The Secret To Getting Through Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is here, again. As a single Catholic, especially if you're divorced, this can be a tough day to get through. All the flower deliveries, special surprises, romantic dinners, love notes that others receive can be hard to endure, unless you know the Valentine's Day secret...finding your self-worth in Christ.

I've known a lot of divorced people over the years who just don't know how to get through this day gracefully because they're guaging they're own worth on what they don't have and what others think. I've heard some say they take the money they would have spent on their spouses and spend it on themselves instead. Drinking too much also seems to be another popular way to ignore the displays of love others receive. One woman even went so far as to send herself a bouquet of roses to her office with an "anonymous admirer" note to defray the embarrassment of her divorce in front of others.

What is the point in doing these things? You want to believe you are desirable, valuable, and worthy of being loved. Of course! This is what we all want. But in the end, the secret to getting through Valentine's Day is to remember the One who can love you like no other, the One who will never leave you. Jesus is the only faithful Spouse.

Christ loves you as if you are the only person in the world. You are worth everything to Him and He demonstrated that when He hung on the cross and gave you everything He had to give. You are the one He wants and He pursues you every moment of the day. He wants to give you the love, peace and happiness you've been waiting for.

Blessed Mother Teresa told us:

Jesus wants me to tell you again...how much is the love He has for each one of you-beyond all what you can imagine...Not only He loves you, even more--He longs for you. He misses you when you don't come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don't feel worthy...  ― Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta

What a beautiful thought, that Christ thirsts for you! There is no bouquet of long-stemmed roses in the world that can compare with that. If you are the object of a love so real, so true, and so passionate, you've got every reason in the world to be joyful and even more, to be happy for the couples celebrating their love.

I understand the feelings and emotions that come with being alone and it might seem difficult to overcome these feelings and be joyful. In this case, I'd like to refer you again to Blessed Mother Teresa, who endured great spiritual and emotional suffering for nearly half a century; she felt no presence of God in her life and she was in incredible pain:

The smile that covered a "multitude of pains" was no hypocritical mask. She was trying to hide her sufferings - even from God! - so as not to make others, especially the poor, suffer because of them. When she promised to do "a little extra praying & smiling" for one of her friends, she was alluding to an acutely painful and costly sacrifice: to pray when prayer was so difficult and to smile when her interior pain was agonizing. ― Brian Kolodiejchuk, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the "Saint of Calcutta"

As you go through the day, today, remember Mother Theresa's "extra praying & smiling" to help you do the same. Contemplate God's love for you and do a little extra praying and smiling.

But still, everything is for Jesus; so like that everything is beautiful, even though it is difficult. ― Mother Teresa, Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta