O Lord, who fashioned love itself,
teach us to love as Your martyr loved,
not in fleeting sentiment,
nor in words untested by sacrifice,
but in the fire of surrender,
where self is poured out like oil for the lamp.

St. Valentine bore Your name in chains,
his love not bound by fear,
but made bold in the face of cruelty,
a whisper of grace in the halls of the condemned.
May we love so fiercely, so truly,
not for what we gain, but for what we give,
not for ease, but for eternity.

Let our love bear the weight of truth,
the patience of the cross,
the mercy that costs us everything,
and yet, in the giving,
finds itself made whole in You.

Teach us, O God, to love beyond comfort,
beyond the safety of return,
to love with a love that cannot die,
for it is rooted in You, Love Himself,
who was, and is, and forever will be.