Angelus News | February 9, 2024 | Vol. 9 No
On the cover: Catholic worshippers recite lines during the Stations of the Cross prayers at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos, Nigeria, on Feb. 24, 2023. On Page 10, John Allen takes a closer look at the unfolding pattern of violence targeting Catholics there, and what it means for the universal Church.
On the cover: Catholic worshippers recite lines during the Stations of the Cross prayers at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lagos, Nigeria, on Feb. 24, 2023. On Page 10, John Allen takes a closer look at the unfolding pattern of violence targeting Catholics there, and what it means for the universal Church.
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Dried palms are placed in a fire at the<br />
conclusion of a Mardi Gras evening<br />
prayer service. Ashes from the fire<br />
are used on Ash Wednesday. | CNS/<br />
GREGORY A. SHEMITZ<br />
Lent is for lovers<br />
BY FATHER PETER JOHN CAMERON, OP<br />
Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day<br />
this year — and they’re trying to tell us the same thing.<br />
This also occurred a few years<br />
back: in 2018, Ash Wednesday<br />
fell on Valentine’s Day (and<br />
previously to that, in 1945). A Dominican<br />
parish in Cincinnati decided to<br />
make hay of it by sponsoring a special<br />
spiritual series for the season titled<br />
“Lent Is for Lovers.” Provocative but<br />
brilliant!<br />
Everybody knows that Valentine’s<br />
Day is a holiday celebrating the joys<br />
of romantic love, but the whole of the<br />
liturgical season of Lent is dedicated<br />
to celebrating the greatest of all loves:<br />
“There is no greater love than this: to<br />
lay down one’s life for one’s friends”<br />
— words spoken by Jesus as he entered<br />
into his Passion (John 15:13).<br />
St. Valentine and God’s friendship<br />
This co-incidence of celebrations is<br />
not coincidental. Valentine, after all,<br />
was a saint who was also a martyr. His<br />
whole existence was about laying down<br />
his life for his Beloved. St. Valentine’s<br />
witness offers the perfect way to commence<br />
our Lent on Ash Wednesday.<br />
According to the 13th- century<br />
classic lives of the saints “The Golden<br />
Legend,” the emperor Claudius one<br />
day confronted the venerable priest<br />
Valentine with these words: “Why do<br />
you not win our friendship by adoring<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>February</strong> 9, <strong>2024</strong>
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