Halloween, All Saints & All Souls November 1st in our Church Calendar honors All Saints and is one of our Holy Days of Obligation. Throughout the year, the Church celebrates the memorials of canonized saints who have particular feast days on the Church’s liturgical calendar. All Saints Day commemorates the “great multitude, which no one could count” (cf. Rev. 7:9), those holy men and women from every age who are with God in heaven, including those canonized saints of the Church who do not have a particular liturgical feast day. This vast throng of unnamed saints could also include our deceased parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, spouses, children and friends – people we actually knew in this life who lived holy lives. Because we cannot know for certain all those who have attained sainthood, we set aside this day each year to honor all those saints known only to God. Halloween, “All Hallows Eve” (hallow = holy), the eve of All Saints Day, was a time to traditionally dress up in costume like our favorite or patron saints. It also connects with a pre-Christian Celtic tradition that on this night the boundary between this world and the world of dead became particularly “thin” enabling a connection to those who had died. Hence, the belief arose that on this night ghosts and spirits abounded, and the costumes of Saints gradually evolved (or maybe devolved) into costumes of ghosts, goblins, witches and other scary things that “go bump in the night.” November 2nd each year celebrates the Feast of All Souls to pray for all who have died, and await their final entrance into heaven. The Scriptural passage from 2 Maccabees 12:43-46 speaks of Judas Maccabeus praying for the soldiers mortally wounded in the battle to restore the Jewish rule and purify the Temple in Jerusalem: “In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection in mind; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin.” In our Christian tradition, if someone should die, while not in a perfect state of grace, we believe that person can still enter heaven after a state of purification. This is what we call "Purgatory". (Read paragraphs 1030-1032 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a more thorough explanation.) While it is difficult to say much in detail what exactly this experience might be like, it does make sense that for those who have not utterly rejected God but at the same time are not in a perfect state of grace, some purification may be needed to prepare them to stand in the presence of the One who is Perfect Goodness. Purgatory also satisfies any temporal punishment due us because of our sins. While this purification is solely the gift of God, we believe that our prayers of intercession on behalf of our deceased loved ones can assist them. Remembering our deceased loved ones by having Mass celebrated for them is a time-honored way of praying for the dead. On All Souls Day the Mass intentions offered are for all the faithful departed. Since November begins with this remembrance of those who have preceded us to the other side of life, the Church has recommended that we pray for the dead during the entire month. This is especially incumbent upon us priests, but can also be done by all the faithful. As an especially appropriate time to honor our deceased loved ones, we might pull out pictures of previous generations of family and share stories about them with our children. We can make the effort to visit the graves of loved ones nearby, tidy up headstones and cemetery plots and offer a prayer for them while we are there. Here at St. Mary’s, we can bring in a picture of a loved one and place it on the display in the sanctuary and inscribe their name in our Book of Remembrance as a visible sign of our parish prayer for them. These are all expressions of our faith that - in the words from the Preface for the Mass of Christian Burial - “Indeed for your faithful Lord, life is changed, not ended, and when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven."