for Love
Although three different Saint Valentines were once celebrated together on this date, it’s the third-century bishop of Terni, Italy, who became our patron saint of love. According to tradition, Valentine illegally officiated at the marriage of Christian couples. Emperor Claudius had banned marriage, believing that unmarried men made better soldiers for his army. Valentine also became known for healing. When he healed the sick child of a wealthy family in Rome, the news spread like wild fire. Because Roman authorities couldn’t tolerate Christian heroes, the elderly Valentine was arrested, jailed, and sentenced to death. He wrote a last loving note to Terni, signing it “your Valentine.”40
O God, let my words, work, and prayers serve as valentines, carrying a message of love to others. Let the angels, your holy messengers, help carry and deliver my valentines.
February 15
An Entrance for Angels
We all do it: “Why?” we ask. “Why is this happening?” “Why did this happen to me?” Maybe we should look at it in a very different way. English writer Mary Cholmondeley (1859–1925) suggested that our sorrows allow us to live more fully. “If you had not undergone an agonized awakening, all the great realities of life — love, hatred, temptation, enthusiasm — would have remained for you merely words to string on light conversation. But the sword that pierced your heart forced an entrance for angels, who had been knocking where there was no door — until then.”41
Can I allow heartbreak to become an entrance for angels? Help me, Lord, to admit your angels to sustain me throughout the great realities of my life and to show me the deeper reality of your providential love for me.
February 16
Let Us Honor the Angels
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) elevated devotion to the angels to new heights in the Church. Preaching on Psalm 91:11, “For God commands the angels to guard you in all your ways,” Bernard said, “The angels are not only with you, but for you. They are with you to protect you, they are with you to help you. Nevertheless, although it is He who gives His angels charge over us, yet it is they who with such love obey his bidding, and assist us in all our needs, which are so great. Let us therefore cultivate a pious and grateful spirit towards our noble guardians; let us love and honor them as much as we can and as is fitting.”42
“Yes, holy angel, God has given you charge of me. Take my hand and bring me to the path that leads to salvation. Protect me during the night and keep me safe. Intercede for me with the Lord; ask him to make me love him more and more, and to enable me to give him the service his goodness deserves. Amen.”
— Saint Macarius of Egypt43
February 17
My Angel without Wings
Ordinary people sometimes act as angels, bringing healing messages from God. Mary William shared her story, “I have a lot of friends and a lot of good friends, too. But when my marriage was in trouble, when I was so depressed, not one of my close and good friends noticed it. I thought God had abandoned me, too, and I was becoming angry with God, when I felt comforting hands upon my shoulders. They belonged to a man named Norman, ‘my angel without wings.’ It seemed like God was saying, ‘I am extending my hands to touch you, why are you shying away?’ Norman talked to me first and then invited my husband and me for tea, and we talked all afternoon. I found out more about my husband than I did in our 15 years of marriage. It was this angel’s gentle touch that opened my heart for healing.”44
“How consoling it is to know that near us is a spirit who, from the cradle to the tomb, does not leave us even for an instant.… And this heavenly spirit guides and protects us like a friend, a brother,” wrote Padre Pio to a spiritual daughter.45
February 18
Blessed Fra Angelico (1395–1455)
Painted by an Angel
His parents named him Guido, and he received the name Giovanni when he joined the Dominican order. But the brothers who knew him best called him Fra Angelico, as the whole world does today. He was Angelico because of his kindness to others, his simplicity and holiness, and because the frescos he painted on the monastery walls looked as if angels painted them. C. S. Lewis said that the angels that appeared in Fra Angelico’s brush strokes “carry in their face and gesture the peace and authority of heaven.”46
Fra Angelico’s art was his prayer and his life. He said that “anyone who creates works involving Christ ought always to reside with Christ.” Is my work a prayer? 47
February 19
Angels Awaken Us
Angels are always there for us, in every need and in every opportunity. As gifts of God they bless us at every moment. “Angels awaken us to the wonder and mystery of being God’s creatures. They laugh at us when we take ourselves too seriously, and gently try to help us to see the joke. They surprise us with the beauty of their strangeness, their amazing commitment to our lives and welfare. They knock on our doors to deliver messages of death and birth — of every kind. They are salt when we lose our savor, joy and pain when we’ve forgotten how to feel.”48
“A characteristic of the great saints is their power of levity. Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
— G. K. Chesterton
What is weighing on you today? What is hampering your angel’s desire to lift you up into the tremendous love of God? May the angels awaken you.
February 20
Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto (1908–1919; 1910–1920)
The Angel of Peace
In the spring of 1916, an angel appeared to three children, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, and their cousin Lucia Santos. They were tending their family’s sheep near Fatima, Portugal. Lucia described the encounter: “A strong wind began to shake the trees…. And then we saw, in the distance, above the trees, a light whiter than snow in the form of a young man, quite transparent, and as brilliant as crystal in the rays of the sun. As he came near we were able to see his features. We were astonished and absorbed and we said nothing to one another. And then he said: ‘Do not be afraid. I am the angel of peace. Pray with me.’” The children didn’t know it yet, but the angel was preparing them for the appearance of the Virgin Mary on May 13, 1917.
The angel knelt and placed his forehead on the ground. The children did the same, and repeated the words they heard him say:
