Yes, all children are special. And each child needs to hear why they are special.
Imagine: A mom has four children. Different ages and different dads for some. Mom loves all of them.
Two children were born in February on the same day. One is a girl and the other a boy and they are different ages. They share the same birth date.   Another child, the youngest, was born just before Christmas. And one is a Feb. child.
Each child wants to be special — and loved in a special way.
But moms know that each child IS special and loved in a special way. And each child needs to know why each IS special.
How to convey to each that each child IS special and loved in a special way? Tell the children the stories of the Christian Saints.
The youngest child born just before Christmas is a Christ-child. And thus, tell that child and all four children, the story of Jesus born of Mary and Joseph in the town of Bethlehem after traveling a long way with Mary on a donkey.
It was not easy for Mary. Mary was a teenager around age 15 living in a small village. Everybody in the village could see that Mary was pregnant and that she was not married when she got pregnant. And think of Joseph. Instead of sending Mary back to her family as she was pregnant, Joseph listened to the angels. And so Joseph put Mary on a donkey and headed out into the darkness to go to a small town far, far away. Joseph trusted what the angels told him to do.
Tell all the children about the Three  Wise Men who came bringing gifts for Jesus. And tell the children that’s why we give gifts to each other on Christ-Mass Day. And share gifts with the children. Especially if you cannot be there on Christmas. Do it early so they know you care.
The two born in February have a special Saint. Tell the February children about Saint Valentine who is remembered on February 14. There are several Saint Valentines. Today we give Valentines to those we love. There is a Saint Valentine church in Rome, Italy that the children can visit. Tell the children born in Feb. close to Valentine’s Day that they are children of Love who are to Grow to Love others. Tell them their special saint is Saint Valentine. And that’s one reason why they are special. And make a Valentine for each of the children — red paper, saying the words only a mom can say about love for that special Valentine child.
This particular mom also has a child who has a birthday around the middle of Sept. Â Check out the Saints for that day. For example, Sept. 21 is about Saint Mathew.
And Sept 14 is about the power of the Cross. Perhaps giving that Special Child born on Sept. 14 a small cross might be one way to show how that child is special – to mom and to Jesus. The symbol of the cross has long been a symbol of Jesus and God’s Love for all of us.
Learn about the Saints of old that pertain to specific days. And learn about those Saints that can help us NOW in our day!  And remember that we are all Saints Becoming.
Saints are not perfect. Saints are those who follow Jesus born of Mary. Mary listened to the angels and believed God’s promises.  So those four children can also choose to be Saints for today. With guidance from their mom as she seeks to know Jesus.
For each child give them a special gift by connecting them to Saints of Old so that the children of today become Saints of today. This is one way to teach that each child IS special to mom and to Jesus, Son of Mary and Joseph.
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At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In William of Malmesbury’s time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighborhood. Of both these St. Valentines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known.
Saint Valentine’s Day
The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine’s Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules we read:
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.
For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers’ tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines. In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor:
On September 16, popular TV persona Wael El-Ibrashi hosted Dr. Zaghlul al-Naggar, a prominent Islamic thinker and Chairman of Egypt’s Committee of Scientific Notions in the Quran, on the topic of medical science and Islam.
