Hallowe'en, All Saints, All Souls etc. . . .

Happy Feast Day dear reader and to all would-be Saints.

It was interesting this morning listening to the children's responses as our PP spoke to them about today's Feast. Not all of them sounded too sure that they wanted to be Saints eventually!

I think a lot us of adults listening were much more interested in St Augustine's approach - 'Make me a Saint, Lord, but not yet'!

As a small child I always found these two successive feast days difficult to understand, and trying to make out where Hallowe'en fitted in as well was just too much for me.

I knew that Hallowe'en was really a celebration of the Eve of All Hallows as my mother had explained, but I just couldn't understand why we had a day celebrating witches (as I then saw it) and that this was somehow related to the following day when we remembered and celebrated all the saints! Add to this the idea that we could all be saints one day was just too much for me to grasp.

Now, as an adult, I'm finally beginning to see what it's all about - it's taken quite a while. Put simplistically, I like to think now that when I go to Mass on All Saints Day, my parents have already made it into that number and they in turn will be interceding for me. On All Souls Day, I'm praying for all the faithful departed including members of my own family who might not yet have made it to the Communion of Saints which could also include my parents. Either way, I'm remembering them especially at this time.

Father, All-Powerful and ever-living God,
today we rejoice in the holy men and women

of every time and place.
May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.