Happy Hallowed Weekend

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What a fun weekend ahead! Sunday is, of course, All Saints Day, the day we remember all those in heaven, named and unnamed, and Saturday is Halloween, all Hallows Eve, when we begin to reflect on our humanity, much as we do on Ash Wednesday, with a culmination of celebrations on Monday, All Souls Day.

There are many fun things we can do this weekend, and being ghoulish isn't necessary in the least. You can find many ideas at catholicculture.com, as well as the history behind Halloween and its connection to the two feast days following (you'll find a fun Saints Quiz there too, to test your family and friends).

We have plans for a Halloween party this evening with friends, and tomorrow night is our trick-or-treat. Peach is planning to dress as Little Red Riding Hood and she'll be permitted to "beg" at a limited number of friendly homes in our neighborhood. The older children will have friends over and the house will likely be wild with raucous teens.

Sunday we'll enjoy some doughnuts, or soul cakes, before Sunday Mass -- you can find the recipe here. The tradition of eating soul cakes began in Europe, when families went begging soul cakes for prayers for their departed members. Or maybe you'd like to try the traditional dough pretzels. Usually we associate pretzels with Lent, but some European traditions include pretzels shaped in a figure eight to remember the holy saints. There's a recipe at Catholic Cuisine if you'd like to give it a try. I think we'll have pretzels with soup for a simple supper.

I've been reading The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould and there are so many ways to incorporate this "holiday" and the following feast days into our domestic church, it would be a shame not to. We live in this world, and it's nearly impossible to ignore our secular culture, but we can put our own Catholic touch on every thing we do.

CCC 957 "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church in the Spirit may be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself."

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