Through Catholic Culture's very handy e-mail newsletter on the Liturgical Year, I learned that February 16th used to be the feast of St. Juliana, "a Christian virgin of Cumae, Italy, martyred for the faith when she refused to marry a Roman prefect." That's the kind of commemoration that a Catholic could find inspiring.
However, in the new calendar adopted after Vatican II, February 16th is now merely the Wednesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time. Dull, bland, and boring. And what duller term could one have found for the daily struggle of Good and Evil than "Ordinary Time"?
With 2,000 years of Catholic heroes and heroines to choose from, why would any day not be used to call to mind a saint to encourage the faithful?
In 1867, Matthew Arnold wrote "Dover Beach", a haunting poem evoking the "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" of the Sea of Faith. As a boomer who finished Catholic elementary school in 1964 and then watched my Church falter, I've found the roar all too audible. So here I wait, listening for the whispers of that Sea's invincible return.
