Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Today we come to All Hallows Eve, the day before the Feast of All Hallows, as it was known in Old English or the Feast of All Saints, as we generally refer to it now.

The days grow short, and the time of the harvest is upon us. For centuries, as Christian communities gathered for the mutual work of the harvest, taking up the very practices Jesus references in his parables about the Last Judgement, their thoughts would turn to the End of Days. As they entered winter and the world around them grew dark, the question of what would occur when we die became a bit more pressing.

So, six months away from the celebration of Easter, a festival grew about the second coming of Jesus.

Tomorrow we celebrate All Saints, and all those whose lives shine forth the Gospel of Christ. On Thursday, we celebrate All Souls, and commemorate all in our lives who have passed and whose memory is dear to us.

Today, we are on the eve of that sequence. We are here with ourselves in preparation for the upcoming celebration. We are here to pause a moment and ask, what do we need for our lives to be more hallowed and what do can we do to better honor the memories of our ancestors and departed friends?

Taking a few moments in reflection today on these two questions will allow us to more readily celebrate, even if only in small ways by ourselves or gathered for worship and with the All Soul’s Procession, the series of celebrations before us.

Pax,

—Ben