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Good Morning – or maybe today I should say Trick or Treat?   The rise in popularity of Halloween or All Hallows Evening in recent years has been remarkable.  The most important feasts in the Church’s history were often marked by three days of prayer – a triduum.  So the feast of all Saints (or all Hallows Day) on November the first was preceded by a vigil, an evening of prayer –– and succeeded on November the Second by All Souls day.  Hence on all Hallows evening Many people believed that on the night before all Saints – many souls would be released from purgatory to get to heaven or maybe the other place – they would light lanterns so they could find their way.  Some migrating souls would use the last opportunity visit their families on the way to heaven or the other place  -  so it became the custom in some places to wear a mask or a disguise so these souls couldn’t recognise you. 

Like Christmas and Easter,  what was once a Christian Celebration has for many people become something else.  We shouldn’t be surprised, as Christianity built on what had gone before, now Consumerism builds on Christianity.  Whilst avoiding a puritanical response -  it is worth observing that with the Americanisation of Halloween something dark seems to have creeped in – with torture costumes, or a glamorisation of horror.  Let us remember those saints that have gone before us and rejoice in the light and the love that they shared……  We ask for the grace to fix our hearts and minds on all that is good and brings light, increase our love for you, our faith in your plan for us and our hope that we will see those we love and miss again, in a better place. Amen.