Michael Kelly
Valentine’s Day gets a re-boot for couples
Irish couples are being encouraged to get all loved up this St Valentine’s Day as part of the countdown to next year’s World Meeting of Families in Dublin.
The event’s organisers are hopeful that, since Dublin is also home to the famous Shrine of St Valentine the patron saint of romance, he will fire his arrows and inspire couples to let love blossom this February 14.
The novel approach is aimed at couples tired of the traditional red roses and chocolates side of things to give one another ‘gift tokens’ for presents that are a little bit more meaningful.
Romantic
The tokens, available in cathedrals across the country, offer rewards such as a romantic hand-in-hand walk together, a promise of a technology-free evening, an intimate dinner together, time set aside to pray together or the promise of ‘loads of tender hugs’.
But, fear not. Those unlucky in love or spending St Valentine’s Day alone are not being forgotten. A prayer card for single people still looking for that special someone to settle down with is also being distributed.
More than 150,000 of the tokens are available, and it’s in response to a call from Pope Francis for the Church to rediscover St Valentine’s Day as a celebration of love in the life of the Church.
According to Fr Tim Bartlett, Secretary General of the World Meeting of Families 2018, the idea is to try to recapture some of the original sense of St Valentine’s Day that may have become lost in a more commercial celebration of the day.
He told The Irish Catholic the “gift tokens encourage simple little gestures, and help us to appreciate that these simple gestures are also moment of grace and expressions of selfless love for another which mirror the love of God for us, and are to be celebrated”.
Pointing out that the Pope’s document The Joy of Love will play a key part in preparations for 2018, Fr Bartlett said the Pope wants the Church to “recover the fundamental Christian themes
Love will play a key part in preparations for 2018, Fr Bartlett said the Pope wants the Church to “recover the fundamental Christian themes that are behind the now-familiar contemporary cultural celebration of St Valentine’s Day”.
He said that the Pope “reminds us very beautifully that in the seemingly ordinary things of romantic love, for example, God’s grace and plan is present”.
Centred around the theme, ‘The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World’, the event is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to Dublin for a celebrate and reflect on the place of families in the life of the Church.
As well as cathedrals, couples can collect tokens from Veritas bookshops and Accord Centres across the island.
The Shrine of St Valentine is housed in the Dublin church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street. It is a popuar venue for couples, or those seeking love – especially on the martyr-saint’s feastday, February 14.