Do you hate Valentine's Day? Here's how to fight back!

Valentine's Day is supposed to be the feast day of St. Valentine, the Roman saint who gave his life for his steadfastness in faith. Despite the sacrifice by the early Catholic cleric, the modern interpretation of the holiday has devolved into a secular orgy of excess and lust.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Valentine's Day is intended to commemorate the martyrdom of a third-century saint of the Catholic Church who was arrested for marrying Christian couples and refused to stop or to abandon his faith. Allegedly, before his execution he wrote a letter to his jailer's daughter whom he cured of blindness. He signed the letter, "your Valentine." 

Despite these noble origins, the holiday, like many other modern holidays, has been secularized and commercialized.

Today, Valentine's Day is a day typically marked by extravagant expenditures by men for women, spending that is often balanced by sexual congress following a night of romantic gestures. This practice, although culturally ingrained in the western world, is also morally bankrupt as millions of people spend extravagantly, engage in risky emotional and physical behavior, oftentimes outside the moral boundaries of marriage.

The entire holiday is both wasteful and sinful, and misses the entire point of St. Valentine's martyrdom.

So how should we respond?

Many cynics are tempted to surrender the holiday to the secularists and the commercial advertisers and withdraw from it altogether. However, this is the wrong response. We should not abandon our holy days (holidays) to the secular and immoral, but instead we should strive to recapture them .

The best way to do this is through 'Prayer and Action,' and by acting against those influences which seductively whisper that you are less of a person if you refuse to play the "traditional" game (which is in no way traditional).

Here's a suggestion. Instead of dropping tens of dollars on expensive gourmet chocolates, or dropping a hundred on an inflated-price dinner at a fancy bistro, why not commit an act of true love? One that will be really appreciated.

A better way to commemorate St. Valentine is to make a personal sacrifice for the faith, to give of oneself to their human family, not to a selfish lover who may not repay or appreciate the gesture, or who expects too much.

Why not answer the Pope's call to feed the poor? The poor are the salt of the Earth, and they need love as much as you do. While we empty our wallets to buy things, expecting happiness, we are always disappointed in the return, naturally, because things do not bring happiness. Happiness is a human emotion, imparted and shared between humans, not objects.

When you donate to the poor, you increase their happiness by simply giving them another day of life free from the pangs of hunger. Is there a greater gift? What value is the world's most glittering diamond amid poverty, hunger, disenfranchisement, and even death?

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So if you want to celebrate St. Valentine's Day, as a true Catholic HOLY DAY, then you are invited to do so. Pope Francis has asked that we share our gifts with the poor. Let us refrain from gluttony and lust, and instead pour ourselves into charity.

We have the promise of greater rewards, and greater happiness if we make this simple choice.

Let us honor St. Valentine as God and our Holy Father instructs, and see what comes of a true Christian celebration of LOVE.

Pope Francis calls for your 'Prayer and Action.'

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