MARYS MESSAGE Halloween is coming. Stores are filled with costumes, candy, and spooky decorations. The more serious among us will remember that Halloween is really “All Hallows’ Eve,” the night before All Saints’ Day. Many Halloween customs, such as bobbing for apples and the carving of pumpkins, remind us that All Hallows’ Eve was at one time a day of fasting. Halloween is a blast! I always look forward to the costumed trick-or-treaters. Everyone is enjoying a fun, creative, playful time. The origins of Halloween are ancient. Many cultures and faith traditions throughout the world have developed their own ways of celebrating and remembering their beloved dead during the dark nights of late fall. Sam Portaro writes in A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts, All Saints Day is the centerpiece of an autumn triduum. In the carnival celebrations of All Hallows Eve our ancestors used the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal, the power of humor and ridicule to confront the power of death. The following day, in the commemoration of All Saints, we gave witness to the victory of incarnate goodness embodied in remarkable deeds and doers triumphing over the misanthropy of darkness and devils. And in the commemoration of All Souls we proclaimed the hope of common mortality expressed in our aspirations and expectations of a shared eternity. (25 January 1998). A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts. Cowley Publications. p. 199. ISBN 1461660513. Come Sunday morning and join us in “celebrating the incarnate goodness embodied in remarkable deeds and doers…” We’ll sing a song of the saints of God, Patient and brave and true, Who toiled and fought and lived and died For the Lord they loved and knew. And we’ll pray we’ll be saints, too! Mary+
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:41:12 +0000
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