From the Vicarage - February
The art of letter and card-writing is dead – so they say. But I have no doubt that February will still bring glee to shopkeepers, tired feet or sore fingers to postal workers and a surge of hope to countless ordinary folk of all ages. That is because whatever else February brings, right in the middle of it all, it will bring a flurry of February 14th antics! The card buying and sending, the writing of cryptic or coded messages of love, the painstakingly chosen gift and the special rendezvous, are all believed to be the responsibility of a certain St Valentine. It could be said that this supposed saintly character has had more impact upon the everyday world than any Saint Peter, St Mary or St Paul! But who was he?
He is assumed to be a combination of two individuals named Valentine, one a Roman Priest, the other a Bishop and both martyred in the early centuries of Christianity. The association Valentine now has with courtship and the choosing of a ‘beloved’ or ‘Valentine’ would seem to come from yet another source – the frivolous antics surrounding an early pagan festival in Rome. But none of this dubious history will dampen the enthusiasm of those determined to make February 14th a day of love to remember– well let’s hope not!
It is however, one of those other Saints –St Paul – who leaves us one of the clearest explanations of LOVE. ‘Love…’, he tells us, ‘is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, does not boast and is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs… Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never ends…’ (1 Corinthians 13.4-8)
February 14th this year, is also Ash Wednesday, a day with other strange antics attached – including the drawing of a grubby looking cross (drawn in the ash made from last year’s Palm Crosses) on the foreheads of those who come to church on that day. It too is in fact a celebration of love; a celebration of the height and depth and width of the love expressed and held out to us by Jesus. The season of Lent which follows Ash Wednesday is an invitation to walk the way of love with him and to place our feet in the prints of love left by him.
February 2024 also gives us an extra 24 hours – it’s called 29th February! How might we spend the gift of an extra day? Perhaps we could do an extra something which is an expression of love for someone who may not be expecting it – a simple act of kindness or trust; a gesture of forgiveness or hopefulness; something which causes us to stretch just a little higher, dig a little deeper, or reach out a little wider than we might ordinarily have done.
Carolyn (Vicar)