Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin (Thomas Sunderland Photography)
- Blessing of engaged couple by Bishop Denis Nulty at the Shrine of Saint Valentine in Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Dublin.
- Homily for Mass to celebrate the Feast of Saint Valentine.
Words for the blessing, by Bishop Denis Nulty, of engaged couple at the Shrine of Saint Valentine – Embargoed until 2.00pm
Welcome to all of you, and especially Lauren and David, who have come here to have their engagement ring blessed.
We are here at the relics associated with Saint Valentine. Relics always are a source of interest. They capture the imagination.
What is the relic of? Is it authentic? When and how did the relic come here? And who is this Saint Valentine in any case?
Beside me this reliquary contains some of the remains of Saint Valentine; it was never claimed that all his remains are here. The reliquary also holds a small vessel tinged with the blood of the martyr, all contained in a sealed wooden box. This box is in the casket that can be seen beneath this altar. We are standing on holy ground, rubbing shoulders with a third century saint.
On this the eve of Saint Valentine’s Day, which a recent AIB survey reminds us is the peak day for spending, particularly for florists. When we walk into shops and convenience stores we are confronted with all things Valentine. Red is very much the colour of cards and gifts. Our Christian tradition holds the colour red is also a recognition of the martyrdom of this man, Valentine, who was killed for this faith on 14 February, 269AD.
But today we remember that God is love. And in that context I am also delighted to announce the increase, last year, in the number of couples attending our Accord Marriage Preparation Programme and, moreover, that this increasing trend has continued throughout the first month of 2026.
I am very grateful for the work of our Accord facilitators who present these programmes.
In addition to the Accord data, and I also welcome today, as encouraging and good news, the Amárach Research carried out last August, commissioned by Accord, on the future intentions of many young people to marry in Church.
In the Amárach Research it is great to see how faith and belief play as a motivator for young couples deciding to celebrate one’s wedding in a Catholic church. The future is bright indeed.
Our Church is at the service of its community at all times. Priests and parishes comment on the marked decline in the number of couples celebrating sacramental marriage. While our Church is a Church of welcome, undoubtedly more work needs to be done to encourage and support couples to appreciate the beauty that is sacramental marriage.
Saint Valentine’s Shrine is not just holy ground because it contains a casket of relics associated with a third century martyr, Saint Valentine, but also because of the many couples – and indeed generations of Irish families and visiting tourists – who have call here to this sanctuary in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our historic capital, to light a candle, to write a petition, to simply stand and pray.
These pilgrims, including couples like Lauren and David today, make this a holy place, and we are grateful for your fidelity and love.
In November 1836 the reliquary was first brought to this church, that’s 190 years ago, 190 years of standing here on holy ground. Today and forever this shrine serves as a beacon to the Christian virtues of faith, love and hope, which Saint Paul writes about in the New Testament, reminding us, of course, that the greatest of these is love.
I continue now with the blessing …
Introduction to the 3.00pm Mass celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty – Embargoed until 3.00pm
It is a great joy as always to celebrate Mass here in the beautiful Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street. The Carmelites came here 200 years ago and the foundation stone for this powerful edifice of worship was laid in 1826. Today, I thank the Prior, Father James Eivers O.Carm, and the Carmelite team here for the warm welcome and generous hospitality.
This is the church obviously associated with the relics of Saint Valentine.
Just before Mass, over at the shrine, I was delighted to bless the engagement ring of an engaged couple, David Higgins and Lauren Stewart. At that shrine the relics have been venerated since the 1950’s. I have been coming to the Shrine for this particular ceremony for many years now and I am always moved by the number of couples and individuals who call in to spend quiet time there.
In our Mass we pray for David and Lauren, and for all others preparing for the sacrament of marriage at this time. I welcome those who have come here today especially to renew their vows, their love, their commitment to one another. You also are very much in my prayers.
In today’s first reading we hear from the Book of Kings, Solomon has displeased the Lord and bit by bit much of his kingdom will be stripped away. In Mark’s gospel, Jesus meets the mute man and with the words ‘Ephphatha!’ (Mk.7:34) his ears, clogged up for too many years, are opened. … That we too may hear ‘Ephphatha’ today, we pray:
- Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – You are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire.
- Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – You are the way of Truth: A Chríost, déan trócaire.
- Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – Be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan trócaire.
Homily delivered by Bishop Nulty
I have two weddings in my diary over the coming months! I look forward to celebrating the sacramental marriage of my nephew Brendan to Eimear on 22 May, and for friends Michael and Chanipa later on 10 July.
As a bishop I don’t normally have too many weddings clogging up my diary; just family generally. Baptisms and confirmations are a complete different story; sacramental moments as God whispers into the ears of the young couple at their wedding, ‘I’ll always be there for you’; at baptism ‘this is my son, my daughter, in whom I am proud’, and at Confirmation, ‘be sealed with the Holy Spirit’.
The power of language, the power of articulation, the power of encounter. One word is all it takes to allow the mute man to speak “Ephphatha”: ‘Be opened’, ‘be loosened’, ‘be freed’.
Our gospel from Saint Mark brings us a profound sense of the closeness of Jesus with people. Jesus doesn’t heal from a distance. He defies the risk of infection. He is comfortable at laying hands on the man, even to putting His fingers in the man’s ears and touching his tongue with spittle.
We do the very same thing during the celebration of baptism. As I pray the Ephphatha Prayer, the parents gently trace the Sign of the Cross over the ears and mouth of their little bundle of joy.
As I look ahead to Brendan and Eimear’s, and to Michael and Chanipa’s weddings, I already visualise them kneeling before the altar and God whispering into their ears to be open to the blessings and graces He will give them.
We know in life that what is said clearly is not always heard clearly. There can be misunderstandings, mixed messages, wrong vibes. Every message is filtered a thousand times as it is being received. Jesus was an outstanding listener because of His sensitivity and that freedom of heart that enabled Him to hear what was said and what was unsaid. In healing the mute man, Jesus frees him from isolation. He takes him to one side “he took him off by himself away from the crowd” (Mk 7:33), so that he might in time be fully reintegrated into the community.
We must go away in order to return. Healing freed the man from isolation. Couples in their evaluation forms after their Accord Marriage Preparation Programme speak about the value of the honest conversations they’ve enjoyed with each other during the programme, honest conversations around love, family and faith. It’s obvious that couples realise they are preparing for something sacred, special and meaningful. Enrolling on a preparation
programme is an intentional decision by them to build and grow their relationship into something permanent and stable, making a conscious commitment to prepare for a life together.
In many ways they are revolutionaries, not carrying arms, but arm in arm with one another.
The revolutionary nature of participants isn’t anything loud or dramatic, its intentional, thought driven and demonstrates a deep sense of commitment in our time-hungry world.
Couples gather with other couples to explore what sacramental marriage means in their lives. Couple therapy, a specialisation in the training of Accord’s counsellors, reframes a couples problems as patterns between partners, not necessarily flaws within any one person. Couple
therapy counselling replaces blame language ‘who’s wrong’ with ‘how can we fix this together?’
Accord, and its teams across the country, witness to the importance of healthy relationships for couples, which benefit families, local communities and wider society.
Mark’s gospel of the healing of the mute man, demonstrates the closeness, the affection, the love Jesus has for all inviting them into a friendship with God and a new way of life. The man is healed at the margins and brought by Jesus to the centre. The communication of God’s love for a couple on their wedding day takes many forms, in words used, in sacred vows exchanged, in gestures shared and most importantly in the community of family and friends who gather. Sacramental Marriage isn’t an identity card that reminds us that couple were married in a church, rather its everyday being called to live in love and grow in love.
The mute man who was healed could not keep quiet about his healing, and we should not keep quiet about the sacrament that marriage is, a sacrament that invites us to keep God central to our relationship.
The more a couple grow in their relationship they can be assured that agencies like Accord are here to accompany them on every step of their journey together.
Saint Valentine, pray for us. Amen.
ENDS
- Bishop Denis Nulty is Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin and President of Accord clg