JUDGING

Now that the deadline for the first-annual? weekly? biweekly? post contest is well past, the time comes to pick the winner. Shall we put it to a vote? Everyone ask any of their friends who might be interested and have them vote. All votes must be in by November 16. Bribing a voter (especially with Halloween candy) to chose your post is prohibited. Voters may vote on the comment section of THIS POST.

LATE ENTRIES are allowed but I suggest you enter before the voting starts.

Voting for "yours truly" is allowed.

Halloween and the like...to the innocent, all things are pure.

I Corinthians 13, 11

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.

Samhain, All Hallows, and the Walmart's Shake and Bake

SAMHAIN

The Celts used to celebrate the festival of Samhain, which marked the change from the light days (summer) to the dark days (winter). The belief was that at the time of year of Samhain, the barrier between the world of humans and the world of spirits was lowered, allowing spirits to pass through. The belief was that if one disguised as an evil spirit, they would mistake you for one of them and therefore escape harm. The local witches and sorcerers of the village would go from door to door shaking an empty pumpkin to make the seeds rattle. At each door he/she would ask for food. If anyone refused them food they would lay a curse on the house. In this way, the sorcerer gathered food for the winter.

ALL HALLOWS EVE

There is an old European tradition to go "souling" on the eve of all saints. The "soulers" (mostly children) would go from house to house praying for the souls in purgatory. The owners of the home would give the soulers "soul cakes" in return for their prayers for the dead members of that family. Each "soul cake" was supposed to represent the soul who was released from purgatory by their prayers.

WALMART'S SHAKE AND BAKE

So what on earth happened to the beautiful tradition of "souling"? The souls in purgatory must be furious. My guess is that Walmart (they find a way to ruin everything) decided to celebrate the holiday too. So they called a board meeting and said
"OK guys. Will we make more money selling costumes or selling soul cakes?"

Then some idiot goes "Hey lets sell scary costumes for the kids to wear when they go souling."

And another one says, " Hey great idea but "souling" sounds to Catholic, lets hand out candy instead of soul cakes so everyone will celebrate it."

"Fine by me. hey! Mabey we can have some decorations for sale too!"

Etc, Etc, Etc. The point is, Walmart ruined the souling tradition, stole Samhain (but thats fine by me), AND made loads of money.

While Halloween is an originally pagan holiday, it also has roots in Catholicism. However, thanks to Walmart, the Catholicism is mostly gone. So should we stop celebrating Halloween? Trick-or-treating doesnt make you a pagan. It's not exactly the same as walking into your local synagogue. Anyway trick-or-treating has Catholic roots. So I dont think Im gonna stop going and getting free candy any time soon.

October 31 - Vigil of All Saints

Since we are having a series of posts about Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to quote something about the liturgical spirit of the church around this time (emphasis added):

Let us prepare our souls for the graces heaven is about to shower upon the earth in return for its homage. Tomorrow the Church will be so overflowing with joy, that she will seem to be already in possession of eternal happiness; but today she appears in the garb of penance, confessing that she is still an exile. Let us fast and pray with her; for are not we too pilgrims and strangers in this world, where all things are fleeting and hurry on to death? Year by year, as the great solemnity comes round, it has gathered from among our former companions now saints, who bless our tears and smile upon our songs of hope. Year by year the appointed time draws nearer, when we ourselves, seated at the heavenly banquet, shall receive the homage of those who succeed us, and hold out a helping hand to draw them after us to the home of everlasting happiness. Let us learn, from this very hour, to emancipate our souls; let us keep our hearts free, in the midst of the vain solicitudes and false pleasures of a strange land: the exile has no care but his banishment, no joy but that which gives him a foretaste of his fatherland.

The Liturgical Year by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Halloween and Ugliness

Now that Halloween has passed and we've been greeted by the usual onslaught of blood and gore, it leads one to think about why our society is so enamoured of all this ugliness. Every October we are bombarded by blood, death and violence: the stores sell everything from dismembered limbs to rotting gravestones, Hollywood releases its most violent movies and occultism temporarily becomes mainstream. Why this fascination? One significant reason has to do with Satan. Where he goes, ugliness follows, and a society as steeped in sin as ours can't help but be inclined to wallow in it. Just as beauty uplifts the soul, ugliness pulls it down, and this is why Satan tries to destroy anything beautiful and replace it with filth. He uses ugliness as a tool to distract those he wishes to lure away from God.

But the fascination with ugliness isn't just a sign of being associated with Satan-it can also be a sign of the despair one feels at not finding beauty (or truth, for that matter). The more one desires the good life, the more poignantly one feels the lack of it. Then in anger and despair the soul says, "Well, if this is all there is, I might as well revel in it." And so the degree of reveling is in direct proportion to the intensity of the frustrated desire. It's partly what they mean when they say "The propensity for evil is equal to the propensity for good." So we can never judge someone who seems given over to ugliness, whether visual or otherwise-we don't know what's in their heart and whether they are merely frustrated in their longing for the good, the beautiful and the true. As Catholics, we have the duty to bring them to the fulfillment of that desire, and away from the ugliness.

Finally, there is also one major reason why ugliness (merely in itself) can never be totally despised: Our Lord Himself embraced ugliness at the most crucial point in His life: Death by crucifixion was the most violent, disturbing and well..just plain UGLY death in existence at that time in the ancient world. But Our Lord didn't just die on a cross, which would have been bad enough. No-first He was scourged to a bloody pulp and THEN crucified. This is what the Psalmist is referring to when he says "But I am a worm and no man..." (Psalm 22:6) So the "good" ugliness can't be totally despised because if Our Lord embraced it, and we are to imitate Him, then we must embrace the "ugliness" in our lives also. Sorrows, loneliness, disappointments, and even failures are all to be accepted (and even LOVED, if you can manage it ;) ). Then we can truly imitate Our Lord and really be worthy of Him.

"There is no beauty in him, nor comeliness...there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him." Isaiah 53:2

POST CONTEST

THIS IS TO NOTIFY ALL MEMBERS OF TRADCATS THAT THERE IS A POST CONTEST NOW IN SESSION. WHO CAN WRITE THE BEST POST? JUDGING TO BE FIGURED OUT IN COMMENT SECTION OF THIS POST.

TOPIC: HALLOWEEN

DEADLINE: NOV. 8TH

Another Irish Song...

The Viking's posting of "Black and Tan" reminded me of this song... the very definition of sarcasm! I love it... Lyrics below the video.



Oh, I'll tell you a tale of peace and love
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day
Of a land that rules all lands above
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day
May peace and plenty be her share
Who kept our homes from want and care
Oh, God bless England is our prayer
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day

Chorus:
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day
So we say 'hip hooray'
Come and listen while we pray (1st chorus only)
Whack fol the diddle o the die do day

Now our fathers oft were naughty boys
For pikes and guns are dangerous toys
At Ballinahabwee and at Peter's Hill
We made poor England cry her fill
But old Brittania loves us still

God bless England so we pray (remaining choruses)

Now, when we were savage, fierce and wild
She came as a mother to her child
She gently raised us from the slime
And kept our hands from hellish crime
And she sent us to heaven in our own good time

Well, now Irish men forget the past
And think of the day that's coming fast
When we shall all be civilized
Neat and clean and well advised
Oh, won't mother England be surprised?