Dear Holy Rosary Mission Parishioners, here are a few announcements: Special Blessing: This Sunday there will be a special blessing for married couples.
Gospel: The beatitudes are a great guide for living our lives. They can also be a key to help strengthening marriages. Many couples are married on Valentine’s Day. The Catholic Church dropped Saint Valentine from the worldwide calendar of feasts. Please so the homily below.
Welcome Back: Welcome back Pat Durbin who has recovering from a stroke. Also, welcome back the Reynolds family who spend time caring for their parents in the lower 48.
Ashes: I may be traveling to another village for Ash Wednesday, depending on when our community at Holy Rosary would like to receive ashes. We will decide next week. Ashes will either be received on Ash Wednesday or the first Sunday of Lent.
Maintenance: This last week everything seemed to break down at once, the airplane had a flat tire, our air compressor broke, the car I use in King Salmon would not start, our truck here in Dillingham would not start. I bought a new battery and alternator to get our Truck/snow plow back in operation.
Convocation: Every Lent all of the priests from the Anchorage archdiocese get together. It is usually in Talkeetna. This year it will be in Anchorage. I will be in Anchorage March 8-12 to learn about the new revised Sacramentary.
Information on Saint Valentine is below. Have a fantastic week and see you Sunday…Fr. Scott
Homily for this Sunday
The origin of St. Valentine, and how many St. Valentines there were, remains a mystery.
Some historians hold that St. Valentine was a Roman priest martyred under Roman Emperor Claudius (c. AD 269).
Other opinions reveal that Valentine was a Roman martyred for refusing to give up his Christian faith.
One scholar believes a man named Valentine was a bishop of Terni born around 175 AD, who was taken to Rome and martyred.
Around that same time, another scholar says that Valentine was martyred in the Roman province of Africa.
Whoever he was, Valentine really existed because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. Today most of his relics are in the church of St. Praxedes.
The first representation of one of the Saint Valentines appeared in a The Nuremberg Chronicle, a great illustrated book printed in 1493. Alongside a woodcut portrait of him, text states that Valentinus was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius the Goth.
This Valentine was caught marrying Christian couples and aiding any Christians who were being persecuted under Emperor Claudius in Rome. At that time helping Christians was considered a crime. Valentinus was arrested and imprisoned.
Emperor Claudius took a liking to this prisoner at first. But then Valentinus made a strategic error: he tried to convert the Emperor to Christianity -- whereupon he was condemned to death.
This is how he died. He was first beaten with clubs and then beheaded.
In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.
One legend says, while awaiting his execution, Valentinus restored the sight of his jailer's blind daughter. Another legend says, on the eve of his death, he penned a farewell note to the jailer's daughter, signing it, "From your Valentine."
St. Valentine is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travelers, young people. He is represented in pictures with birds and roses.
Why don’t Catholics Celebrate Valentine’s day?
There were several people named Valentine in the early years of Christianity. The Catholic Church did not know which Valentine they were celebrating. As a result, Saint Valentine was dropped from the Roman Catholic official calendar of worldwide feasts in 1969.
One scholar says, “The reason the Catholic Church dropped Saint Valentine has a lot to do with the fact that nobody is really certain about who is being celebrated - a total of seven possible candidates exist.
Valentinus, derived from the Latin word Valens, means “worthy.” For this reason Valentine was a popular name in the early Christian church.
Since this feast day celebration was dropped then, officially, no Saint Valentines feast day can be celebrated in the Church. If it were celebrated, I would be wearing red during mass this Sunday, not for sweethearts, but for the fact that one of those Saint Valentines was probably martyred for his faith (492 Words).
Readings for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a barren bush in the desert that enjoys no change of season, But stands in a lava waste, a salt and empty earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose hope is the LORD. He is like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream: It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.
1 Corinthians 15:12&16-20
But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Luke 6:17&20-26
And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
"Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.
