October 30, 2014

All Saints and All Souls - 2014

 
Just a reminder about this complicated weekend:
Saturday, November 1, is the Feast of All Saints. It coincides with the first Saturday of the month. For that reason, we cannot have Mass until noon because of an earlier scheduled Mass at the cemetery.  The US Bishops have decided that this year the feast is not a Holy Day of Obligation because it falls on a Saturday. It remains a holy day, with or without the obligation. Many traditionally minded Catholics still consider a personal day of obligation. At any rate, Mass will be offered.
Sunday by the calendar is All Souls Day, but in our community we are bound to the provisions in effect in the older Missal, in which Sunday remains Sunday and what is essentially a funeral Mass (for all the souls in Purgatory) cannot be offered. So we will offer the Mass for the 21st Sunday after Pentecost. However, we have been asked to bless the altars in place for the remembrance of All Souls Day that is organized every year at the cemetery.  We will do that after Mass, and mark the day with a simple procession through the cemetery with prayers for the dead.
Fr. Milich