The days for Ordinary Time are numbered, as Ash Wednesday overtakes us mid-month (14)—which turns Valentine’s Day into a day of fasting and abstinence. Plan ahead, lovers: Make dinner reservations for Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) instead. On the First Sunday of Lent (18), we welcome catechumens into the Elect, and on the Second Sunday (25) candidates seeking full Communion.

When Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, she got up and waited on the group. The spiritual dynamic here is that when we are healed, saved, brought from disease to wellness, our desire to serve is naturally activated.

As a young priest, Oscar Romero was passionate about books and the education of the mind. But when he was unexpectedly named the bishop of El Salvador, he turned from the world of academic learning and felt a growing passion for the oppression of the poor in his country. As a young woman, Dorothy Day gave her heart to the bohemian lifestyle of the smart, successful, popular people of her generation. But through a series of losses, she began to look deeper for meaning and purpose in her life, first by becoming a Catholic, and later by surrendering her heart to the needs of the homeless.

Directly on leaving the meeting place, they came to Simon and Andrew’s house, accompanied by James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed, burning up with fever. They told Jesus. He went to her, took her hand, and raised her up. No sooner had the fever left than she was up fixing dinner for them.

The first night of lost sleep due to existential angst that I remember was back in the fourth grade. I was in love with my teacher, Miss Verdi. That meant looking for opportunities to pound the chalk dust out of the erasers after school with all the manly strength I could muster.

Every time I hear the story of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, I stand amazed: The woman is lying in bed, sick with fever when Jesus takes her hand, pulls her up, and instantly cures her. She then waits on him and his pals.

As a young girl she always tried to avoid getting drafted to work in her mother’s garden. She disliked the planting, the pruning, the watering. She disliked the weeding the most. And so she would rush off to play with her friends.

Remember the little cardboard Valentines with their odd-shaped envelopes? Some had a little clasp that allowed a part of the card to move. We used to be able to buy the cards by the bagful, sometimes paying as little as 50 cents for a hundred of them.

We turn to you, Lord, who gathers and guides us in your wisdom.

We know how to make beautiful speeches on suffering. I myself have spoken of it with enthusiasm. Tell the priests to say nothing about it; we don’t know what suffering is. I weep to think of it.