On Sunday, February 11, 2024 we celebrate World Marriage Day and on Wednesday, February 14, 2024 we celebrate St Valentine’s Day. World Marriage Day, sponsored by Worldwide Marriage Encounter, “honors the lifelong commitment of husband and wife as head of the family, the basic unit of society. It salutes the beauty of couple's fidelity, sacrifice, and joy in daily married life.” This year’s theme for World Marriage Day is “’Love Beyond Words,’ emphasizing that the permanent, faithful and fruitful love in a sacramental marriage is truly beyond words.” For Catholics Saint Valentine’s Day commemorates the martyrdom of three saints; two near Rome in the 3rd Century and one in Africa. From my limited research, none of them had anything to do with romantic love. Facts aside, Saint Valentine’s Day has been associated with love since the Middle Ages.
Pope Francis wrote extensively about the different dimensions of love in his 2016 Encyclical Letter, Amoris Laetitia, The Joy of Love. In regards to marriage, the Holy Father said: “The sacrament of marriage is not a social tradition, an empty ritual or merely the outward sign of a commitment. The sacrament is a gift given for the sanctification and salvation of the spouses, since ‘their mutual belonging is a real representation through the sacramental sign, of the same relationship between Christ and the Church’.” (72) The Holy Father continued saying that: “Christian marriage is a sign of how much Christ loved his Church in the covenant sealed on the cross, yet it also makes that love present in the communion of the spouses.” (73)
St Valentine’s Day is a special day to celebrate love. Marriage is the lifelong commitment of two people to grow in mutual love, spirituality, gratitude, sacrifice and faithfulness. And so, this week we celebrate love and commitment.
Prayer for World Marriage Day
Father, we thank you for your tremendous gift
of the Sacrament of Marriage.
Help us to witness to its glory
by a life of growing intimacy.
Teach us the beauty of forgiveness
so, we may become more and more
One in Heart, Mind and Body.
Strengthen our dialogue and help us
become living signs of your love.
Make us grow more in love with the Church
so we may renew the Body of Christ.
Make us a sign of unity in the name of
Jesus, our Lord and Brother.
Amen
Father Bill Dilgen, S. M. M.
