Another Valentine’s Day has come and gone, and sometimes it feels like just another excuse for the greeting card industry to make a grab for your money. Though biblical in origin, the sweet secular sentiments of love have been overshadowed by pressure to be in a relationship, purchase grocery-store flowers and indulge the chocolate makers.

When I was a young girl, my mother taught me to add “x” and “o” — a kiss and a hug — after my signature. So deeply embedded was this English-language tradition that it never crossed her mind that these symbols had anything to do with religion. I never thought about it myself until she passed away a few years ago and I found myself emitting streams of “x’s” and “o’s” like a binary love code in the countless emails that consume much of my daily life.

Giulio Silano may know little about St. Valentine, but he's certain the third-century priest has nothing to do with exchanging cards, flowers and chocolates in the name of love.

TERNI, Italy - The liturgical feast of St. Valentine, removed from general Church calendar in the late 1960s, continues to be celebrated with special Masses, a marathon and fireworks in Terni, which claims the saint as its former bishop.

VANCOUVER - As Valentine’s Day gets closer, a common message in society seems to say that if we’re not in a relationship, we can’t be worth very much.

But two university students in Vancouver are trying to change the way women view themselves and their relationships. Every Thursday evening, Carissa Benavides and Elizabeth Krump lead 14 women in a discussion of the book How to Find your Soulmate Without Losing your Soul.

Started in January, the group is made up of women from Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia.

Anne was a pretty young blonde. She always had men interested in her, had friends, intelligence and a good career, and was a generous, good-hearted person. How surprising to hear, later on, she’d found her good looks a point of difficulty.

She’d learned that often people were interested in her body but not the rest of her; underneath her popularity she had trouble finding self-worth. So though she took good care of her body, she was not on good terms with it.