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For those of you who you who participated in the Scouting or Guiding movement as young people or adult leaders you no doubt connect today’s date, February 22nd , with Thinking Day. Perhaps Thinking Day may remind and encourage us to make part of every day’s routine a period of personal reflection. The Lenten Season challenges us to make reflection an everyday practice, a time to ground ourselves in the stillness of being.
Nancy Wales, csj
FAMILY DAY - February 19, 2024
Canada’s first Family Day occurred in Alberta in 1990. Ontario first celebrated this special day only sixteen years ago in 2008. If asked about the roots of Family Day, we might find ourselves with few words to say about it. “Professor Google” provided the following information as to how this day spread across our nation:
Family Day in Canada is celebrated on the third Monday in February, and technically is not a national, federally mandated holiday.
Most Canadians live in areas that celebrate Family Day as a province-level statutory holiday as does British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Saskatchewan.
Other provinces have statutory holidays on the third Monday in February, but these are not called Family Day. The holiday is referred to Louis Riel Day in Manitoba, Heritage Day in Nova Scotia, and Islander Day on Prince Edward Island.
Also, in the Yukon, the February holiday is called Heritage Day, celebrated on February 23, not as a statutory but a contractual holiday.
Image: Unsplash/Rod Long
Today, society as a whole recognizes that families come in various shapes. A family does not necessarily consist of blood relatives. Perhaps you have witnessed strong family ties among close knit people who love and support each other and see themselves as family.
The third Monday in February has no deeply rooted traditions associated with it as there are with Christmas or Thanksgiving. Whatever the February holiday is named, it provides a three-day winter weekend with precious time to celebrate the bonds of love among and between individuals who identify as family.
Let’s find ways to make Family Day 2024 an occasion to reconnect and express our gratitude for the role families play in our lives and society.
-Sister Nancy Wales
How many song titles can you recall that include the word, LOVE? Do you remember the old tunes, “Love Makes the World Go Round”, “Put a Little Love in Your Heart”, and even Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”? The list is endless. In today’s world of upheaval, war, and strife more than ever we need a little love in our universe and hearts.
February 14th has arrived and Valentines Day along with it. As usual, the stores, media and online platforms are drenched with hearts and cupids juxtaposed with the horrendous aftermath of the latest bombings near and far. Still, we who live in more peaceful climes try to carry on with life as usual despite food shortages, homelessness and growing personal debt.
As Valentine’s Day arrives, I picture men running to stores at the last-minute thinking of expensive roses and chocolates that few can afford today, to say nothing of costly gems and jewelry. Meanwhile, we waste away on a media diet of guns and weapons. We might well wonder, “Who was this obscure St. Valentine who creates an annual February love frenzy in the midst of seeming darkness”? In fact, research explains that there were two men named Valentine who were martyred several years apart on February 14. Google states, “St. Valentine of Rome was martyred in AD269. Two centuries later, on February 14, AD469 St. Valentine’s Day was established by Pope Gelesius, in honor of the Christian martyr”.
Throughout the intervening centuries, St. Valentines Day has continued to be celebrated as a special day honoring love and loved ones. Yes, roses, chocolates and fancy cards are fine, but the legend of St. Valentine about which I learned in elementary school, was a different story. This Valentine was a humble priest who sometimes lamented that he was neither a revered monseigneur nor exalted bishop but a lowly pastor. One day, as Valentine was sitting downcast, he heard a whisper, “Do the little things, Valentine, with great love”. Valentine heeded God’s urging and became a generous, loving presence to his parishioners.
We too, can make St. Valentine’s Day more than the gifting of manufactured hearts and fresh roses. We can craft a card with heartfelt wishes or practice daily acts of love: helping around home, visiting a shut-in, making a special phone call, cultivating a thankful heart, and sharing lots of hugs.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
-Sister Jean Moylan, CSJ
Image: Unsplash/Pawel Czerwinski
“It is not good that man should be alone—Healing the Sick by Healing Relationships,” is the theme of Pope Francis' message for the 2024 commemoration of the World Day of the Sick, held on 11 February.
February 11 also coincides with the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes. It is the anniversary of when Our Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Our Blessed Mother's many visitations to St. Bernadette resulted in the miraculous waters from the springs at Lourdes where thousands of faith-filled sick have been healed.
World Day of the Sick is held every year on this date and as a theme for this year, Pope Francis uses the words from Genesis that God spoke after creating the first human, "It is not good that man should be alone."
Unsplash: Laura Vinck
We are encouraged to seek healing by healing relationships—something our world needs to heed when so many wars are the result of humans not believing that we can live peacefully, together on Earth.
The operative word is LOVE; not like, or tolerate, or endure, or accept but LOVE where one's focus is on the good of the other.
To learn more about this year's theme you can read or listen to the message from Rome here.
-Sister Elaine Cole, csj
“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE.”
I could live in the peace and wonder of the wilderness, indefinitely, rediscovering myself in the absence of the noise of the world.
- Richard Wagamese
Image: Unsplash/Tobias Reich
