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October 26, 2018As I shared last week, this is a great weekend for our Faith Community as we welcome Bishop Hartmayer who will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation on Emma Hendrix and Joey Murphy. It is a joy for me to witness how they both are already keeping their hearts open to the prompting of God’s Spirit in their lives. We are so blessed to have them as such active members of our faith community. We offer them our prayers and congratulations as they take this important step in their journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.I thought our Parish Day of Renewal was a great success. Tim Glemkowski gave great presentations that helped those in attendance realize that all of us need to be open to the promptings of the Spirit so as to be guided in living out our baptismal call to holiness and take on the mission of building up God’s Kingdom. Tim also did a great job of helping the Parish leadership focus on the concrete ways that we as a parish can make following Jesus our number one priority. I will outline some of the suggestions that the Pastoral Council considered in next week’s bulletin.
I love Halloween. Since the folks on Lewis Ave were recovering from Irma last year, I took in the fun at the YMCA Trunk-or-Treat in Memorial Park and had a great time. I hear trick or treaters will be headed back to Lewis Ave this year, but I think I will just have a quiet night sitting on my front porch and seeing if I get any visitors.
Some people think that Halloween celebrates evil and should be banned. Just the opposite is true! Halloween's roots lie in an ancient pagan festival for the dead. While this autumn feast can be used for evil purposes, our culture celebrates it as an innocent night of begging and fun. We who believe in the light of the world can use it to celebrate the Light. "Hallow" means holy and the word Halloween refers to the night before the feast of all holies, or All Saints Day.
During the middle Ages, Christians would gather in Churches for worship. They would recall the saints' victories over evil. At some of these services, the Churches would put on little plays in which they acted out Jesus' victory over Satan and his forces. The actors would wear unusual masks and costumes to act out the story.
So, when Christians celebrate Halloween, we are really recalling that Jesus has defeated evil by His death and resurrection. We remind ourselves that with the power of FAITH and God's GRACE we can overcome evil, too. We too can one day be counted among the saints! In fact, in Catholic theology we should already consider ourselves as members of the Communion of Saints. Our relationships within the Body of Christ are at the heart of who we are as a Catholic people. Our calling as the Body of Christ is to become involved in the lives of our fellow Catholics – and to let them become involved with us. The call of the Body of Christ is to be personal with one another, intimate with one another; channels of God’s grace for one another.
***ALL SAINTS DAY, Thursday, NOVEMBER 1 - HOLYDAY OF OBLIGATION- This annual celebration in the Church reminds us that we are all called to be saints. On this day we honor not just the many canonized saints but also all those who have gone before us and are now in Heaven, where all of us hope to be one day. This Feast demonstrates the great respect we have for holy men and holy women of the past. Honoring the Saints reminds us of our own goal of attaining Heaven as a reward for our efforts in living out the Gospel of Jesus in our everyday lives! We will celebrate Mass as we normally do at 8am on Thursday but also an additional Mass at 6pm on Thursday evening.
On Friday, I am headed out for vacation. Cruising through the Panama Canal has been on my brother Mike’s bucket list for a long time. He is lucky to have his good wife Judy and I, his devoted brother, accompanying him on this journey along with a few parishioners from our parish and a few friends from Augusta. We’ll all try to behave. I hear Central American jails are not fun places. I grateful that my good friend, Fr. Dave Arnoldt, who will be covering for me, while I am away. Just make sure he behaves himself.
Fr. Jerry Ragan