All Hallows' Eve
Tuesday, October
31st, is Halloween, or better, All Hallows’ Eve, which is to say, All Saints’
Eve. Wednesday, November 1st, is All
Saints’ Day. Tuesday, the vigil before
All Saints’ Day, is the eve of All Saints. All Saints’ Day is a celebration of all
the blessed of Heaven.
Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM at Our Lady of
Lourdes Church is a Vigil Mass for All Saints’ Day, and Wednesday morning at
9:00 AM at Our Lady of Lourdes Church is the Mass for All Saints’ Day. Wednesday
evening at 6:00 PM at St. Joseph’s Church in Boron will also be a Mass for All
Saints’ Day.
It was the events of May 13, AD 609, which
came to be the origination of All Saints’ Day.
The successor of St. Peter, the Pope, along with an immense crowd of
believers, came to the catacombs outside of Rome and the Pope called for the
catacombs to “yield up their treasures.” Then the bodies of the Christian martyrs
were removed and taken on 18 chariots, richly adorned, to the Pantheon for
re-burial. The Pantheon, that former
pagan temple, was now dedicated as a Christian Church this day in honor of all
the holy martyrs collectively, known and unknown.
From the Eight Century on it became more
widespread to celebrate a Feast of All Saints on November 1st, celebrating not
just the martyrs but all the just children of Abraham (known and unknown), all
the dead in the Lord (known and unknown), the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Apostles,
the nine choirs of angels, and above all the Holy Trinity, one God, all in all,
the crown of all the saints. The glory
and praise of God and all the Holy Ones around Him, angelic and human, are the
objects of this commemoration.
Now as early as the Sixth Century, Spain
and Gaul had had a custom of introducing November with three days of penance
and litanies, and so when the Feast later was formally instituted for the
Church, three days of preparation through fasting, prayer and almsgiving were also
instituted. However, at least by the 19th century, the three days had come to
be shortened to just the one day of All Hallows Eve. In the late 1950's, even that day lapsed as a
separate day of vigil.
That is the true, Christian origination of
what – at least in America – has dissipated into Halloween.
Christians, this coming Tuesday and
Wednesday, let us celebrate the joy of Heaven! “This perfect life with the Most
Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the
Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called ‘heaven.’ Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of
the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church,
1024.)
Long and desire to be there! Don’t let the devil rob you of the joy of God’s heavenly promises through the triteness, despair and soul death of the occult and flirtation with evil which has become Halloween’s clamor. Celebrate the joy of Heaven, you who believe in the communion of saints!
Dibby Allan Green