Saint Valentine's Day, Secure Borders, and Beautiful Babies

HAPPY SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY. The celebration of love. And here is President Trump's message of love to America : "We are fighting for all Americans, from all backgrounds, of every age, race, religion, birthplace, color & creed. Our agenda is NOT a partisan agenda – it is the mainstream, common sense agenda of the American People. Thank you El Paso, Texas - I love you!" • Fox News tells us that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Tuesday told show listeners not to underestimate President Trump’s desire to address illegal immigration and secure the border with Mexico, even if he does sign a compromise to avoid another federal shutdown : “Anything that happens that solidifies and cements that effort as being undertaken and underway, the president can portray as a win. He can always hold out the card of a declaration of a national emergency to get the rest of it built and so forth." After is rally in El Paso, President Trump was back in Washington on Tuesday, expressing his dissatisfaction with the possible border-security compromise at a White House Cabinet meeting, although the President stopped short of rejecting it : “I’m not happy about it. It’s not doing the trick. But I’m adding things to it, and when you add whatever I have to add, it’s all going to happen where we’re going to build a beautiful, big, strong wall that’s not going to let criminals and traffickers and drug dealers and drugs into our country.” Limbaugh asked : “If the President signs anything that allocates, appropriates less than the $5.7 billion he was demanding or asking, how many of you look at that as a defeat or as a loss versus how many of you look at that as the completion of a stage of this?" The President has promised over and over that the wall is going to get built. Nobody can say he has caved on the premise of controlling illegal immigration and shoring up the border. If he signs this, he’s going to have to make the case that you never get everything you want all at once in Washington. We’ve got a divided government. We got ’em off the zero, we’re moving in the right direction. We’re continuing to build the wall.” AND, Rush Limbaugh gave a message of love to all Americans who support President Trump : “I just think somebody is so out of their gourds on this because of their ongoing belief that Trump is some ogre and not sophisticated, not capable, not an individual thinker, and he just -- they still don’t know who the man is. They still don’t know who they’re dealing with.” Amen, Rush, AMEN. • • • WHO WAS SAINT VALENTINE? Wikipedia gives us the bare facts. Saint Valentine, officially Saint Valentine of Rome, was a widely recognized 3rd-century Roman saint commemorated on February 14 and since the High Middle Ages is associated with a tradition of courtly love. Saint Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who ministered to Christians, who were persecuted there. Saint Valentine was born in 226 AD in Terni, Italy and died on February 14, 269 AD, in Rome, Italy. His full name is Valentine of Terni. He was a Roman. Saint Valentine is buried in Whitefriar Street Church, Dublin, Ireland. • And, that brings us to a more complete story of Saint Valentine's life and death -- told, of course, by an Irishman. • CBN published the story as told by Father Frank O'Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin. Father O'Gara says: "Flowers, candy, red hearts and romance. That's what Valentine's day is all about, right? Well, maybe not. The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn't romantic at all -- at least not in the traditional sense.'He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time, Father O'Gara explains. He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died. 'I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived,' says Father O'Gara. 'Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this. The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict.' Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius II. There are legends surrounding Valentine's actions while in prison. One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, whose daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result. In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius' daughter. He inspired today's romantic missives by signing it, "From your Valentine." • "What Valentine means to me as a priest," explains Father O'Gara, "is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that -- even to the point of death." Valentine's martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint. Father O'Gara states : "Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life -- some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ. If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you're going to have to suffer. It's not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don't be surprised if the 'gushing' love that you have for someone changes to something less 'gushing' but maybe much more mature. And the question is, is that young person ready for that? So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context. Love -- human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God -- but also the shadow of the cross. That's what Valentine means to me." • Gradually, February 14 became a date for exchanging love messages, poems and simple gifts such as flowers. • • • DEAR READERS, perhaps as we celebrate love today, we will find a quiet moment to celebrate birth. The horror we have recently witnessed was New York Governor Cuomo's lighting up of the new Trade Center to celebrate the abortion bill passed by the NY legislature, a law that is actually infanticide labeled as abortion since it permits the removal and killing of a baby from its mother's uterus up to birth. Then we had to watch as the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, a doctor whose specialty is gynecology, explained how it could be possible under a proposed -- but thank goodness not passed -- bill, that it would permit the killing of infants even after birth if they had survived abortion. • Sarah Dilorenzo wrote in an online comment : “I’m a mom, grandma and anti-abortion advocate and the nine-month abortion law really angered me. Then I saw that a councilwoman wants to outlaw foie gras because you have to force-feed the goose. She said it was cruel and inhuman. I love animals, but how can we kill fully formed human babies, and care more about a goose? Something is very wrong with these liberal Democrats.” • President Trump calls these living victims of the radical Democrat Party's twisted push to cater to its large voting bloc of women "beautiful babies." • Share your Saint Valentine's Day cards and enjoy exchanging chocolates or having a special dinner with your loved one or ones. But, spare a thought and a prayer to help those "Beautiful Babies."