Valentine's Day Scriptural Valentines

Valentines! Who can resist them? Coming home from work on a dark February evening, I always am cheered to find a red or pink envelope tucked inside my mailbox. Somebody loves me!

Well, of course! I know that! But sometimes I forget, and a Valentine helps me remember. I cherish these Valentines my family and friends send me. What about the ones God sends?

Wait a minute, you might be thinking, what do you mean? God sends Valentines? Why not! Valentines are messages of love, aren't they? And lovers send Valentines to their beloved. God is the greatest Lover of them all, and each one of us is His beloved. So why wouldn't God send us Valentines, not just on Valentine's Day but all year long!

But how does God send us Valentines? Lots of ways! One is through the sacred Scriptures, the holy Word of the Lord, so full of examples of God's goodness and mercy, love and compassion. What Scriptural Valentines have you collected and treasured over the years? Here are some of my favorites.

With age-old love I have loved you; so I have kept my mercy toward you. Jer. 31:3

His banner over me is love. Song 2:4

The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love as on a day of festival. Zeph. 3:17

I have called you by name: you are mine....I will be with you.... Because you are precious in my eyes and glorious, and because I love you. Is. 43:1, 2, 4

Though the mountains leave their place and the hills be shaken, my love will never leave you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the Lord, who has mercy on you. Is. 54:10

O Lord, how precious is your love. My God, the children of the earth find refuge in the shelter of your wings. Ps. 36:8

Your merciful love and your truth will always guard me. Ps. 40:12

The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness. Lam. 3:22-23

I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love.... Hos. 11:4

But I have trusted in Your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me. Ps. 13:5-6

I love you, O Lord, my strength, O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God; my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! Ps. 18:1-3

The Lord came to my support. He set me free in the open, and rescued me, because He loves me. Ps. 19:20

I will trust in the Lord. I will rejoice and be glad for Your steadfast love.... Ps. 31:6-7

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. Ps. 52:8

God will send forth His steadfast love and his faithfulness! Ps. 57:3

For Your love is better than life; my lips will praise You. Ps. 63:3

But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Ps. 86:15

Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His steadfast love endures for ever! Ps. 106:1

For God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Jn. 3:16

I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Jn. 14:31

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jn. 15:12-13

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. Jn. 15:19

Come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Mt. 12:28

The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Rom. 5:5

My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 1 Jn. 4:7

May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. Eph.3:17-10

Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph. 5:1-2

Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Cor 2:9

The love of Christ impels us. 2 Cor 5:14

I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you...for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. 2 Tim 1:6-7

Although you have never seen Him, you love Him, and without seeing you now believe in Him, and rejoice with inexpressible joy touched with glory because you are achieving faith's goal, your salvation. 1 Pet. 1:8-9

See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God! Yet that is what we are. 1 Jn. 3:1

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 1 Jn. 4:16-17

We, for our part, love because He first loved us. 1 Jn. 4:19

The Lord disciplines him whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. Heb. 12:6

1 Cor. 13 -- Every line of St. Paul's glorious hymn on the "Excellence of the Gift of Love" is a Valentine from God and worthy of deep reflection and prolonged contemplation for "there is no limit to love's forbearance, to its trust, its hope, its power to endure. Love never fails." (vs.7-8)

The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us, and we have seen His glory; the glory of an only Son coming from the Father, filled with enduring love. Jn. 1:14

Of His fullness we have all had a share -- love following upon love. Jn 1:16

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else is all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:35, 37-39

How dearly God loves us! How much He yearns to fill our hearts to overflowing with His enduring, abiding love! What special Scriptural Valentine is He sending you and you alone as a sign of His love for you? Whatever it is, may you receive it with renewed gratitude and rejoice greatly in the wondrous love of our gracious God!

Written, compiled, and submitted to
Catholic Prayers by Alice Claire Mansfield