Yesterday I took a little road trip to Leominster, Massachusetts about an hour north of my little village here. Leominster is in a part of Worcester County known as North County. I went to visit a seminary classmate of mine who is at St. Cecilia’s Church. What a wonderful visit. I have not seen Fr. Michael since I graduated and was ordained. He had one more year of study and we lost touch with each other. I feel that it is very important to remain in contact with those who we have known in the past and to hang on to those precious friendships. How many people have come and gone in our lives and we do not stay in contact with?

Fr. Michael is indeed a friend and support and we have re-established our friendship. We were together during those difficult times in seminary and I hope to remain close with him.

Maybe it is time for all of us to renew an old friendship. Give and old friend a call and go have coffee or go see a movie. Just do it! Life is to short to go it alone.

Today on the Western calendar is the feast of all Soul’s. For those of us in the east, we celebrate this feast on a different day, but the information is still relevant. This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia;

The commemoration of all the faithful departed is celebrated by the Church on 2 November, or, if this be a Sunday or a solemnity, on 3 November. The Office of the Dead must be recited by the clergy and all the Masses are to be of Requiem, except one of the current feast, where this is of obligation.

The theological basis for the feast is the doctrine that the souls which, on departing from the body, are not perfectly cleansed from venial sins, or have not fully atoned for past transgressions, are debarred from the Beatific Vision, and that the faithful on earth can help them by prayers, almsdeeds and especially by the sacrifice of the Mass.

In the early days of Christianity the names of the departed brethren were entered in the diptychs. Later, in the sixth century, it was customary in Benedictine monasteries to hold a commemoration of the deceased members at Whitsuntide. In Spain there was such a day on Saturday before Sexagesima or before Pentecost, at the time of St. Isidore (d. 636). In Germany there existed (according to the testimony of Widukind, Abbot of Corvey, c. 980) a time-honoured ceremony of praying to the dead on 1 October. This was accepted and sanctified by the Church. St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) ordered the commemoration of all the faithful departed to he held annually in the monasteries of his congregation. Thence it spread among the other congregations of the Benedictines and among the Carthusians.

Of the dioceses, Liège was the first to adopt it under Bishop Notger (d. 1008). It is then found in the martyrology of St. Protadius of Besançon (1053-66). Bishop Otricus (1120-25) introduced it into Milan for the 15 October. In Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, priests on this day say three Masses. A similar concession for the entire world was asked of Pope Leo XIII. He would not grant the favour but ordered a special Requiem on Sunday, 30 September, 1888.

In the Greek Rite this commemoration is held on the eve of Sexagesima Sunday, or on the eve of Pentecost. The Armenians celebrate the passover of the dead on the day after Easter.

Today on the Western Calendar it is the feast of All Saints. This is from the Catholic encyclopedia in reference to this feast:

Solemnity celebrated on the first of November. It is instituted to honor all the saints, known and unknown, and, according to Urban IV, to supply any deficiencies in the faithful’s celebration of saints’ feasts during the year.

In the early days the Christians were accustomed to solemnize the anniversary of a martyr’s death for Christ at the place of martyrdom. In the fourth century, neighboring dioceses began to interchange feasts, to transfer relics, to divide them, and to join in a common feast; as is shown by the invitation of St. Basil of Caesarea (397) to the bishops of the province of Pontus. Frequently groups of martyrs suffered on the same day, which naturally led to a joint commemoration. In the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church, feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St. Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom (407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honored by a special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a “Commemoratio Confessorum” for the Friday after Easter. In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or 610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV (827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church. The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471-84).

Today’s Gospel reading was from Luke and the story of the daughter of Jarius and the woman with the issue of blood. These are stories about faith and the faith that we need in this world today. You see if we don’t have faith then everything we do is just theater and nice stories. We need the faith of the woman in the story that all we have to do is to touch the hem of the garment and be healed. How many of us believe this? How many would believe enough to have total faith in something we have never seen? There are no simple answers to these questions, only time to ponder and see what comes next.

I think sometimes we try and place all the faith in ourselves and what we are capable of doing and we seem to only turn to God when we need Him. It’s like we say I know he is there when I need Him. Sort of like a fire extinguisher it’s there and ready when we need it. Our faith needs to be more than this. Christianity is not something that we put on a shelf and take it off only on Sunday. Christianity is a job, a lifestyle and one that takes work. We are all broken and we all need to just reach out and take the hem of the garment and be healed.

Well today should be kinda busy for me here at the parish. Tonight we have our annual turkey party. This is a real hoot, and if you are in the area you should not miss this event. We have a bunch of turkeys, or should that be a flock I don’t know. Anyway, we have all these turkeys and people buy tickets with numbers on them for $.50. We spin a big wheel and the number it lands on wins. Simple, and lots of clean family fun. And a good fundraiser for the church. So the folks will be here most of the day getting ready for that, and on top of that my parents are coming out for the night so I have to clean the spare room.

tomorrow is the memorial service for the fire fighter that dies a few weeks back at home. This will be my first memorial service for a fire fighter so please pray for me and the family.

Sunday the usual church service and coffee hour and then some rest. The bishop comes next week so we will be cleaning and sprucing things up around here. More on this latter…

I am not one to preach politics from the pulpit. I do not think it is the place of the clergy to preach about political topics. People in this country, for better or worse, do not want anyone telling them how to vote. People who vote want to be able to make up their own mind. Now, I am not saying that the clergy should not speak about issues and inform the people where the church stands on such things as abortion, capitol punishment, war, etc. but we need to be careful how we put the message across.

With the election only a few weeks away how are we to vote? Are there candidates that as orthodox we could support? Are there candidates that hold to the positions that we hold? Can an orthodox person vote for someone they know supports abortion or capitol punishment? How are we to work all of this out? These are just some of the issues that the clergy face each day.

There are no easy answers to these questions but we need to try and work them out for ourselves.