Catholic Teens - February 14, 2005

On Mon, 14 Feb 2005 14:47:42 -0600, pwxsevere wrote
> Today is Valentine's Day(as you already know). But did you know who
> the real St. Valentine was? He was a priest and maybe even a bishop
> in Rome. He was also a physician. He was arrested for giving aid
> to Christians who were in prison(for being Christian--remember it
> was illegal back then). While in prison, he actually converted his
> jailer by miraculously restoring his daughter's sight.
> Unfortunately, he was still beheaded soon after.
>
> What does this have to do with Valentine's Day today? Who knows.
> Altho you can draw parallels. St. Valentine was killed because of
> his love for the Christians in jail. You could say that he died out
> of love for his Savior, Jesus. And what greater love is there, then
> for one to die for another?
>
> Some people speculate that the early Christians took what was a
> pagan holiday of fertility, and not real actions, and made it good,
> by focusing it on what love can and should be--perfect love for God
> which is what two people want to share in marriage.
>
> *****************************************************************
> Question o' the Week
>
> "Why do we pray to Mary and the Saints? Isn't that worshipping them
> instead of God?" -Excellent question! Short answer, is that we
> don't worship anyone except God. We honor the saints and we are
> allowed to communicate with them via prayer. Why? How? Jesus
> bridged the gap over death. All who are united to Jesus are among
> the living and joined together.
>
> Look at it this way. When someone compliments you, are your parents
> jealous? Of course not. They're proud of you. How does God feel
> when we honor some of His children, like the saints? He's proud and
> happy :-)
>
> Thing about it, who do we honor? The president, our soldiers,
> priests, teachers, parents--all important people. All people we
> respect and look up too. It's the same thing with the saints.
>
> God has given us Mary and the saints as examples for us to follow,
> and intercessors to offer their prayers for us. When somebody gets
> sick or goes to the hospital, you ask people to pray for them right?
> I know I do! Does that take something away from God? Of course
> not, the more people who pray the better. And who's prayer could be
> more powerful then Mary's, the mother of Jesus(you gotta believe
> Jesus listens to his mother :-) ). And likewise, the saints who
> are in heaven, who see the face of God have very powerful prayers.
>
> One other thought, some will say that by having statues of the
> saints, we are worshipping them. Again, no we don't. So why do we
> have statues? Let me ask you a question...why do you have a picture
> of your boyfriend or girlfriend? It's to remind you of them. Do
> you worship his or her picture? I hope not! In the same way, we
> have statues that remind us of the saints and help us to think more
> about them and God.
>
> God bless you!
> Phil Lawson

"It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you
wish." --Mother Teresa