Wednesday is Valentine’s Day, a vacation broadly noticed by indulging in one thing romantic and candy with the particular person you’re keen on. However many Catholics and different Christians throughout Southern California might be receiving a cross fabricated from ash on their foreheads that day as a result of it’s Ash Wednesday, whose vibe is something however indulgent.
How are you presupposed to reconcile these two observances? The steerage relies on which spiritual 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 effectively) and select a favourite meals or pursuit, akin to sweet or alcoholic drinks, to keep away from for 40 days.
Fasting and avoiding meat may hamper some Valentine’s plans, however spiritual leaders advised The Occasions 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 might have the Valentine’s dinner as your meal, mentioned Dorian Llywelyn, director for Ignatian Spirituality at Loyola Marymount College.
“Ash Wednesday is way extra necessary than Valentine’s Day as a result of [the latter] is a contemporary growth and principally industrial,” Llywelyn mentioned.
Up to now, spiritual leaders have issued a dispensation or exemption from sure features 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 an announcement 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 chopping parishioners any slack this yr, 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 an alternative 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 individuals in opposition to their dad and mom’ needs and customarily carried out secret weddings as a result of the {couples} beloved one another, Ochoa mentioned.
“Valentine’s Day is about love and Ash Wednesday is about getting ready ourselves to have fun the fervour 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 particular person you’re keen on, whomever that particular person could also be.
As an alternative choice to giving up an indulgence, McCarthy mentioned one chance could be to tackle a brand new religious follow, akin to meditation, doing a centering prayer or attending Bible examine.
Ash Wednesday has been a holy day of obligation within the Catholic Church — a compulsory day of church attendance — however it’s optional within the Episcopal Church.
Whereas many parishioners within the Episcopal Church take part, McCarthy’s hope is that folks additionally see it as a method “to take inventory of the place you might be in your life, relationships and relationship with God.”