Newsletter - 3 November
The Autumn Three Days
We have just celebrated the double feast that opens the month of November – All Saints and All Souls – one to remember all the holy men and women in heaven and the other to remember everyone who has died and may be still in the period of purification called purgatory. If you add the eve of All Saints (All Hallows Eve, shortened now as Halloween), you have an autumn Triduum, i.e. a 3-day celebration.
At the Pray and Play session this Sunday after the family Mass we will be acting out some colourful stories in the life of some saints. In my research for this I came across a delightful article on the website, teachingcatholickids.com. This mom describes how her family celebrates Halloween with the usual decorations of bats, monsters, skeletons, etc. but after the children are in bed, she changes the décor to the saints so the children wake up in the “Land of Saints and the Pearly Gates”. Now “the real party starts because the battle against evil and death has already been won.” She goes on,
As G. K. Chesterton famously pointed out, evil is pretty monotonous, and you see that in the sameness of Halloween themes: pumpkins, witches, ghosts, skeletons, bats, blah, blah, blah. Boring. Nameless. The saints, on the other hand, are exciting. There’s every kind of saint you can think of, from every country and occupation, and with every kind of personality. They’re never boring, because God calls each of us by our own name to our own unique mission.
As I looked for fun stories to act out, I discovered this is so true – St. Martin of Tours who gave away half his cloak (I guess he too needed to keep warm), St. Francis who held the birds spellbound by his speech, St. Bernadette a peasant girl who was chosen by Mary to carry her message, St. Teresa of Calcutta who searched for the poorest of the poor, St. Paul who was struck blind and his life was never the same. There is endless variety – all periods of history, educated and uneducated from all walks of life - having in common their love for God.
May the light of the saints inspire and guide us, especially during these dark November days. And may perpetual light shine on those who have gone before us.
Nancy Wood, ccn
Focus of the Week
SHORT RETREAT IN STORRINGTON
A weekend of guided retreat in silence, for those who want to discover Ignatian prayer.
Friday 29 November to
Sunday 1 December 2024,
Storrington Priory, West Sussex.
For details and to book:
chemin-neuf.org.uk