Chicago, Ill., Jan 29, 2018 / 11:59 am
Occasionally, the liturgical calendar has a curious intersection with secular holidays.
This year, Ash Wednesday-which begins the penitential season of Lent with a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer-falls on Feb. 14, Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day celebrates a third-century Christian martyr, but it has also become a celebration of romantic love, replete with with chocolates, fancy prix fixe menus, roses, and an overload of candy hearts.
The Archdiocese of Chicago has clarified that Lent is more important than candy hearts, and suggested that Catholics pick some other day for paper hearts and Cupid's arrows.