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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Today we gather together to celebrate the Thirtieth
Sunday in Ordinary Time. Our liturgical year, just like our calendar year 2009,
is quickly coming to a close. Let us use our time wisely. God only gives each
of us so much. Let us make the most of every day!
Next Sunday is the great Feast of All Saints. With the
Holy Day being on Sunday, it takes precedence over the Thirty-First Sunday in
Ordinary Time. Our readings and our prayers, everything, will be for All Saints
next Sunday. The Litany of the Saints will replace our usual Prayers of the
Faithful at all our Masses. It is a beautiful Feast Day and one that fills all
of us with hope and expectation, as we long to be saints ourselves!
That of course means, that the vigil of All Saints, “all
Hallowed eve”, or as we more commonly refer to it, Halloween, is next Saturday.
I write this week asking all of us to keep next weekend holy or “hallowed”.
Halloween is one of the biggest holidays of the year for many people. As
Catholic Christians, we do well to remember where this celebration comes from,
and what it is really about. And that doesn’t mean that we can’t have fun on
Halloween. We can and we should. But Halloween is a holiday and is where it is
on the calendar, because of the Catholic Church’s celebration of All Saints. My
concern, my brothers and sisters, is that in recent years, Halloween has taken
on more and more of a demonic nature. And sometimes by joking and seemingly
poking fun at the devil and demons, we are actually opening the door to the Evil
One. There are things that we shouldn’t be messing around with, and the demonic
and the occult are certainly on that list! It matters what we dress up as, or
even more importantly, what we allow our children to dress up as. It matters
how we decorate and celebrate this holiday. It is past time for Catholic
Christians to reclaim this holiday. The extraordinary lives of the Saints give
all of us something to emulate and be inspired by. Halloween should be
uplifting and inspiring. Is it going to be at your house? In recent years,
thanks to movies and TV, we have seen the glorification of gore and violence at
Halloween. We say things like “We’re only pretending” and “And it’s better to
act out violence than it is to do the real thing”. But is the glorification of
violence ever appropriate for anybody, most especially Catholic Christians?
Haven’t our movies, and TV shows, and video games already done enough to
de-sensitize our young people to violence and even the violent taking of human
life? Seems to me, that we, all of us together as Church, need to be careful
how we celebrate Halloween. Are we setting up the “anti-thesis” of All Saints
Day the night before? Or are we working to remember that Halloween and All
Saints Day were supposed to go together? As a parish community, I’d ask that we
at least think about this. Far too often, we just go “along with the flow”.
You know dead fish go along with the flow. It is not a particularly good sign.
Let’s think and pray about what we are doing this week. Is God asking us to
change any part of our celebration of Halloween?
Our Holy Name Society is inviting all Parish families and
especially all of the children of the Parish to it’s first-ever “Treats from the
Trunk” this coming Friday evening, Oct. 30th,
beginning at 7:00 PM, to celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day. We are asking
that those who want to participate in this new event, to have your car, your
minivan, or SUV and your trick ’r treaters, dressed in appropriate and tasteful
costumes, in the north parking lot, with the engine turned off by 7:00 PM. Our
hope is to provide a safe and fun place for families to get together and for the
kids to get some treats. The Holy Name Society will award prizes for the best
costumes.
Next Sunday, Nov. 1st,
is the opening day for the Vatican’s Exhibit on the Eucharistic Miracles here at
St. Maria Goretti. The exhibit will be open for All Saint’s Day from noon until
4:30 PM and throughout the next week at selected hours. It takes a good couple
of hours to view and read the entire exhibit. You may want to plan on a couple
of visits to enjoy the entire exhibit.
Don’t forget to get your picture taken for the new
Pictorial Directory! We sure are missing a lot of people so far. We need you!
Have a great week! Let us give thanks to God for all our
blessings!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before
starting to improve the world.”
- Anne Frank
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