Image from Baritus Catholic
We’re BACK, y’all!
I know I took a long hiatus post-Scotland! But now I’m back with things to write about and talk about, starting with today’s Solemnity!
(It’s also a Holy Day of Obligation, so Catholics, go to Mass today!)
The three days we’re currently in—October 31, November 1, and November 2—used to be call “Hallowtide”, “hallow” meaning “to make or set apart as holy.” All Hallow’s Eve (ie, the day before All Saints’ Day, saints being “set apart” and "holy”) was contracted in “Halloween”. The Church’s actual celebration of the day begins the night before.
All Saints’ Day is a Solemnity—the highest type of celebration in the Church calendar—where we celebrate the saints (who are all people in heaven, not just the canonized saints), and tomorrow (November 2) is All Souls’ Day, where we remember and pray for those who have died. It’s a good idea to write a list of your own friends and family members who have died and pray for those people during the month!
The other thing we can do in November (really all the time, but especially in this month, where we think about the holy souls) is think about our own death.
I know, not exactly breakfast conversation. But—we’re all going to die. And knowing that we’re going to die informs how we live.
So, yes, it’s a great month for my book! (Support your local Catholic authors!)
If you would like a signed copy (for $20, including a prayer card and bookmark!), you can get one by emailing me!
If my little book can help you live more intentionally pointed toward God and help you remember that “this world’s our ship and not our home” (St. Therese), then I’ll have done my job.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Pope Benedict XVI:
The solemnity of All Saints is, in the deepest sense, a celebration of our hope. Christians are people who affirm the reality of God and count on it. This is what it means to believe. Likewise, it can be affirmed with good reason that Christians are people who accept God’s promises, build on them, and rely on them. In other words, they hope. Hope is the other side of the coin of faith…
The creeping illness of our time is hopelessness. It seems to take root everywhere….
Beneath the surface of today’s feast, a powerful cry is perceptible: “You are expected! Definitively and forever, with the guarantee that your expectations will be fulfilled, after perhaps having carried some burdens for a long time and having asked yourself whether it all had any meaning.” The cry of hope and encouragement from the finish line reaches those who are still on the journey. It is a cry made up of many voices; a cry that causes hope to dawn: hoping with assurance and trust, hoping in a community and in a brotherhood that knows no disturbance, because the one calling is God.