WHAT LOVE IS
We have just celebrated Valentine's Day. Many of us know the origins of this day but I suspect that it is really fostered by the greeting card companies and florists. I have no doubt that it is a red letter day for them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say black day, as in (in the black). I always appreciate the expressions of affection that I receive on that day. But, like Easter and Christmas we often forget during the rest of the year just what these celebrations are truly about. Valentine Day is a day to celebrate love. The New Testament has a lot to say about love, Christian love ,that is. Jesus said that is how people will know that we are his disciples, that we love one another. If we understand that love is an action and not just a feeling then we get a better sense of what Jesus meant.
LENTEN SACRIFICES
We are approaching Ash Wednesday, February 17 and the beginning of Lent. Lent is the season when we examine ourselves, repent of our sins and begin to prepare ourselves for new beginnings with the Lord in the Easter season. The night before he was crucified, Jesus took a towel and basin and washed the disciples' feet. He said that he did this as an example that we should do likewise. It is usual for us to ask ourselves what we are going to give up for Lent.
Decade from hell?
Much has been written in recent days about what Time Magazine has dubbed, "The decade from hell". No one can deny the myriad tragic events of the last ten years. My mother was born on this day in 1906. I wonder what she might think of this last decade in comparison with having lived through the great depression, World Wars I & II, Korea and Viet Nam. She was widowed at the age of 32 and left with a 12 year old son to raise just as the country was begnning to recover from that depression. She was left alone again with a young child to raise as my fath
