Halloween!

As a follow-up to my email about Saints & Smoothies, which included a look at Allhallowtide, I would like to expand on the topic a bit further. There is a lot to be said about this that is worth considering in your own spiritual journey.

This time of the year, especially because of Allhallowtide, the Church spotlights life beyond life. The centerpiece of this triduum is for the souls Heavenly departed that we call Saints on All Saints Day. This feast day is a holy day of obligation, so make time tomorrow for Mass. It’s not a drudgery, but a time to remember what we’re shooting for by steeping in it.

We remember why we pray. Why we go to Mass. At Mass, we step back into the great and holy sacrifice and in that time, we’re surrounded by the communion of Saints – witnesses of the great race that Saint Paul recalls at the end of his life.

We’re all running that race of life, the marathon to Heaven. That is what awaits us. Tomorrow at Mass, and at every Mass, we celebrate this race as the only souls able to. The living only have access to this moment and receive Christ in this way – this spiritual food in the Eucharist to keep going. The Damned didn’t want it. Those awaiting in purgatory can’t get it. And those in Heaven already won.

There is much more to what is behind the veil of the everyday and what we see with our eyes and senses.

Today on All Hallows Eve, the vigil of All Saints, have fun! Enjoy and celebrate the pre-feast. Some of the cultural things actually come from Church traditions. But a lot of it is muddied by worldly additions of the occult and lusties. Stay away from the desecrations and stick with friends and scenes that lift the soul, not drag it under like a ghoul.

A lot of Church art from the past dramatically flared the scary. It’s good to know what we fight. And as Jimmy Akin the Catholic apologist, says about it, ‘we don’t have to glorify evil but know the stakes.’ Our imaginations can’t comprehend how evil our enemy is, while we can make caricatures of it to tell the story, don’t look for the real thing. It’s already found you and looking for an invitation in. The real candy is the sin he leaves us asking for more. Just keep the invitations to the Holy.

Lastly, remember the souls still awaiting the promise of salvation on All Souls Day, the last day of this triduum. They need prayer. Offer a rosary or stop by a cemetery to pray for a loved one, maybe schedule a Mass to be said for your family tree. You don’t know who made it and who didn’t. Keep the prayers over the course of your life. The Church encourages us in CCC 1032 to keep praying for them.

A prayer I’ve been keeping in my own life is St. Gertrude’s prayer, a private revelation with the promise to free 1,000 souls each time it’s said. The Church doesn’t bind us to the results, but it is a beautiful, Saintly prayer just the same.

“Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.“

---

This article was written for the young adult email list by Adam Jarosz from Righteous Co.. Adam loves raising his family with his wife Ani and four kids, playing beach volleyball, and being in the deep outdoors.

If you want to join the email list and catch more great insights of the faith and young adult updates, sign up here!