How Valentine’s Day and Lent both point to God’s perfect love

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same date this year. But what do a commercialised day celebrating romance and a period of religious fasting have in common? A surprising amount, suggests Andrew Bunt

This year, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday – the first day of Lent – fall on the same date. That’s a pretty unusual occurrence – it happened in 2018, and it happens this year, but the only other time it will happen between now the end of this century is in 2029.

You might think that Valentine’s Day and the start of Lent are a peculiar combination, two significant dates that are unrelated and have little to say to each other. But I think they may actually be a better pairing that we would first assume.