February 14, 2024 presented some Christian couples a bit of a dilemma.

Do we fast and pray or do we celebrate Valentine’s Day by having a lovely dinner for two?

There must be a middle ground between the two.

My choice this year was out of my hands, as my dear Valentine has been unexpectedly called away from home for a few days.

It remains only for me to give you the Lectionary readings for Ash Wednesday along with two exegeses …

Readings for Ash Wednesday

• Exegesis on the Epistle for Ash Wednesday — 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
• Exegesis on the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; Matthew Henry)

… as well as the biographies of the Saints Valentine:

A bit of history about Valentine’s Day  (2015)

More history about Valentine’s Day (2016)

In closing, it appears that going out to dinner on February 14 is an American idea, as The Times archive from 1924 states (emphases mine):

… there are signs, not necessarily regrettable, that the celebration of his day is resuming a form in which everyone can play a part.

The unfortunate saint himself, who appears to have been wholly unaware of his ultimate associations, came — so legend has it — to an extremely painful end; he was clubbed to death. Had he known some of the execrable sentiments, the artificial fatuities, the breaches of elementary taste which were to be dispersed in his name by posterity, one feels that physical suffering would have been the least part of his martyrdom …

Now, thanks to American influence, the celebration of humanity’s response to the call of spring is turning back from art to actuality. Young people are to dine together at hotels, to eat puddings suitably decorated, and to dance expressly-composed measures. They are, in short, to return, so far as modernity allows, to the state of affairs which prevailed before any universal dabbling in literature. This is sensible, natural and what anyone can do. It takes us back to the days when the adventure was a personal affair, and the young man himself waited outside the window of his lady-love “to be her valentine”.

May the Lord continue to bless all happy couples on this day!