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Good morning, If you’re married or in a relationship then this thought might make you feel good or anxious. Good, because you already have it in hand, or anxious because you’ve forgotten it and thus you have to move swiftly into action. For St Valentine's Day is almost upon us. It is now traditional for couples to exchange gifts as a way of showing their appreciation for the other. For some it might even be the occasion to take the relationship deeper and to pop the big question. Regardless of whether you have the plans made or not, there is something greater and more profound being asked of each of us. St. Valentine’s Day is now a ritual which many societies observe. I even recall it being celebrated in Karachi. However, like many of our ritual days in the West, they have become widely commercialized and celebrated, and it is easy to lose touch with the deeper meaning or the ‘why’. It is ironic that for such a famous saint as Valentine we know precious little about him. Some accounts say he was a priest from Rome who lived in the third century AD and was imprisoned for marrying Christian couples. At the time Emperor Claudius had banned marriages, believing married men made bad soldiers. According to legend, Valentine, on the day of his execution – the 14th February – sent his final letter to someone he loved, signing it ‘from your Valentine’. From such obscure origins a romantic tradition has emerged. The cards and gifts exchanged on St. Valentine’s Day are expressions of love. But what is love? Love in the Christian scriptures is not founded on reciprocity. Leviticus asks us to: "Love one another as yourself." It is not to love one another because others have loved you, but to love others as you desire to be loved; to treat others as you want to be treated regardless of whether that is how they actually are treating you. That un-conditional love is perhaps one of the toughest human acts. It can be at the same time the most beautiful human gift to another and to ourselves, and yet also the most difficult thing to do, because our lives are so governed by conditionality and reciprocity. But that is what we are asked to do, to love unconditionally in relationships and beyond. St Valentine’s Day is a reminder to us that each day, and in each human encounter we have the human capacity to exchange the biggest gift of all, to ourselves, and to the other we encounter, and that is the gift of unconditional love.