Pastor’s Letter: February 16, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: February 16, 2025

14 Feb 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

May the Lord’s blessing be upon you all this day! I hope everyone is navigating well through this stretch of winter weather. I was talking with a couple of our people this week about how February can be such a tough month. While February is our shortest month in terms of number of days, to be honest, it often feels like a long month because of the cold dreariness of winter. For some people, one bright spot in this month occurs on February 14. As a Church, we celebrate that day two brothers from the 800s, Sts. Cyril and Methodius (last week’s bulletin cover).  These brothers are called the “Apostles to the Slavs,” and were really ahead of their time in several ways. As missionaries to the Slavic peoples, they worked on translating the Bible and our liturgical prayers into the Slavic language (at a time long before this was common), actually creating an alphabet to make the translation possible. The characters used for this language are called “Cyrillic,” named after St. Cyril. While these great missionary saints are certainly worthy of celebration, many people have another focus for February 14…Valentine’s Day. On the surface, for many, this holiday is about exchanging cards with red hearts and candy for our younger people…roses and fine chocolates for our grownups. However, below the surface this day is a reminder of the true love we strive to have for God and each other.

As you may or may not know, the origin of this “feast day” lies with a couple ancient martyrs named Valentine who shared the same day—February 14—in the list of martyrs. Both of these men were martyrs for the Christian Faith and each of them was honored for that sacrifice by the early Church. So how does a day to honor martyrs become a day for sweethearts? Some scholars might point to the Middle Ages and talk about Geoffrey Chaucer or other writers who noted that February 14 was the day when birds chose their mates. Perhaps by extension, a day when people saw birds pairing up could be a reminder of how we are paired together with those we love.

Even in the midst of some medieval history, for me the best explanation of this feast day goes back to the beginning with our St. Valentines. In the gospels, Jesus taught us that the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind…and to love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mt 22:36-40). He also taught us to love one another as he loved us (cf. Jn 13:34; 15:12). These familiar passages remind us to love God with all that we have and to look to Jesus as a model of that love. How did Jesus love? Jesus loved in humility being born in Bethlehem; loved in obedience to Mary and Joseph; loved in truth through his words; loved in generosity with those in need; loved in gentleness with little children; loved in sacrifice in giving everything he had for us, giving it all on the cross so that our hearts could be free.

Does that sound like a lot? It is! To look upon the perfect love of Jesus can sometimes be overwhelming—especially if we see that our love has much growing to do! Thankfully, we have in the saints and martyrs a wonderful gift: they show us what it means to live out the love of Christ…and they show us that we can do it too! The martyrs love in the way Jesus loved, giving all they have in faithfulness to Christ and the Church. They don’t hold back when it might be easier, safer, or more convenient for them. They generously give everything they can, trusting in God to take care of them and bring happiness to their hearts.

What if we all decide to really love in this way during the month of February? What if we look for opportunities to make sacrifices for each other? What if we decide to give all that we have to God and to one another? If we do this, then February won’t be dreary at all! Instead, it could be become the brightest and most wonderful month of all! As St. John wrote, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Know of my prayers for you all this week!

In Christ,

Father Luke