From the Pastor's Desk:

In 835 Pope Gregory IV moved the commemoration of martyrs from May 13 to November the first. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Eve, or “holy evening,” and eventually it became Halloween. Our Holy Day Masses for All Saints Day, October 31 at 7:00 pm and on November 1 with be at 8:30, 12.15 and 5:30. It will always be up to debate, if Pope Gregory was simply trying to simulate the pagan peoples of Ireland and England into the church. The pagan people of these lands already had a celebration on that particular date. However it was the Irish farmers living in Ireland hundreds of years ago which prepared for the All Saints Day and the following All Souls Day the night before by going door-to-door collecting food and goods for a village feast and bonfire. Those who contributed were promised prosperity; those who didn’t received threats of bad luck. And yes you are right, the Irish Catholics who immigrated in the 1800’s brought this practice of “trick-or-treating” with them. The rest is the great United States use of advertising and commercialism. Next to Christmas Halloween is the largest money “maker holiday” for businesses. Unfortunately our society has turned a night of prayer and celebration into one of haunted houses, witches and ghosts. This week on November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day. It could be said that All Souls Day is the Catholic Church’s Memorial Day/Month. The Month of November begins with the feast of All Saints’ Day, followed by All Souls’ Day. We distinguish between our beloved dead who are in heaven, “all saints,” who pray for us and our loved ones who have died and for whom we are moved to pray. These are the poor souls who still may be undergoing the purging process of death-to-self that follows repentance. In the month of harvest and dying, the Catholic Church memorializes the dead and recognizes Jesus as Lord of the living and the dead. Tickets for our fall musical, “Oklahoma” are on sale this weekend here at St. Agnes beginning at the vigil mass on Saturday evening. The musical was the first, the beginning of the true Broadway musicals. With Oklahoma, vaudeville began to disappear from the stage and classical musicals first under the direction of Rogers and Hammerstein ruled the stage.