All Saints Day and All Souls Day
My Dear Parishioners,
As our nation prepares to celebrate Halloween in a modified way for another year, it is a good opportunity to remind our young people that the Christian roots of this secular holiday involve our belief that the saints in heaven are praying for All Saints Day, Monday Nov. 1st, is also known as All Hallows Day. The day before All Saints Day is known as All Hallows’ Eve, which is where we get the word Halloween from. The day after All Saints, Nov. 2nd, is All Souls Day. It is the day that we set aside to pray for all those souls that have experienced bodily death and are not yet united with God in heaven. We pray for the healing and purification of their souls so that they will be united with God. These holy days are good reminders that our Church (the Communion of Saints) is much bigger than just the here and now.
This year, because All Saints Day is on a Monday, the obligation to attend Mass is lifted. We will still celebrate Masses for the Holy Day on Monday at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. On Tuesday, All Souls Day, we will have Mass at 8:00 a.m. and a special 100th Anniversary All Souls Mass at 7:00 p.m. At this evening Mass we will remember and pray for all those who have been buried from St. Joseph parish since its founding. We will have a memorial candle lit to symbolize our beloved dead for each of the 10 decades that our parish has existed. We will also place our All Souls envelopes and our Book of the Dead with the names of our beloved deceased in front of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As a final tribute to those that we have lost over this last year, we will read out the names of the recently deceased and place a flower in a vase in tribute to them. All are invited to attend and pray for all those who have gone before us.
Please register for your professional photography session on Friday, November 19th and Saturday, November 20th to take pictures for the Parish Directory. Appointments can be made on our website, www.saintjosephchurch.us or by calling the Rectory, or by filling out the sign-up sheets in the pews. Every family photographed will receive a free 8 x 10 portrait and a copy of the 100th Anniversary directory. We need your help to make this project a success. Please sign up today! Additional portraits can be purchased and will be available in time to give as Christmas gifts.
The Anniversary Committee will have special commemorative mugs that will be offered for sale and also St. Joseph Church Christmas cards will be available for purchase this year. As you are doing your Christmas shopping I would ask you to consider an opportunity that helps St. Joseph Parish. Amazon Smile is a way that people who usually buy things on Amazon can have a portion of the purchase price contributed to institutions that qualify as a 501c3, which our parish does. It costs the customer nothing and helps out the parish. AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com.
The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice. If you are an Amazon Prime member you can also use AmazonSmile. Go to www.smile.amazon.com. Sign up for an Amazon Smile account. To select your charity search for St. Joseph Parish, Warrington. Please note, use the word Parish, not Church.
God Bless you,
Fr. Bordonaro