Pastor's Column for October 31, 2021

I was just trying to think of something scary to begin this column with, given that it’s Halloween weekend. But then I just received a text message from someone telling me that a very good friend of mine was just held up at gun point. Thank God he is OK. But the gun was literally held to his head. I couldn’t even image what that would be like. This man is in his 40’s & lives in San Diego, CA and I’m his confirmation sponsor. Living in today’s world is such a scary thing. So much violence and crime, sin & evil. Sadly this has always been the case in human history, which is why we turn all the more in thanksgiving (especially next month) to the God who was willing to enter our sinful world, and even become victim to the worst of violence imaginable at the time…torture and death by crucifixion. To me, these are the thoughts that need to come immediately to our minds when we hear of such tragedies in our lives so that we begin to see God in everything that happens to ourselves and to our loved ones. We continue then to pray for all victims of violence…abortion, murder, sex trafficking, racism, sexism, and everything else that seeks to do harm to the God-given dignity of every living thing on earth. We do so again at the very end of this month of October, a month set aside as “Respect Life” month and a month when we ask for the intercession of Our Lady who gave birth to the Author of Life himself.
Monday, November 1st, is the feast of All Saints, a holy day…but because it falls on a Monday this year, it is not a holy day of obligation this year. But you are welcomed and encouraged to join us for the one Mass that we will have at 8:30am, along with the children of our parish school (half will be in attendance in the church & the other half will be watching from their classrooms via livestream). This is a wonderful time for us to again celebrate with thanksgiving all those holy men & women whose praises are sung in the scriptures and who have been shining examples to us throughout the history of the Church. Remember to ask your patron, the person(s) you may be named after, to pray for you on this day. Remember to seek the intercession of our parish patron, St. Leo the Great, of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Anne, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Michael the Archangel, St. Joseph, St. John Vianney and of all the other saints whose statues in our church or on our property remind us that we are not alone in our journey of faith, on our journey of holiness, on our way to God’s kingdom. Did I miss any one in that list? May they all pray with us and for us that we may draw close to God as they did.
On Tuesday, November 2nd, we celebrate the feast of All Souls, or more accurately, the feast of All the Faithful Departed. We will list the names of all those who have died from this past year on our website and in the church, where you can include in a book, the name(s) of those deceased whom you would like to be remembered in the month of November during all of our Masses. A basket containing the envelopes you have filled out with the names of deceased will also be displayed by this book. Let us pray for all of these men, women & children who have died & who await the fullness of joy, of holiness, of glory and of eternal life as God readies them for his kingdom.