Twilight Twitches

Dear Family,
So, what is special about Wednesday, November 1st, besides being Annie’s birthday? In case you didn’t figure it out from the heading, it is All Saints Day. Thursday is All Souls Day and you can find a very thorough treatment of the history of both feasts on Catholic Online.

Historically, in some places the two days have been linked together with All Hallows Eve thrown in for good measure. (So, why do we dress kids like ghosts and witches instead of saints?)

Dear Family,
We don’t talk about money very often. The downside of that is I forget to thank you for your support. So, before anything else, Thanks! We’re not rolling in it, but we cover our needs and we are able to keep our commitments to doing outreach to THE POOR, THE HUNGRY, and right now THE ROOFLESS.

I firmly believe that as long as we keep the needs of others on the top of our list, there will always be enough to support the bottom. (That’s us. I hope you don’t mind being referenced as “bottom.”)

Dear Family,
Annie is away for a well-deserved break. The real test will be to see if the parish is still here when she returns. With the help of some faithful folk I think we are making it.

There is so much that has happened in our lives that I hardly know what to write here. The Las Vegas horror brings up a lot of feelings. We continue to pray for all the people who were afflicted. Hopefully, we continue to discuss the place of guns in our society. As a number of people have remarked, “If not now, when?”

Dear Family,
Yesterday, the 7th, was the 59th birthday of our Diocese of Miami, the Feast of the Holy Rosary. We became an archdiocese 10 years later. The mysteries of the rosary recall the saving events in the Lord’s life as well as the beginning of the life of the community of believers, the church. Particularly, when Pope St. John Paul II added the Luminous mysteries, he filled in the space between the boyhood of Jesus and his passion and death.

Those mysteries are very special for me. In the first mystery Jesus comes to John the Baptist asking for baptism. John says, “What are you doing here? You should be baptizing me.” Jesus says to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”