Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, a vacation broadly noticed by indulging in one thing romantic and candy with the individual you like. However many Catholics and different Christians throughout Southern California can be receiving a cross made from ash on their foreheads that day as a result of it’s Ash Wednesday, whose vibe is something however indulgent.
How are you purported to reconcile these two observances? The steerage is dependent upon which non secular establishment you communicate to.
Within the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday is meant to remind us of our mortality and the necessity for reconciliation with God. It additionally marks the start of the penitential Lenten season.
On Wednesday, practising Catholics quick, abstain from consuming meat (on each Friday for six weeks afterward as properly) and select a favourite meals or pursuit, resembling sweet or alcoholic drinks, to keep away from for 40 days.
Fasting and avoiding meat may hamper some Valentine’s plans, however non secular leaders advised The Instances that parishioners can nonetheless have fun the day with out breaking their Lenten obligations.
When fasting — which within the Catholic Church means having just one full meal and two snacks that don’t add as much as a full meal — you could possibly have the Valentine’s dinner as your meal, mentioned Dorian Llywelyn, director for Ignatian Spirituality at Loyola Marymount College.
“Ash Wednesday is way extra essential than Valentine’s Day as a result of [the latter] is a contemporary improvement and principally business,” Llywelyn mentioned.
Previously, non secular leaders have issued a dispensation or exemption from sure points of Ash Wednesday so as to take part in a cultural celebration. For instance, when Ash Wednesday and Lunar New 12 months fell on the identical day in 2005.
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Archdiocese issued a press release saying those that wished to have fun Lunar New 12 months that day may carry out their Ash Wednesday obligation of fasting on Saturday.
The archdiocese isn’t reducing parishioners any slack this 12 months, nonetheless.
Valentine’s Day isn’t a cultural vacation, Father Juan Ochoa of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles mentioned. The unique Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman martyr, was honored within the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar till 1969, Ochoa mentioned, when the church gave the Feb. 14 feast day as a substitute to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, brothers who’re credited with devising the Glagolitic alphabet to transcribe scripture.
St. Cyril died on Feb. 14, 869, therefore his declare to that date.
St. Valentine was a Roman priest who married folks towards their dad and mom’ needs and usually carried out secret weddings as a result of the {couples} liked one another, Ochoa mentioned.
“Valentine’s Day is about love and Ash Wednesday is about getting ready ourselves to have fun the eagerness and resurrection of Jesus Christ, [so] it’s additionally about love,” he mentioned.
Worship providers are additionally held on Ash Wednesday in Anglican, Lutheran, Episcopal and a few Protestant church buildings.
The Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles mentioned her church’s recommendation is to get your ashes after which go have fun Valentine’s Day with the individual you like, whomever that individual could also be.
As an alternative choice to giving up an indulgence, McCarthy mentioned one risk is perhaps to tackle a brand new religious observe, resembling meditation, doing a centering prayer or attending Bible research.
Ash Wednesday has been a holy day of obligation within the Catholic Church — a compulsory day of church attendance — however it’s non-compulsory within the Episcopal Church.
Whereas many parishioners within the Episcopal Church take part, McCarthy’s hope is that individuals additionally see it as a approach “to take inventory of the place you’re in your life, relationships and relationship with God.”
