From the Pastor’s desk— Octobre 29, 2023
All Saints All Souls
When someone wants to question or criticize, our Catholic faith, one of the first things they bring up is the saints. This coming week our Church holds up the saints/the dead with All Saints (Nov1) & All Souls (Nov 2) which overlaps Dia de los Muertos that we will celebrate this on Nov 2nd. It is nearly impossible to convince others about their place, but if we understand what we believe, we can be ready to explain it to someone whose heart is open to the truth.
These celebrations date back to the 4th century when the Church remembered the souls of all the martyrs. In the 800’s English and Irish Christians celebrated a feast on Nov 1 for All Saints in reaction to the pagan culture’s fear of deceased spirits roaming the earth in this time of year. Rome soon thereafter made this day a universal feast to replace the superstitious fears of the dead with the understanding that all the faithful who die in Christ are still part of our family who pray for us and we can pray to.
This brings up the issue of prayer and the saints. We can pray for the dead, as did the Maccabees, St Paul, and many others in Scripture. Second, we can pray for the intercession of the dead (saints) which is mentioned in the book of Revelation (5:8 & 8:4) as well as in St Paul’s letters. We never pray to any saint to give us what we want, not St Jude, St Anthony, not even Mary. We pray through the power of intercession, which is equal to my asking you to pray for me. If the saints are part of the body of Christ, asking them to pray for us does not and cannot stop with death.
We will mark these days in several ways. First with special masses (posted later in the bulletin.) Second, we will include the names of deceased loved ones in our masses, especially Nov 2nd. (suggested offering is $10 for name per mass and envelopes can be found in the gathering space on the wall display and given to a Mass captain, Br. Manolo, or the celebrant priest BEFORE Mass.) You may also write their names in the book of remembrance which will be put on the altar each mass. Finally, you may bring pictures of deceased loved ones and place them on our memorial altar in front of the main altar. Make sure to put your names on the back of the picture and reclaim it at the end of the month.
This year our Hispanic Committee will have special events for Day of the Dead (Nov 2). We will create our cemetery where you can make headstones with the names of loved ones with a procession to it after the 6pm Mass, a social, cultural dances, and a Catrina contest with the best Katrina receiving a $50 amazon card.
The saints and souls have a lot to teach us, if we let them.
Parochial administrator
With a heart for Mission,
Fr. Ray