A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right
Coming soon to your neighborhood: All Saints Day!
Yes, it's less than a week away. So given the lack of attention paid to most holy days of obligation by many Catholics in many parishes, and my personal affection for this glorious feast, I'm going to start "promoting" it now. Hey Catholics, All Saints Day is coming!
Besides the fact that All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation, in my little interior universe All Saints has always held a special place, a day to get up on our toes and happily dance to the music of the spheres. Okay, I'm getting carried away. But really, I've always loved this day. As a kid, it followed Halloween, a time when we who lived in apartment buildings could efficiently go door to door and garner a massive treasure of sweet stuff and, occasionally, a coin or two in record time. And since, in Catholic grammar school, we got All Saints off, there was a joyous continuum from "Trick or Treat" through morning Mass on All Saints, ending with Mass on All Souls Day.
Back then, church was packed on All Saints, as it was on all holy days of obligation.Even All Souls Day Masses were well-attended. In those days, a priest could - and would - celebrate Mass three times on All Souls. So when you went to Mass, you'd typically attend Mass at the main altar, with another Mass going on at a side altar. Masses were celebrated facing the altar and the priests wore black vestments, a stark contrast to the white they wore on All Saints. It provided a dramatic and moving contrast between life and death. Also, the black on All Souls reminded us to pray for those Holy Souls in Purgatory, especially those in our family, who had died. All of that ended after Vatican II with the Novus Ordo Mass. I miss the richness of it all.
To say those three days - Halloween (or All Hallows Eve), All Saints, and All Souls - had a huge impact on me would be an understatement. We knew we were engaging with the Communion of Saints in big way. Since far too few Catholics are aware of the reality of the Communion of Saints these days, let's quickly review:.Church Triumphant (the saints in Heaven), Church Militant (those of us living on this earth today), Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory. You don't hear about this much anymore. We're much the worse off.
For example, given the crisis going on in the Church these days, this holy alliance between the faithful in Heaven, Earth, and Purgatory could and should serve to bolster those who've become discouraged. The few evil ones perpetrating heinous acts would be seen for the minority they are when held up to the greater scheme of things - i.e., the Communion of Saints.
While I can't make up for what's missing in our Catholic lives in this little blog post, I can offer something I recently "discovered" that helped to vividly regenerate the reality of the Communion of Saints in my own heart and mind. It's the fact that saints are our friends. We can relate to them not only as "intercessors" in some formal sense, but also as good friends wanting and willing to hear and understand our concerns, our troubles, our petitions. I realize some - maybe most - of you likely know this. But, for whatever reason, it's been missing in my own little universe. But by the grace of God, I "get it" now. And having finally gotten it and incorporated this happy discovery into my own prayer life, I then stumbled on this, which I'll share today in anticipation of All Saints Day:
No man is ever alone in that vast communion which is named the Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints.
Alone? Every saint in heaven is our brother, our sister. We speak to them with words of human affection; we ask them to help us, and we believe that they are strong to help, and that their prayers avail with God. It is their names that are given in Baptism to our children; we keep their feasts with rejoicing; we make personal friends among them, know this saint better than that one, and expect to see them and know them face to face at last.
Alone? Our dead go from us, we lay them with tears and kisses beneath the sod. But alone - when we meet the Heart of Jesus; when our prayers and communions and Masses can reach them? Speak, St. Augustine! "One never loses those whom one loves in Him Whom we can never lose." Truly may we say...'Happy are the eyes that see the things which we see!"
Yes, it's less than a week away. So given the lack of attention paid to most holy days of obligation by many Catholics in many parishes, and my personal affection for this glorious feast, I'm going to start "promoting" it now. Hey Catholics, All Saints Day is coming!
Besides the fact that All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation, in my little interior universe All Saints has always held a special place, a day to get up on our toes and happily dance to the music of the spheres. Okay, I'm getting carried away. But really, I've always loved this day. As a kid, it followed Halloween, a time when we who lived in apartment buildings could efficiently go door to door and garner a massive treasure of sweet stuff and, occasionally, a coin or two in record time. And since, in Catholic grammar school, we got All Saints off, there was a joyous continuum from "Trick or Treat" through morning Mass on All Saints, ending with Mass on All Souls Day.
Back then, church was packed on All Saints, as it was on all holy days of obligation.Even All Souls Day Masses were well-attended. In those days, a priest could - and would - celebrate Mass three times on All Souls. So when you went to Mass, you'd typically attend Mass at the main altar, with another Mass going on at a side altar. Masses were celebrated facing the altar and the priests wore black vestments, a stark contrast to the white they wore on All Saints. It provided a dramatic and moving contrast between life and death. Also, the black on All Souls reminded us to pray for those Holy Souls in Purgatory, especially those in our family, who had died. All of that ended after Vatican II with the Novus Ordo Mass. I miss the richness of it all.
To say those three days - Halloween (or All Hallows Eve), All Saints, and All Souls - had a huge impact on me would be an understatement. We knew we were engaging with the Communion of Saints in big way. Since far too few Catholics are aware of the reality of the Communion of Saints these days, let's quickly review:.Church Triumphant (the saints in Heaven), Church Militant (those of us living on this earth today), Church Suffering (the souls in Purgatory. You don't hear about this much anymore. We're much the worse off.
For example, given the crisis going on in the Church these days, this holy alliance between the faithful in Heaven, Earth, and Purgatory could and should serve to bolster those who've become discouraged. The few evil ones perpetrating heinous acts would be seen for the minority they are when held up to the greater scheme of things - i.e., the Communion of Saints.
While I can't make up for what's missing in our Catholic lives in this little blog post, I can offer something I recently "discovered" that helped to vividly regenerate the reality of the Communion of Saints in my own heart and mind. It's the fact that saints are our friends. We can relate to them not only as "intercessors" in some formal sense, but also as good friends wanting and willing to hear and understand our concerns, our troubles, our petitions. I realize some - maybe most - of you likely know this. But, for whatever reason, it's been missing in my own little universe. But by the grace of God, I "get it" now. And having finally gotten it and incorporated this happy discovery into my own prayer life, I then stumbled on this, which I'll share today in anticipation of All Saints Day:
No man is ever alone in that vast communion which is named the Catholic Church and the Communion of Saints.
Alone? Every saint in heaven is our brother, our sister. We speak to them with words of human affection; we ask them to help us, and we believe that they are strong to help, and that their prayers avail with God. It is their names that are given in Baptism to our children; we keep their feasts with rejoicing; we make personal friends among them, know this saint better than that one, and expect to see them and know them face to face at last.
Alone? Our dead go from us, we lay them with tears and kisses beneath the sod. But alone - when we meet the Heart of Jesus; when our prayers and communions and Masses can reach them? Speak, St. Augustine! "One never loses those whom one loves in Him Whom we can never lose." Truly may we say...'Happy are the eyes that see the things which we see!"
Happy Sunday!
(and an early)
Happy All Saints Day!
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