{"id":8871,"date":"2014-02-15T12:09:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T17:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=8871"},"modified":"2014-02-15T12:09:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T17:09:28","slug":"st-valentine-and-pope-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html","title":{"rendered":"St. Valentine and Pope Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St. Valentine\u2019s Day taping of A\u00a0Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas<\/em><\/a>. \u00a0I was joined by three other Patheos bloggers: Elizabeth Scalia (The Anchoress<\/a>), Betty Duffy<\/a>, and Mark Shea (Catholic and Enjoying It!<\/a>).<\/p>\n

We had a pretty wide ranging conversation, and you can listen to the hour-long program here<\/a>, but I\u2019ll summarized two topics I covered below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We opened by talking about the namesake of the day. \u00a0Saint Valentine<\/a> is usually absent from Valentine\u2019s Day (he\u2019s not even on the Church calendar \u2014 yesterday was the feast of\u00a0Saints Cyril and Methodius<\/a>). \u00a0According to his hagiographies, St. Valentine was arrested and executed for providing aid and comfort to Christians, and some of that aid took the form of offering marriages according to the Christian rite.<\/p>\n

For me, this suggested a connection to Saint Tarcisius<\/a>, who was martyred while trying to carry the Eucharist to Christians in prison. \u00a0Both St. Valentine and St. Tarcisius died trying to bring one of the sacraments of the church to it\u2019s people. \u00a0Marriage, like Communion, is food for us \u2014 it\u2019s a positive support for us, not just a communal recognition of affection. \u00a0It\u2019s a nice counterpoint to some of the blandness of Valentine\u2019s Day to think about why marriage is a gift that someone would risk their life to bring you.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0\u2014 \u00a0\u2014<\/p>\n

And, of course, how can any conversation about Catholicism happen without a Pope Francis connection these days? \u00a0Yesterday, in St. Peter\u2019s Square, Pope Francis greeted 10,000 engaged couples, and offered them pastoral counsel<\/a>. \u00a0I was particularly struck by this remark:<\/p>\n

Francis emphasized that living together is \u201can art, a patient, beautiful and fascinating journey \u2026 which can be summarised in three words: please, thank you and sorry.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This comment echoed what I knew of the Jesuit examen. \u00a0As described in Fr. Timothy Gallagher\u2019s highly recommended\u00a0The Examen Prayer: Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today<\/a><\/em>, the daily examination of your life has five basic steps:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Gratitude<\/strong> \u2013 review the blessings in your life and offer thanks to God<\/li>\n
  2. Petition<\/strong> \u2013 usually a specific request for God to give you his light as you make the examen<\/li>\n
  3. Review<\/strong> \u2013 go through the last day, thinking about when you helped to be a channel of God\u2019s peace and when you blocked Him from working in you<\/li>\n
  4. Forgiveness<\/strong> \u2013 ask for mercy and healing for the ways you fell short<\/li>\n
  5. Renewal<\/strong> \u2013 looking forward to tomorrow, see how you can build on the good and mend the bad<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Francis\u2019s advice for building a relationship between spouses seems kin to the Ignatian guide to developing a relationship between the individual and God. \u00a0We can strengthen our pleases, thank yous, and sorries, by translating them back and forth between these two kinds of striving for unity. \u00a0After all, the vocation to marriage is meant to aid the one, universal vocation: to sainthood.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

    This is the ninth and final day of our Novena to St. Dymphna. You can find the\u00a0prayers here<\/a>\u00a0and a little background on\u00a0why we\u2019re praying it here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St. Valentine\u2019s Day taping of A\u00a0Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas. \u00a0I was joined by three other Patheos bloggers: Elizabeth Scalia (The Anchoress), Betty Duffy, and Mark Shea (Catholic and Enjoying It!). We had a pretty wide ranging conversation, and you can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":8874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marriage-2"],"yoast_head":"\nSt. Valentine and Pope Francis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St. Valentine's Day taping of A\u00a0Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas. \u00a0I was joined\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St. Valentine and Pope Francis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St. Valentine's Day taping of A\u00a0Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas. \u00a0I was joined\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unequally Yoked\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-02-15T17:09:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/84\/2014\/02\/a-closer-look1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"565\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"253\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leah Libresco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html\",\"name\":\"St. Valentine and Pope Francis\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-02-15T17:09:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-02-15T17:09:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\"},\"description\":\"Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Relevant Radio for the St. Valentine's Day taping of A\u00a0Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas. \u00a0I was joined\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2014\/02\/st-valentine-and-pope-francis.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"St. Valentine and Pope Francis\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/\",\"name\":\"Unequally Yoked\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/17ee17592b35b40040d5f5f7ea5ab464\",\"name\":\"Leah Libresco\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/20e1e6a3a94c4e7928687804a41d888d?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Leah Libresco\"},\"description\":\"Leah is the author of Arriving at Amen and Building the Benedict Option. 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