Singles stop getting worked up over Valentine's Day

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Also, Feb 14, is St. Cyril’s day…at least that’s what the calendar in the Sacristy said when I glanced at it yesterday.
St. Valentine’s Day is a secular holiday. For Catholics who follow the current Roman Missal, today is the Memorial of Sts. Cyril, monk and St. Methodius, bishop.

The Collect for today’s liturgy:

“O God, who enlightened the Slavic peoples through the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, grant that our hearts may grasp the words of your teaching, and perfect us as a people of one accord in true faith and right confession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

I’m very thankful that the Church dropped St. Valentine from the calendar. We need to remember who we are and get our hearts centered on God.
 
I keep seeing all these woe is me comments on the internet from singles asking how they are expected to make it through the day on Tuesday without a significant other in their life. I’m like get real. It’s a holiday marketed to death by the card companies, retail stores and flower shops for enough business to keep them in stock till the spring and summer shopping seasons. It’s a nice idea but it’s really become overblown. :eek:🤷:confused: What do you think??
I’m currently single, and I, for one, don’t hate Valentine’s Day. I don’t like some of the commercialism that might have grown up around it, but, on the other hand, it may be a reminder to a lot of people who forget to express their love that it might be sweet to buy a loved one flowers or chocolates or something. It’s easy for some people to forget to express their love in the crazy, hectic world we all inhabit.

I find that if people make Valentine’s a day for giving out heart-shaped cookies to friends and chocolates to family members, even those who are single know that they are loved and get something sweet to brighten their day. Homemade Pillsbury cookies are an inexpensive, simple way to show love for friends and family.

I also think that Valentine’s Day can be a great time to focus on the meaning of love. A friend emailed me this morning two Bible verses about God’s definition of love and how it differs from our conventional one. It was a powerful reminder of how God wants us to love those who don’t love us back as well as those who do love us back. Valentine’s Day can be a great opportunity to reflect on love and share love, and so I say God bless it.
 
I’m a single middle-aged Catholic woman, and this day makes me depressed. And no, I’m NOT doing a ‘pity-party, oh-woe-is-me’ routine…I’m starting cold, hard FACTS!

The only time I ever got a card for Valentine’s Day (aside from the silly ones we exchanged as kids in school back in the late Fifties-early Sixties) was when my late mother would put one at my place at the breakfast table before I went to work…I think she kind of felt sorry for me, tell you the truth…😊 😉

I never had a boyfriend (can count on the fingers of one hand ANYTHING that ‘passed’ for a ‘date’), either then or now. I’ve only had platonic friendships with men (single, married, and even priests…my ‘best friend’ is a priest in England).

Plus, since 2000, this day ‘sucks’ because I had to put my little Westie-mix dog ‘Murphy’ to sleep because he had cancer. When I left the vet’s office that day, I sat in my older sister’s car and cried my eyes out. 😦 NOT A HAPPY DAY!
 
Married *lovebirds *here… 11+ years of wedded bliss… 4 kids…

How are ***WE ***spending Valentine’s Day (which happened to be our first date 14 years ago)?
  1. Checking on MIL in the hospital with gallstones… DH didn’t get much sleep last night over that one.
  2. Taking the oldest one to work with me today because he’s home sick from vomiting all night (YAWN… between him and the newborn nursing all night, I’m a little sleepy)…
  3. Picking up Chinese food for a family feast…
  4. Popping open a cheap bottle of wine…
  5. And the kicker… Doing dishes by hand because we’re waiting on the next paycheck to get a new dishwasher.
I DID make out with a nice little box of Godiva Chocolates. This was more of a requirement than an act of love, though.

Ahhhh… ROMANCE! 😃 ❤️
Sort of reminds me of our Valentines’ day… DH has been home sick yesterday and today with a nasty flu bug. (No puking, but he doesn’t look like he’s feeling at all well.) I’m fighting off the bug as well, but it doesn’t seem to have hit me as hard. If we get dinner cooked at all today it will be a miracle… and it’ll probably be canned chicken soup. 🙂

DS has a little get-together at his preschool today where the parents are reading all the kids’ valentines to them. It should be fun as long as I can pull myself together long enough for that half hour outing…

Other than that, we always give the kids little “I love you” cards, and give some to my parents as well. We bought some little toys for the kids. Just cheap stuff–DS is the proud new owner of a deck of bicycle playing cards. 😃 In our family, the Valentine’s Day celebration has always focused on our love for our family as a whole rather than a couple’s thing.
 
St. Valentine’s Day is a secular holiday. For Catholics who follow the current Roman Missal, today is the Memorial of Sts. Cyril, monk and St. Methodius, bishop.

The Collect for today’s liturgy:

“O God, who enlightened the Slavic peoples through the brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, grant that our hearts may grasp the words of your teaching, and perfect us as a people of one accord in true faith and right confession. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

I’m very thankful that the Church dropped St. Valentine from the calendar. We need to remember who we are and get our hearts centered on God.
That is not the same as saying that Catholics ought not observe any secular holidays. It is OK to observe Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Memorial Day, individual birthdays, and yes, St. Valentine’s Day, even though none of these are on the Roman Calendar. We can decide not to observe secular holidays or practices observed in the secular world if we want, but we are not Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Having said that, St. Valentine’s Day at our house is primarily an exercise in preparing cards with candy attached for all the kids’ classmates and teachers. What our kids bring home will probably provide the bulk of the candy for their annual “Mardi Gras” observance of emptying their candy caches in preparation for Lent. I’ll probably make something a little nicer for dinner, but we don’t go overboard with it.
 
I keep seeing all these woe is me comments on the internet from singles asking how they are expected to make it through the day on Tuesday without a significant other in their life. I’m like get real. It’s a holiday marketed to death by the card companies, retail stores and flower shops for enough business to keep them in stock till the spring and summer shopping seasons. It’s a nice idea but it’s really become overblown. :eek:🤷:confused: What do you think??
I think that one shouldn’t allow a commercialised holiday to get the better of him or her. I also think one shouldn’t depress over or despair of the state of things.

Personally, I know why I’m single and I know all sorts of difficulties I would experience in married life or with a difficult partner or even with a normal person like normality is defined today. I also know that a normal person would, frankly, experience quite a lot of difficulty with me, and a person highly sensitive to certain kinds of things would have an even harder time. By harder I don’t mean not worth it, I only mean hard. Whether worth it or not is not up to me to judge. Whether I’m deserving of this or that is not up to me to judge, either. Therefore I prefer to leave that to God. Letting go of the pressure, mostly social, to “get a mate” is also helpful.
 
I think that one shouldn’t allow a commercialised holiday to get the better of him or her. I also think one shouldn’t depress over or despair of the state of things.

Personally, I know why I’m single and I know all sorts of difficulties I would experience in married life or with a difficult partner or even with a normal person like normality is defined today. I also know that a normal person would, frankly, experience quite a lot of difficulty with me, and a person highly sensitive to certain kinds of things would have an even harder time. By harder I don’t mean not worth it, I only mean hard. Whether worth it or not is not up to me to judge. Whether I’m deserving of this or that is not up to me to judge, either. Therefore I prefer to leave that to God. Letting go of the pressure, mostly social, to “get a mate” is also helpful.
Wise words. Besides: a badly-chosen spouse might divorce you, but an ex is forever.
 
You should have heard my classmates. Most of them complaining. Some complain about how love is bad and that it hurts. Give me a break! God is LOVE, why be sad if you’re a daughter/son of God? You should at least smile for God knows what He’s doing.
Today, I only received one smile…and I don’t know if it was real because it was this smile : 😃
Me imagining that the person who smiled really smiled on the other side, made me smile.
Does it make sense? 😃

Today was just like every other day but perfect because it rained! I love rainy days!
 
I choose to stay with hope and trust in the Lord this Valentine’s. I’m single, 29, sometimes terribly lonely, but God knows what is best for me, and I know that He will not fail in His promises. I also know that I am “worthy” of God’s love by dint of the fact that God has chosen to love me. Plain ol’ me.

I choose to believe and hope, too, that I am worth the love of a wonderful and spiritual woman when the time comes.

And when the time comes, I will do my best to make her feel like the most loved person in the world.

To CAF, I say: Happy Valentine’s Day! You are all loved, all special, and all blessed by the Promises of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace, gentle and true peace, be with all of you this wonderful day.
 
You should have heard my classmates. Most of them complaining. Some complain about how love is bad and that it hurts. Give me a break! God is LOVE, why be sad if you’re a daughter/son of God? You should at least smile for God knows what He’s doing.
Today, I only received one smile…and I don’t know if it was real because it was this smile : 😃
Me imagining that the person who smiled really smiled on the other side, made me smile.
Does it make sense? 😃

Today was just like every other day but perfect because it rained! I love rainy days!
Good Idea! We should send Jesus a Valentine hug, and stop the boohooing. :clapping:
 
You should have heard my classmates. Most of them complaining. Some complain about how love is bad and that it hurts. Give me a break! God is LOVE, why be sad if you’re a daughter/son of God? You should at least smile for God knows what He’s doing.
Giving in to pressure and/or acting hastily hits you back. For example, today, I fell for the classic mistake: stylish black & white photo that was well taken. I only realised after a while. It was as simple a mechanic as see a nice pic => write. It’s been ages since I’ve been this kind of whatever. Just don’t do it. Do your homework first.
 
Giving in to pressure and/or acting hastily hits you back. For example, today, I fell for the classic mistake: stylish black & white photo that was well taken. I only realised after a while. It was as simple a mechanic as see a nice pic => write. It’s been ages since I’ve been this kind of whatever. Just don’t do it. Do your homework first.
:confused:

I’m really sorry, I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.
 
I’ve always found it a difficult thing to decide how to deal with it when I’m feeling down. Generally speaking, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is fine to share that with others if I want help out of the hole, but it is better to keep it to myself (or share it with the like-feeling) if I just want to let the thing run its course on its own. I just do not have the energy for the people who will make it their business to argue with that decision. Since they are not going to be comfortable until my problem is “solved”, it is better to not include them in the process of living through it. Otherwise, they’ll all feel a need to have a finger in the pie, and the pie will not be the better for it.
What’s sad is they don’t really care so much about helping me out and setting me up and are just simply using that as a veneer to mock me because they’re out of fresh meat to verbally punch and abuse. :mad:

Then again, having conservative standards is a crime nowadays so what do you expect from the bros of the 4chan troll crowd? :rolleyes:

Another thing that burns me is that they accuse me of whining. Hello? Who brought up the date? Who said the V-word? Not me ‘buddy’. :mad: You gonna talk (or even whine yourself) about your love life during the Season of Hearts then I don’t see how I’m any less entitled to express my own romantic grievances.
When you find a friend who can listen when you are down and just let you be as you work through it, treasure that friend! That is a great gift, and a rare one! 👍
I suppose I have those. I still rather be without the opinions of the less tact though. >:\
I’m a single middle-aged Catholic woman, and this day makes me depressed. And no, I’m NOT doing a ‘pity-party, oh-woe-is-me’ routine…I’m starting cold, hard FACTS!
Same here! Why can’t people see that? I’m in my 20s but never ever had a girlfriend. I barely had what you’d call a crush and the feelings didn’t exactly last long. I’ve seen (and have been surrounded) very attractive women but in no way could I ever see myself in a romantic relationship with any of them. They’re just not my type! There’s no click and dare I remind you all how bad it is to just act on ‘clicks’ based on physical appearance. -.-

Do any of you know how hard it is to find a meek ingenue-type in this country? I’ve had both good and bad friends say that what I’m looking for is either already extinct since the 1900s or lives on a hill, in the far flung boondocks of what’s left of Catholic Europe! DX

And no, I will not settle for anything less! If I wanted anything less, I’d just stick to living with my sister and my mother. DX
God is LOVE, why be sad if you’re a daughter/son of God? You should at least smile for God knows what He’s doing.
I just get my mind off of the fact that society wants all of us to be living happily together after with our soul-mates & instead focus on the unconditional love God has for all of us, no matter what day it is! Works for me. 👍
Well I’m sorry if some of us aren’t satisfied with the whole God-love-everyone argument. (What? You really think that’s convincing? Think deeper.) However, just because there’s an unquestionable superiority of the relationship between Divine-Creator and Creation, doesn’t make romantic relationships any less significant and desirable. You might find it sufficient to have nice warm feelings towards God (and frankly, that might even be a sign that you’re meant for consecrated celibacy) but that’s not MY calling.

I want a girl in my life! I want to have a moment on top of a school building where a cute little lass -]in a Japanese school uniform /-]confesses her love to me and I ask her to give me a moment to think, take a trip downstairs, and actually trip from shock-induced lack of focus. I want to date, cuddle, and kiss! I want someone I can work together to have a permanent, married relationship with!! roars to the heavens Is that too much to ask!?!? TwT
 
Well I’m sorry if some of us aren’t satisfied with the whole God-love-everyone argument. (What? You really think that’s convincing? Think deeper.) However, just because there’s an unquestionable superiority of the relationship between Divine-Creator and Creation, doesn’t make romantic relationships any less significant and desirable. You might find it sufficient to have nice warm feelings towards God (and frankly, that might even be a sign that you’re meant for consecrated celibacy) but that’s not MY calling.

I want a girl in my life! I want to have a moment on top of a school building where a cute little lass -]in a Japanese school uniform /-]confesses her love to me and I ask her to give me a moment to think, take a trip downstairs, and actually trip from shock-induced lack of focus. I want to date, cuddle, and kiss! I want someone I can work together to have a permanent, married relationship with!! roars to the heavens Is that too much to ask!?!? TwT
Oh I completely understand the desire to want to love someone. John 4:7-8 displays that perfectly. However, I’m just saying that we shouldn’t feel EXTRA alone on days like today! Instead of focusing on the relationships around us, take time out of your day if you don’t have a valentine & remember that God’s love for us all is unconditional and can suffice for the day. Then you can go back to trying to find Mrs. Perfect.
 
I want a girl in my life! I want to have a moment on top of a school building where a cute little lass -]in a Japanese school uniform /-]confesses her love to me and I ask her to give me a moment to think, take a trip downstairs, and actually trip from shock-induced lack of focus. I want to date, cuddle, and kiss! I want someone I can work together to have a permanent, married relationship with!! roars to the heavens Is that too much to ask!?!? TwT
I like your imagination, makes me run mine like it. However, I’ll rather have the guy -]with a gakuran uniform/-] confess to the girl, very manly. 😃
 
Oh I completely understand the desire to want to love someone. John 4:7-8 displays that perfectly. However, I’m just saying that we shouldn’t feel EXTRA alone on days like today! Instead of focusing on the relationships around us, take time out of your day if you don’t have a valentine & remember that God’s love for us all is unconditional and can suffice for the day. Then you can go back to trying to find Mrs. Perfect.
Again, the problem is that isn’t enough. The whole God-loves-everyone argument works for a while but I for one have reached the point that it’s starting to sound more like an excuse to deny what I’m lacking in my life and that is someone I can dedicate myself to (romantically and beyond) and vice-versa.

Heck, to demonstrate, lemme give you something I’d usually come up in my romantic writer fantasies:
Cair: Don’t be sad Andre! God loves you! D:
Andre: Oh Big Daddy loves everybody. My sister. The guys at the guild. Your blonde, bozo brother in the Knights who keeps challenging me to a duel every five minutes. -_- empties Coke can, crushes it, and melts it in flames
Cair: That’s right! So why are you still sulking? D:
Andre: Ugh… facepalms and thinks Idiot! It’s not God’s love I want right now. It’s yours! DX
Cair: Andre?? o.O
Andre: Hrrngggh… curls into emo fetal position
 
Praying for all those who find this a painful holiday, whether because they have lost a romantic love or have never had one.

I remember how painful I found this day for the many, many years I was single and seemingly without hope of ever changing that status.

The title of this thread is unfortunate. If the goal of the OP was to remind singles that they are loved by God, there may have been a more sensitive way of doing so. The title seems to imply that they have no right to their feelings.

God bless.
 
You know, I awoke today trying to ignore today, trying convince myself that I didn’t care that I was still single, that yet another “relationship” had fallen apart (for very good reasons, but still)… it didn’t work. Of course we will be reminded of our desire for romantic love today, especially if this desire is still unfulfilled. It doesn’t make us “woe is me” pitiful people, it’s just human. Still, I was talking to my family today and it reminded me of how much love there is in my life. I have wonderful parents and true friends that really do know me as I really am and love me. I have patients that I care for and love and they cherish me in return. Not to even mention the love of God which I can barely wrap my head around. Honestly, God’s love is so big that it’s sometimes almost too hard to register. Is all of of this romantic, always warm and fuzzy, or “fairy tale”? Not necessarily, but it’s still real. ** So this is cheesy, but it honestly is what I was thinking about today… Instead of ignoring Valentines’ day in order to not fall into bitterness about what’s “missing” from our lives, we could celebrate it with peaceful gratitude for the love that we take for granted in our lives.
 
Again, the problem is that isn’t enough. The whole God-loves-everyone argument works for a while but I for one have reached the point that it’s starting to sound more like an excuse to deny what I’m lacking in my life and that is someone I can dedicate myself to (romantically and beyond) and vice-versa.

Heck, to demonstrate, lemme give you something I’d usually come up in my romantic writer fantasies:
Well I’d give you a hug, but I’m a big, burly dude, so I’m pretty sure that’s not the kind of love you meant you’re missing. :o
 
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