Bulletin of October 23, 2005
Dear Parishioners,
I think of the coming weekend as great for both adults and children alike. Excellent adult education for the grown ups and then, of course, Halloween for children and young at heart of all ages. Next Friday evening we welcome a first rate speaker and friend, Fr. Tom Bonacci. At 7:30 p.m. he’ll be speaking in the Parish Hall on “The Difficult Sayings of Jesus”; he’ll use some clues from Mathew’s Gospel which we’ve been hearing on Sundays for the past full year to sort out those hard, puzzling and troubling phrases from Jesus. Then on Saturday morning we host a Women’s Retreat from 9 am to 12 noon with Sr. Rose Marie Hennessy, O.P., former Superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Oakland and until recently superior of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose. Tickets at $5 are available after all Masses today.
On next Saturday at 5 pm and Sunday at 9:15 am (don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour!!!), young and old are invited to come in costume for our Halloween celebrations. We gather on the patio 15 minutes before Mass, “process and parade” through the Church and then celebrate special family liturgies in the gym. Wear a costume and join us.
In talking to your children about Halloween (as well as to any non Catholic or non-informed neighbors) you may want to point out that Halloween is old English for “holy eve” or “eve of the holy days”. While Halloween began as an ancient festival with roots in Celtic pre-Christian times, as with most major and many minor Christian feasts (Christmas, Easter and May Crownings), it was long ago taken over by believing Christians and given new meaning and significance. Linked with All Saints Day (Nov. 1st) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2nd), it begins a three fold celebration for Catholic Christians to first poke fun at the dark and its demons, then to celebrate our heroes and heroines of faith on their victory in Christ, and finally to remember our lost loved ones and recognize our own weakness and need for Christ. Modern advertising and merchandising have popularized a greater variety of costumes, rather than just demons and devils, witches and goblins, skeletons and grim reapers that once symbolized the powers darkness that Christ and Christian belief smiles at and then throws off for the next day’s saints. Today heroes and celebrities like athletes, cowboys, power rangers, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, and their companions are common. Some modern day catechists suggest we mix in the saints, especially martyrs who died violent deaths: for example St. Thomas Moore with his head tucked under his arm and St. Sebastian with arrows protruding. Somehow I don’t think that’s going to sell, but we still celebrate that we are part of the “communion of saints”, that we are unafraid to talk openly about death and that we smile at witches and devils who symbolize the evil Christ has overcome.
Your Pastor,
Brian Joyce
P.S. Don’t forget daylight saving time next weekend!