St. Peter's News

As the Western Church spread into northern Europe, it encountered pagan festivals held in late autumn to appease the evil spirits associated with the first killing frosts and the coming of winter, darkness and death.

The Catholic Church had a long-standing policy of incorporating non-Christian traditions into its holidays in order to bring people into the Catholic faith.

In any case, when All Saints’ Day moved to November 1, the church did begin to incorporate supernatural traditions into the holy day’s activities, ideas that don’t have much of a place in Christianity.

Many supernatural ideas persisted in All Saints’ Day Eve celebrations, making the occasion a remarkable combination of Christian and pagan beliefs. At the end of the 10th century, the church tried to give these traditions a little more direction by establishing All Souls’ Day, an occasion to recognize all Christian dead.

Thus, All Souls began with the emphasis on remembering those who had died, broader than just the martyrs. In addition it was cast wide into Catholic theology. In that tradition , the church commemorated all of those who have died and now are in Purgatory, being cleansed of their venial (forgiven) sins and the temporal punishments for the mortal sins that they had confessed and atoning before entering fully into Heaven.

The importance of All Souls Day was made clear by Pope Benedict XV (1914-22), when he granted all priests the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls Day: one, for the faithful departed; one for the priest’s intentions; and one for the intentions of the Holy Father. Only on a handful of other very important feast days are priests allowed to celebrate more than two Masses.

All Souls originally was celebrated in the Easter season, around Pentecost Sunday (and still is in the Eastern Catholic Churches). By the tenth century, the celebration had been moved to October; and sometime between 998 and 1030, St. Odilo of Cluny decreed that it should be celebrated on November 2 in all of the monasteries of his Benedictine congregation. Over the next two centuries, other Benedictines and the Carthusians began to celebrate it in their monasteries as well, and soon it spread to the entire Church.

All Souls is celebrated with Masses and festivities in honor of the dead. The living pray on behalf of Christians who are in purgatory, the state in the afterlife where souls are purified before proceeding to heaven. Souls in purgatory, who are members of the church just like living Christians, must suffer so that they can be purged of their sins. Through prayer and good works, living members of the church may help their departed friends and family. There are two plenary indulgences ( full remission of the punishment due to sin ) attached to All Souls Day, one for visiting a church and another for visiting a cemetery.

Soul Cake!

In medieval times, one popular All Souls’ Day practice was to make "soul cakes," simple bread desserts with a currant topping. In a custom called "souling," children would go door-to-door begging for the cakes, much like modern trick-or- treaters. After its introduction, this holiday did sate many Catholics’ interest in death and the supernatural.

Here is a recipe for Soul Cake

There is a traditional song that accompanies soul cakes:

1. In 2009, Sting put out an album "If On a Winter’s Night". It had a rendition of "Soul Cake". This is a live version in England’s Durham Cathedral.

Here are the lyrics

2. Earlier in 1965 Peter Paul and Mary did "A Soalin"

But the unchristian idea of wandering spirits persisted in some areas, Conceding that they could not completely get rid of the supernatural elements of the celebrations, the Catholic Church began characterizing the spirits as evil forces associated with the devil. This is where we get a lot of the more disturbing Halloween imagery, such as evil witches and demons.

I. Theme –  The contributions of the saints

"Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."" – John 11:40-44

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 
Old Testament – Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm – Psalm 24 Page 613, BCP
Epistle – Revelation 21:1-6a
Gospel – John 11:32-44  

Today’s readings acknowledge the life and witness of the saints of God, including you and all of St. Peter’s.

Isaiah imagines the final, celebratory feast that will be the reward of the faithful. The author of Wisdom  affirms that the dead, though gone from our sight, are at peace with God. The author of Revelation similarly depicts the jubilant end of suffering and oppression, replaced with victory and feasting. The gospel reading—the raising of Lazarus—points forward to the final resurrection of all God’s people.

Part of the Church’s genius is its chorus of saints. From the drama of Thomas More saying, “A man can lose his head and still come to no harm!” to the humor of St. Teresa of Avila dancing and singing about the nuisance of fleas in a wool habit, it is a rich mixture. Add to that the variety of the uncanonized-but-nevertheless-still-surely-saints, and we have little excuse to say they are a distant company.

Perhaps they are one way God shows us the multiple faces of the divine. From unassuming parents, who secure and launch a child, to leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chavez, who fought for human rights, these people inspire and challenge us. As one pastor said, “In some ways, the saints were so ordinary. And yet they made it. So maybe I can, too.”

If you read today’s readings as personally addressed to you, and if you read them often enough, you may rise to the expectation. And your smallest attempts will be part of that extraordinary effort to bring, little by little, more light and life to a dark world.

Read more

Click here to view in a new window.

Pastor Vicki Zust is the rector of St. Paul’s, Clarence, NY. Having completed a 2 year cycle of reading the entire Bible she decided to try something different. As she writes, "So I went through the Old Testament and wrote down the stories that a lot of our theology and history depends on. It turns out there are 40 of them." I am excerpting them here.  #4 Noah. Read it here in Genesis chapters 6-8.

"The story of Noah is one of the first stories where we see God changing his mind.

"This is one of the reasons that it is one of my favorite stories. The other is that it has all kinds of animals – which I really like.

"But the story is actually about God looking at human beings and giving up. He can’t believe that humans have made such a mess so he decides that he wants a clean slate. However, he has this guy Noah and his family who are following God’s will and who God can’t over look.

"So God figures out a way to save Noah and a representative sample of his creatures.

"This is the first time that we see the number 40 appear – 40 days & nights in the ark – pay attention and we will see this number again.

"My favorite part of the story is the part where they come out of the ark and God puts a rainbow in the sky as the sign of a promise that he will never again destroy the world by flood. Notice that he doesn’t promise to destroy the world again, just not to do it that way.

"The question for us, other than why we think this is an appropriate story for children, is how are we being stewards of the world that God has made? How are we using or misusing God’s creation?"