Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day is the day that just about everyone buys and sends cards expressing their love and gratitude for loved ones.  It is the second biggest sale day for cards and gifts next to Christmas.  I received several cards this year and I am grateful for the gift those who sent them are in my life.  Some of the cards were unexpected and were a surprise.  As I reflected on what Valentine’s Day means to be I was reminded of St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians where Paul writes, “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.  And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became an adult, I put aside childish things.  At present, we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.  So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Let us always remember God’s greatest gift to us – the gift of unconditional love!  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pat Schifini,, OSU