By JOIN ME for Day 7? We’re spending 9 days in the Upper Room of our hearts with both 💘 Saints & Sinners as we prepare to celebrate the true meaning behind Saint Valentine’s Day:
📖 READ SCRIPTURE:
Love covers over a multitude of sins.
– 1 Peter 4:8
💝 REFLECT:
What does it mean to cover?
Noah’s sons demonstrate this spiritual reality nicely in Genesis 9:23.
Love covers over the shame of others who have stumbled, to protect their hearts from further ridicule, and to keep their honor from being lost to the Lord.
What is a multitude?
How many sins must my love cover over for the Noah’s in my day? Like the demoniac infested with a multitude of demons, God’s love covered him, even in the darkest places, even in his sins. My love should cover Legions. Hordes. Masses. All who gather.
Though we may be scorned, rejected, betrayed, and especially mocked for our love, we need only turn our eyes to the cross to see what it means to be someone’s Valentine. Like the Saint bishop the day is named after, Jesus takes our forbidden love and marries it to the cross. He does not deny it and put it in prison but puts it on a cross for those who can see it hidden in his blood.
To Be His Valentine, is to be crucified for Love.
🍎 SAINT WISDOM:
“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.”
–St Augustine
Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle.
–Imitation of Christ
To be taken with love for a soul, God does not look on its greatness, but the greatness of its humility.
–St John of the Cross, OCD
Always remember to love your neighbor; always prefer the one who tries your patience, who test your virtue, because with her you can always merit: suffering is Love; the Law is Love.
–Bl Mary of Jesus Crucified “The Little Arab”
“Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders.”
–St. Anthony Mary Claret
“We can cure physical diseases with medicine but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more who are dying for a little love. Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So spread love everywhere you go.”
–Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“There is no place for selfishness—and no place for fear! Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice”
–Pope John Paul II
🕊 LET US PRAY:
In the words of St. Bernadette Soubirous, “My Jesus, fill my heart with so much love that one day it will break just to be with you. My Jesus, you know I have placed you as a seal on my heart. Remain there always.”
Blessed Mother of Our Lord, Saint Joseph, Holy angels and saints of Heaven, especially Saint Valentine, pray for me, that my heart be made worthy of the image of Jesus. Lord, I long to be your Valentine. In the Holy name of Jesus, King of My Heart, Amen.
