In most stores in the weeks leading up to St. Valentine’s day, you’re likely to find a plethora of pink and red cards, heart-shaped boxes of Russell Stover chocolates, and decor with nearly-naked chubby cherubs shooting hearts with bows and arrows.

It’s a far cry from the real Saint Valentine, an early Christian martyr who was bludgeoned and beheaded for his faith.

It’s also a far cry from an early Roman fertility ritual also celebrated on February 14, where men ran through the streets slapping women with the flesh of recently-sacrificed animals.

The Trump administration's peace plan for Israel and Palestine embodies none of the ingredients of successful conflict resolution, including talking and listening, accommodation of core interests, and a compromise solution that the majority can support. It reads, not surprisingly, more like a real-estate transaction.

SALT OF THE EARTH
You’d think that one of the beatitudes was blessed be the bland. But instead, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount you are the salt of the earth (Mat. 5:13). Salt is savory, not dull and boring. It actually has the power to make insipid food tasty and to preserve food that would otherwise spoil. Salt was so valuable in antiquity that it was often used to pay soldiers their wages. The Latin term for salt is actually the origin of our English word salary. Hence the expression “he’s worth his salt.”

I try to visit Lourdes once a year to spend time in prayer with Jesus and Mary. During my week-long visits, I concelebrate the English Mass. The Mass tends to be for “orphan” pilgrims, because most pilgrims come with a group and a priest. I always enjoy speaking with people after Mass, outside the chapel, learning who they are, where they are from, and what they are praying for. One couple that caught my eye were quite young, in their early twenties. The opportunity to speak with them never presented itself; they always left the chapel hurriedly after Mass.

Today, February 4, 2020, marks the one year anniversary of the signing of the Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.

During His Holiness Pope Francis’ first-ever papal visit to the Arabian Peninsula, the document was signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2019, by the head of the Catholic Church and Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Egypt.

In the northern hemisphere, the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is celebrated from January 18-25, while the southern hemisphere observes the ecumenical event around the time of Pentecost.

In Jerusalem, it begins on the first Saturday after January 19. Thus, this year's Christian Unity Octave will be observed in the Holy City from January 25-February 2.

WHY IS THE DIFFERENCE?
It is to respect the Armenian Apostolic Church, which celebrates Christmas on the night of 18-19 January, according to the Julian calendar.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed annually by the Church, ended on Saturday, January 25 but its themes continue to be exemplified across the Western and Eastern Church in a variety of areas, including racial and denominational divides.

RACIAL RELATIONS

“It is a heresy in sacred love to make choice among God’s commandments, which to observe, and which to violate.”

It turns out that St. Francis de Sales is not the patron saint of shoppers; he is the patron saint of writers, and it is his writing that forced me to consider the question whether I am a heretic when it comes to love.

As the worldwide Catholic Church prepares to celebrate the first Sunday of the Word of God this weekend, Bible scholars in the U.S. hope the commemoration strengthens Scriptural devotion in American households.

‘Opening the Way to the Scriptures’

Background
In his Apostolic Letter of 30 September 2019, Aperuit illis, Pope Francis established the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time as the ‘Sunday of the Word of God’. It is a day devoted to the celebration, study, and spreading of the Word of God. Bishop Dermot Farrell, Bishop of Ossory, has written a pastoral letter, Opening the Way to the Scriptures, to mark ‘Sunday of the Word of God’ in the Diocese of Ossory. Please see the full text below: