We were told we would have six more weeks of winter and it sure seems like that is what we’re getting. Snow or not, our February activities continue to move on with our diocesan celebration of Absalom Jones this weekend starting with a fundraising lunch and panel discussion tomorrow at 11 a.m. Our special guest is The Rev. Dr. Gayle Fisher-Stewart. There will also be a special Evensong for Absalom Jones on Sunday at 4 p.m. at St. Augustine’s. We will have our own Choral Evensong this Sunday at 5, followed by an organ recital and reception. Our guest organist will be Elisa Williams Bickers, Principal Organist and Co-Director of Music at Village Presbyterian.
If that’s not enough, don’t forget that today, February 14, is the Lesser Feast of Cyril and Methodius (oh, and something to do with St. Valentine). There are many Christian martyrs with the name Valentine, but most believe this day had something to do with a priest named Valentine of Rome. He was imprisoned and martyred by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus in 270 CE. Legend has it he healed his jailer’s daughter’s blindness (thus the sainthood), and later tradition adds that he signed a note he had written to her “from your Valentine.” It is also believed he, or another priest named Valentine, went against the emperor and secretly married couples so the men would not have to be sent to war as soldiers. We may not know the exact story of St. Valentine, but we do know that Cyril and Methodius were missionaries in the 9th century from Thessalonika. Called to mission by the King of Moravia in 862 CE, brothers Cyril and Methodius are honored as apostles to the southern Slavs and as the founders of Slavic literary culture. In his work with the Moravians, Cyril invented an alphabet to transcribe the native tongue. Later, this alphabet would come to be known as the Cyrillic alphabet.
Whether you celebrate St. Valentine today or Cyril and Methodius, always celebrate the love that is given to us by Christ. We are to share that love and love one another as Christ loves us. A good model for today and every day. I’ll end with the Collect for Cyril and Methodius:
Almighty and everlasting God, who by the power of the Holy Spirit moved your servants Cyril and Methodius to bring the light of the Gospel to a hostile and divided people: Overcome all bitterness and strife among us by the love of Christ, and make us one united family under the banner of the Prince of Peace; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Please continue to pray for one another, for those on our Cathedral prayer list, for our nation, and the world.
