secret. Eventually caught, he was beheaded on February 14 269 A.D.

But his courage lives on and the date of his death remains a day when couples and love take centre stage. RESOURCE KIT:

To access the St Valentine's Day resource kit log on to www.acmfc.org.au/st-valentines-day-2014 
Shared from Archdiocese of Sydney