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
