Celebrate Saint Valentine's Day with the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Margaret Rash shares her plans for fer family celebration of Saint Valentine's Day, and encourages devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Every St. Valentine's Day in my house feels like a missed opportunity to pass on the faith. I'll admit, I'm guilty of getting caught up in the fun of the day; the kids love the candy hearts, the little cards, any excuse for gifts or treats and I am partial to a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers for my kitchen countertop. But I'm left wishing I did more that day to teach my kids about our faith and also wishing I ate less of the candy hearts.

So this year, we're implementing some simple ways to have fun celebrating the day while also making it a meaningful and faith-filled experience.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart

As a family, we will be praying a prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We will be asking Jesus to give us His Sacred Heart and we will give Him our hearts on that day.

Instead of flower bouquets and the usual cards, we will make and give each other Spiritual Bouquets, and we will be reading about the real St. Valentine.

These are not difficult or complicated practices and don't take too much planning, but they're small ways we can incorporate more of Jesus during our day.

Though I probably will still eat too many candy hearts.

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Take Jesus as Your Valentine

Though the month of the Sacred Heart isn't until June, it's never a bad time to take Jesus as your Valentine!

If you want to do the same with your family this year, here are some tips:

You can make your own Spiritual Bouquet cards; they are simply little notes stating what prayers you will say for the person and their intentions. My children are ages 8 and under and love crafting, so we will be cutting out flower shapes from construction paper, writing the prayers we will say on the flowers and then handing them out. But you can make them as elaborate or low-key as you like!

There are different prayers of consecration to the Sacred Heart; the text we will use is from an antique image of the Sacred Heart that we have in our home, but you can find a prayer that resonates with you and your family or write your own.

Learning about Saint Valentine can be simple as well; again, my children are young, so we'll be reading this book from Brother Francis: The Story of Saint Valentine.

There are other things you can do to bring Jesus into the day as well, including attending Mass that day, or planning an enthronement ceremony of an image of the Sacred Heart in your home.

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