Happy Saint Valentine’s Day and hope you are off to a great Lent!
Each week, we count the blessings and triumphs of the past week to remember that all of this that we have received, is a gift. It can sometimes not feel like much of a gift, when the clutter threatens to take over or health issues or bills loom, but ultimately, all of this life is a valentine from the One who is love, to all of us, who He loves with abandon.
This week, one of the gifts we received was the Pope’s humble decision to step down from the seat of Peter. My mother understood better than me, because she had recently gone through her own hard discernment of what she had to surrender, carrying for my father full time. It was done with love, with prayer, with long thought, with hard listening to the will of God. Lent is an opportunity for all of us to quiet our lives sufficiently to begin doing that hard listening. God is always speaking, but we can only hear when we aren’t the ones talking. Pope Benedict wanted to hear “only God.” And understood he must surrender everything to follow Him. Lent is designed to help us do the same, to discern what we must surrender if we would follow Him.
So I am grateful for our Pope, for my mother’s deep love of my father, for the seasons of our Church, and for the ever present whisper of love from God to each of our hearts. Use this Saint Valentine’s Day to say “I love you” not just to your spouse or your children or your friends or your parents, but to the One who loves us most. Start by telling Him how grateful you are for all the small successes in your life, and for all the gifts this great Lover of us lavishes every day.
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Copyright 2013 Sherry Antonetti
About the Author
Sherry Antonetti
Sherry Antonetti is a Catholic published author, freelance writer and part-time teacher. She lives with her husband and 10 children just outside of Washington, DC, where she's busy editing her upcoming book, A Doctor a Day, to be published by Sophia Institute Press. You can find her other writings linked up at her blog, Chocolate For Your Brain! or on Amazon.
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