No, not this.
Not the Americanized festival of costume parties and children dressed as monsters mooching candy door-to-door.
I mean the day before All Saints Day!
Now, I’m not against a little harmless fun, I just wanted to remind us all of the more edifying aspects of this day in the calendar.
As usual, we humans have lost touch with those things that are meant to build up our souls, the things that make us think. Instead, we prefer a brief moment of blissful forgetfulness that life is hard.
Damn the future! Pass the cider!
So what’s up with the Feast of All Saints?
Catholics and Orthodox both celebrate the Feast of All Saints. We do it on November 1st. Our Orthodox brothers and sisters celebrate it the day after Pentecost.
Why?
Simply to honor all those who have gone before us marked by lives of heroic virtue. They are the Church Triumphant!
Their race run, their battle won, they give us an example of the Christian life lived to its fullest. Now in the presence of God, they pray for us, the Church Militant, who have yet to complete our pilgrimage. We are called the Church Militant, because we’re still in the fight.
On November 2, we will celebrate the Feast of All Souls to pray for all who have died, their faith known only to God. We too, will die one day. That is a certainty. But life continues, one way or another, after death.
It is right and proper that we should pray for one another, not just for those here on earth, but for all who have left this life as they also pray for us.
So, have fun, be safe, and remember your friends—they really are your friends—in Heaven. They’re cheering for you in the fight!
