Reflection for All Saints Day and All Souls Day - Parish Bulletin - 1 November 2020

     I love the celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls Day that begins the month of November. It was known in Old English as All Hallows’ Day, which is how we got the term Halloween for the secular celebration the night before (All Hallows’ Eve).  In the Early Church, martyrs were honored for the way they had given up their lives for the faith, which was a common occurrence in the first centuries after Christ's death on the cross.  That definition of saints was expanded to those holy men and women who had led exemplary lives of faith.  All Saints Day is a holy day of obligation in our faith.  It takes the place of the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time since it falls on a Sunday this year. 

      Remembering the martyrs of the Church on a specific day started in the 4th century.  In the early 7th century, Pope Boniface IV declared a Feast of All Holy Martyrs in the month of May.   Pope Gregory IX extended the scope of this feast day to include all saints in the early 9th century, moving this feast day to November 

       All Souls Day on November 2 give us the opportunity to commemorate the faithful departed.  We specifically pray for the souls in purgatory on that day who are in the process of purification for their sins, preparing for eternal unification with God in eternal life.

       There has long been a tradition in our faith to pray for the dead. Since the 7th century, a prayer for the Office of the Dead was read in church on All Souls’ Day.  This year at St Jude, we will hold a Mass of Remembrance on All Souls Day that will be streamed over the internet on our Facebook page.  Saturday, October 31, I will be going to St Michael Catholic Church in Paulding to bless the graves in the cemetery there on the parish grounds.  In many European and Latin American countries, visits to the cemetery in honor of All Souls Day and a cleaning of the graves is a long-honored tradition. In Mexico, in this same spirit, they commemorate the Day of the Dead.  A day to offer prayers for the dead was popularized by the influential monastery in Cluny, France in the medieval period.  

       I send up my prayers for all of you today as we celebrate these wonderful feast days in the Church.