Bishop calls for Lenten spirit on Valentine’s

MANILA, Philippines — With Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day this year, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas has called on the faithful to “fill Valentine’s Day with the Lenten spirit.”

In his message titled “Lessons of love for Ash Wednesday,” Villegas said Feb. 14 is a good day to reflect on love and what it really means. 

Valentine’s Day is in honor of the feast of St. Valentine, a Roman priest of the third century whom the emperor wanted killed for helping Christian couples get married. He was beaten with clubs and stones and eventually beheaded.

 “Ash Wednesday falling on Valentine’s Day gives us a good occasion to dig more deeply into the meaning of love as much as to correct kindly our wrong notions of love,” Villegas said.

He called on the people to relocate love from romanticism to heroism, to move from cheap love to true love, and to fill Lent with love.

“Let us fill Valentine’s Day with the Lenten spirit,” he said.

“The real symbol of love is not Cupid with shooting arrow but Christ hanging on the cross declaring at Calvary that there is no greater love than to die for your beloved,” he added.

Villegas cited ways how love is best expressed.

 He said “love is best shown by suffering with your loved one or suffering instead of your loved one.”

Villegas also said that “fasting and abstinence are acts of love.”

As the season of Lent begins, the faithful are mandated by Catholic tradition to fast and abstain.

Villegas said every Catholic at least 14 years of age must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all the Fridays of Lent. Every Catholic between ages 18 to 60 must also fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Catholics should give the food they are supposed to eat to the poor, who practically fast every day due to extreme poverty.

“Fasting and abstinence are not exercises of will power. We eat less so the hungry can have more. We enjoy less so those who suffer may receive some comfort,” Villegas explained.

Villegas said love is also best expressed by prayer.

“Prayer is being in the presence of God. When we pray, God stays by us. When we pray, distances are narrowed. In prayer, we get united even if we are physically apart,” he said.

“Prayer brings us together. The Lenten season is time for more prayers of presence; not just reciting more prayers but praying in silence and solitude, welcoming the Lord and everybody, friends and enemies together, into our souls,” he added.

Lastly, love is best shown by giving.

“Love is generous. Love gives without counting the cost. It has been said that you can give without loving but you cannot love without giving,” Villegas said.

“Giving has become so much a part of you that you cannot live without giving. Let selfless giving become our second nature. Giving will not hurt anymore,” he added.