Sanctus Simplicitus

Around the Year with the Trapp Family
All Souls Day

Toward the end of the year, on November 2nd, the Church sets a day aside which is devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. Just as we turn to our big sisters and brothers, the saints, to intercede for us at the throne of God, the poor souls are also turning toward us: "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, because the hand of the Lord has trouched me" (Job 19:21; Office of the Dead). Helpless in themselves, since the purification they are undergoing is passive suffering, they can be helped by us. We canpray for them. We can offer up sacrafices and good works with the desire that God may accept them and, seeing in them the prayer and suffering rise from the Mystical Body of His only Son, hasten the delivery of those souls whom He deems worthy and ready for such help. On the day of "all the faithful departed" the Church reminds her children to listen to the message of the Scriptures in her liturgy and to do some thinking and meditating on Purgatory and the holy souls there. (Continue reading in this blog post, scroll down to get to the section on All Souls' Day)

Read our past posts on All Soul's Day tradtions:

Fr. Weiser on All Souls Day Traditions

From Catholic Life

Visit our Liturgical Year page on All Souls Day

Coloring Page for All Souls' Day

Catholic Life
Impr. 1908

 "To relieve the souls of the departed is to perform all the works of mercy in a single act." -St. Francis De Sales
 
The souls in Purgatory are Saints who love God intensely, but are
prevented from enjoying Him on account of some debts to Divine Justice because
of sin. Their pains are great . Their greatest torment is their unsatisfied
desire of being with God. They have already seen Him at their judgment, and they
now know His perfections in a way far different from anything possible in this
life. If we  only thought of this,
how careful we should be not to commit venial sins.

 There are many motives to induce us to help the poor souls, such as
the glory that their praises will give to God when they are before His
throne;  pity for them - suffering
without being able to help themselves; and our own interest, as charity to them
brings blessings from God, and puts them under an obligation to assist us by
their prayers.
 
We may relieve them by prayers, indulgences, almsgiving, Holy
Communion, and particularly by the holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.

 One special effect of this devotion to the poor souls is to cause
us to lead a very pure life, because, as we are pleading for those, some of whom
have offended God only slightly, we are constantly reminded of the punishment,
and so it is not likely that we will commit similar
offences.

 So many reasons, then, urge us to help the poor souls; it was no
wonder that Holy Church should encourage us by her own example. No Mass can be
celebrated, no Divine Office recited, and no grace after meals should be said,
without a prayer for the happy repose of their souls.
 
"In pains beyond all earthly pains,
 Favourites of Jesus! There they lie,
 Letting the fire wear out their stains,
 And worshipping God's purity."
 
Example -SS. Monica and Augustine

 Augustine - the wayward Augustine - having at last been converted
as the result of a mother's tears and prayers, St. Monica felt that her work on
earth was done, and henceforth she sighed for Heaven. "Son," said she to him, "I
have now no tie to earth. I have nothing more to hope for in this world. One
thing there was for which I did desire to tarry a little longer in this life,
which was that I might see thee a Christian Catholic before I died. My God hath
granted me more than this, in that I see thee now despising earthly felicity,
entirely devoted to His service. Why, therefore, do I tarry here? Lay this body
anywhere, be not concerned about that; only this I beg of you, that wheresoever
you be, you make remembrance of me at the Lord's altar."
 
From that moment Monica was silent, wholly absorbed in preparing
herself for the advent of her heavenly Bridegroom. Augustine, full of love and
fortitude, remained by his mother; though alternately lost in wondering
admiration, and overcome by sorrow, with his prayers, and ardent love he aided
her in this last painful struggle.
 
After her happy death, he says: "I let go my tears, which I had
kept in before, that they might flow as much as they pleased, and found rest to
my soul in weeping for her, who so long had wept for me."

 To the very day of his death he ceased not to mourn for his mother.
In compliance with her dying request, he daily remembered her in his prayers,
and at the holy altar. "And now," writes St. Augustine thirty years after her
death, "my heart being healed of that wound in which a carnal affection may have
had too great a share, I pour out to Thee, O Lord, in behalf of that servant of
Thine, a far different sort of tears, flowing from a spirit freighted with the
consideration of the perils of every soul that dies in Adam.... Therefore, O God
of my heart, my glory and my life, setting aside her good deeds, for which I
give Thee thanks, I entreat Thee at present for my mother's sins. Hear me now, I
beseech Thee, through that Physician of our souls Who hung upon the Cross, and
Who now intercedeth for us at Thy right hand. I know that mercifully, and from
her heart, she forgave her debtors their trespasses; do Thou likewise forgive
her her debts, if she has contracted any during those many years she lived after
her Baptism. Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them, I beseech Thee .... Let her
therefore rest in peace, together with her husband, her only spouse, whom she
dutifully served that she might be worthy of gaining him to Thee. And do Thou
inspire, O Lord my God, my brothers, my masters, whom I wish to serve with my
voice, heart and writings, that as many as shall read this may remember at Thy
altar Thy handmaid Monica, with Patricius, her husband, by whom Thou broughtest
me into this life. Let them remember with a pious affection those who were my
parents in this transitory life, that so my mother's last request to me on her
death-bed may be more abundantly performed for her by the prayers of many than
by mine alone."

A dear friend and her family has put out another issue of the St. Catherine
Academy Gazette. As in every issue, it features stories from old imprimatured
books along with pictures, games for the kids, cathecism questions, color pages and so forth. You will find the most recent copy below along with issue number 17. If you missed the first issue we shared here please click here to print issue 18. If you would like to be on the email list to receive these please find the contact information on the last page of the newsletter.

The previous post continued from Holy Days by Fr. Fancis Weiser Impr. 1956

Traditional Observance

Numerous ancient customs associated with All Saints and All Souls havecome down through the centuries and are still observed in many countries. Some are of strictly religious nature, such as the custom of decorating the graves and praying in the cemeteries. This practice is general in all Cathoic countries both in Europe and America. In the afternoon of All Saints' Day or in the morning of All Souls the faithful visit each individual grave of relatives and friends. Sometimes the congregation, led by the priest, walks in procession to the cemetery. There they pray for all the holy souls in front of the cemetery chapel, then the priest recites the liturgical prayers for the dead and blesses the graves with holy water. Afterward the families separate to offer private prayers at the graves of their loved ones.

During the week preceding All Saints crowds of people may be seen in the cemeteries, usually in the evening after work, decorating the graves of their dear ones with flowers, tending the lawn, and spreading fresh white gravel around the tombs. Candles, protected by little glass lanterns, are placed around the graves or at the foot of the tombstones, to be lighted on All Saints' eve and left burning through the night. It is an impressive, unforgettable sight to look upon the hundreds and often thousands of lights quietly burning in the darkness and dreary solitude of a cemetery. People all them "lights of the holy souls" (Seelenlichter).

To visit the graves of dear ones on All Souls is considered a duty of such important that many people in Europe will travel from a great distance to their home towns on All Saints' Day in order to perform this obligation of love and piety.

It is an ancient custom in Catholic sections of c entral Europe to ring the church bells at the approach of dusk on All Saints' Day, to remind the people to pray for the souls in purgatory. When the pealing of these bells is heard, the families gather in one room of their home extinguish all other lights save the blessed candle (kept from Candlemas Day) which is put on the table. Kneeling around it, they say the rosary for the holy souls. On this occasion, as on all others throughout the year, the boys and men lead the prayer by reciting the first part of the "Hail Mary" while the women respond with the second part:

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the rural sections of Brittany four men alternate in tolling the church bell for an hour on All Saints' Day after dark. Four other men go from farm to farm during the night, ringing hand bells and chanting in each place: "Christinas awake, pray to God for the souls of the dead, and say the Pater and Ave for them." From the house comes the reply "Amen" as the people rise for prayer.

In most countries of South America All Souls' Day is a public holiday. In Brazil people flock by the thousands to the cemeteries all morning, light candles and kneel at the graves in prayer. The deep silence of so many person in the crowded cemetery deeply impresses the stranger. In Puerto Rico, people will walk for miles to the graves of their loved ones. The women often carry vases of flowers and water, for they know they can get no water at the cemetery to keep the flowers fresh. They wear their best clothes as they trudge along in the hot sun. Whole truckloads of people will arrive at the cemetery if the distance is too far to walk. The preist visits each grave and says the prayers for the dead as the mourners walk along with him. Sometimes the ceremony lasts for hours and it is near midnight when the tired pastor visits the last graves.

Among the native population in the Philippines, a novena is held for the holy souls before November 2. In places where the the cemetery is close to the town, candles are brought to be burned at the tombs and prayers are said every night. During these nine days the people also prepare their family tombs for the great "Feast of Souls." Tomb niches and croses are repainted, hedges trimmed, flowers planted, and all weeds are removed from the graves on the evening of All Saint's Day young men go from door to door asking for gifts in the form of cookies, candy, pastry, and sing a traditional verse in which they represent holy souls liberated from purgatory and on their way to Heaven:

Kung kami po'y lilmusan
Dali dali ninyong bigyan
Baka kami'y masarhan
Sa pinto ng kalaginan.

If you will give us friendly alms,
Please do not make us wait;
We want to enter Heaven's door
Before it is too late.

In Poland, and in Polish churches of the United States, the faithful bring to their parish priest on All Souls' Day paper sheets with black borders called Wypominki (Naming) on which are written the names of their beloved dead. During the evening deovtions in November, and on Sundays, the names are read from the pulpit and prayers are offered for the repose of the souls.

Our pagan forefathers kept several :cult of the dead" rites at various times of the year. One of these periods was the great celebration at the end of fall and the beginning of winter (around November 1). Together with the practices of nature and demon lore (fires, masquerades, fertility cults, ect.) they also observed the ritual of the dead with  many traditional rites. Since All Saints and All Souls happened to be placed within the period of such an ancient festival, some of the pre-Christian traditions became part of our Christian feast and associated with Christian ideas.

There is, for instance, the pre-Chrsitan practice of putting foodat the graves or in the homes at such times of the year when the spirits of the dead were believed to roam their familiar earthly places. The beginning of November was one of these times. By offering a meal or some token food to the spirits, people hoped to pelase them and to avert any possible harm they could do. Hence came the custom of baking special breads in honr of the holy souls and bestowing them on the children and the poor. This custom is widespread in Europe. "All Souls' bread" (Seelenbrot) is made and distributed in Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Spain, Ital, hungary, and the Slavic countries.

In some sections of centeral Europe boys receive on All Souls' Day a cake samed in the form of a hare, and girls are given one in the same of a hen (an interesting combination of 'spirt bread' and fertility symbols). These figure cakes are backed of the same dough as the festive cakes which the people eat on All Saints' Day and which are a favorite dish all over centeral Europe. They are made of braided stands of sweet dough  and called "All Saints' cakes" (Heiligenstriezel in German, Strucel Swiateczne in Polish, Mindszenti Kalacska in Hungarian). Here is the recipe:

8 cups flour        1 tsp. grated orange rind
2 cups milk        1 tsp. graded lemon rind
4 yeast cakes    1/2 cup soft butter
8 egg yolks        1 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar

Dissolve yeast cakes in 1/2 cup of the milk. Make thin sponge by mixing yeast with rest of milk and 1 cup of flour. Mix throughly, sprinkle top lightly with flour and set aside to rise. Add salt to egg yolks, beat until thick and lemon-colored. Add sugar, rinds, and mix with sponge, Add two cups of flour, alternating with the milk, and knewad for half-hour.

Add remaining flour and butter and continue to knead until the dough comes away from the hand. Set in warm place to rise until double in bulk. Separate dough into four parts, roll into long strips and braid into a loaf. Brush top with lightly beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with poppy seed. Let rise. Bake at 350 degrees oven for one hour.

In western Europe people prepare on All Souls' Day a meal of cooked beans or lentils, called "soul food," which they afterward serve to the poor together with meat and other dishes. In Poland the farms hold a solemn meal on the evening of All Souls' Day, with empty seats and paltes ready for the 'souls' of departed relatives. Onto the plates members of family put parts of the dinner. These portions are not touched by anyone but afterward are given to beggars or poor neighbors. In the Alpine provinces of Austria destitute children and beggars go from house to house, reciting a prayer or singing a hymn for the holy souls, receiving small loaves of the 'soul bread' in reward. There, too, people put aside a part of everythign that is cooked on All Souls' Day and give meals to the poor. In northern Spain and in Madrid people distribute and eat a special pastry called "Bones of the Holy" (Huesos de Santo). In Catalonia All Souls' pastry is called Panellets (little breads).

In Hungary the "Day of the Dead" (Halottalk Napia) is kept with the traditional customs common to all people in entral Europe. In addition, they invite orphan children into the family for All Saints' and All Souls' days, serving them generous meals and giving them new clothes and toys. Another endearing practice is the special care people in Hungary bestow on "forgotten" graves which otherwise would stay neglected and unadorned. Taking turns from year to year, the families of a village assume the care of tehse graves in addition to their own, decorating them, lighting candles, and praying for the souls of those who are burried in them.

In Brittany the farms visit the graves of their departed relatives on Jour des morts (Day of the Dead), kneeling bareheaded at the mound in long and gervent prayer. Then they spinkle the grave with holy water, and finally, before leaving, our milk over the grave as a libation "for the holy souls." In every house a generous portion of the dinner is served before an empty seat and afterward given to the hungry.

Many other customs of the ancient cult of the dead have survied as supersitions to this day. The belief that the spirts of the dead return for All Souls' Day is expressed in a great number of legends and traditions. In the rural sections of Poland the charming story is told that at midnight on All Souls' Day a great light may be seen in the parish church; the holy souls of all departed parishioners who are still in purgatory gather there to pray for their release  before the ver altar where they use to receive the Blessed Sacrament when still alive. Afterward the souls are said to visit the scenes of their earthly life and labors, especially their homes. To welcome them by an external sign the people leave doors and windows open on All Souls' Day. In the rural sections of Austria the sholy souls are said to wander though the forests on All Souls' Day, sighing and praying for their release, but unable to reach the living by external means which would indicated their presence. For this reason, the children are told to pray aloud while going through the open spaces to church and cemetery, so the poor souls will have the great sonsolation of seeing that their invisable presence is known and their pitiful cries for help are understood and answered.

This month has been dedicated to the upcoming Holy Day, All Saint's Day. Find our previous posts here for the history & traditions of this wonderful Holy Day of Obligation and the vigil before it as well as the Feast of All Soul's Day after it:

History of All Hallow's Eve and All Saint's Day (Keeping the Catholic Holy Day)

All Hallow's Eve Story to Read/Share By: Hillare Belloc

All Saint's Day 2009- St. Patrick & St. George

Don Bosco's Reference to All Soul's Day

All Saint's All Souls Day Von Trapp Style Part II

Various All Saints & All Souls Day Traditions

This week we add to our list from The Holy Days Book by Fr. Francis Weiser Impr. 1956

All Saints and All Souls

All Saints
The Church of Anticok kept a commeoration of all holy martyrs on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Saint John Chrysostom, who served as preacher at Anticoh before he became Patriarch of Constantinople, delivered annual sermons on the ocacsion of this festival. They were entitled "Praise of All the Holy Martyrs of the Entire World." In the course of the succeeding centuries the feast spread through the whole Eastern Church and, by the seventh century, was everywhere kept as public holyday.

In the West the Feast of "All Holy Martyrs" was introduced when Pope Boniface IV (615) was given the ancient Roman temple of the Pantheon by Emperor Phocas (610) and dedicated it as a church to the Blessed Virgin MAry and all the martyrs. The date of this dedication was May 13,and on this date the feast was then annually held in rome. Two hundred years later Pope Gregory IV (844) transferred the celebration to November 1. The reason for this transfer is quite interesting, especially since some scholars have claimed that the Church assigned All SAints to November 1 in order to substitue a feast of Christan significance for the pagan Germanic celebrations of the demon cult at the time of the year. Actually, the reason for the transfer was that the many pilgrims who came to Rome for the "Feast of the Pantheon" could be fed more easily after the harvest than in the spring.

Meanwhile, the practice had spread of including in this memorial not only all martyrs but the other saints as well. Pope Gregory III (741) had already stated this when he dedicated a chapel in Saint Peter's in honor of Christ, Mary, and "all the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and all the just and perfect servants of God whose bodies rest throughout the whole world."

Upon the request of Pope Gregory IV, Emperor Louis the Pious (840) introduced the Feast of All SAints in his territories. With the consent of the bishops of Germany and France he ordered it to be kept on November 1 in the whole empire. Finally, Pope Sixtus IV (1484) established it as a holyday of obligation for the entire Latin Church, giving it a liturgical vigil and octave.

The purpose of the feast is twofold. As the prayer of the Mass states, "the merits of all the saints are verated in common by this one celebration," because a very large number of martyrs and other saints could not be accorded the honor of a special festival since the days of the year would not suffice for all these indivdual celebrations. The second purpose was given by Pope Urban IV: Any negligence, omission, and irreverence commited in the celebration of the saints' feasts thoughout the year is to be atoned for by the faithful and thus due honr may still be offered to these saints.

Liturgical Prayer: Almighty and eternal God, who hast granted us to venerate the merits of all Thy saints in one celebration: we beg Thee to bestow upon all the desired abundance of Thy mercy on account of this great number of intercessors.

All Souls
The need and duty of prayer for the departed souls has been acknowledged by the Church at all times. It is recommended in the Scriptures of the Old Testament (2 Macch. 12,46), and found expression not only in public and private prayers but especially in the offering of the Holy Sacrafice for the repose of souls. The customary dates for public services of this kind were, and stil lare, the day of death and burial, the seventh and thirtieth day after death (Month's Mind Mass), and the anniversary exceprt for the funeral Mass, the actual observance of these dates is not made obligatory by the Church but left to the piety of the realtives and friends of the deceased.

The memorial feast of all departed ones in a common celebration was inaugurated by Abbot Saint Odilo of Cluny (1048). He issued a decree that all monasteries of the congregation of Cluny were annually to keep November 2 as a "day of all the departed ones" (Omnium Defunctorum). On November 1, after vestpers the bell should be tolled and afterward the Office of the Dead be recited; on the next day all priests had to say Mass for the repose of the souls in purgatory.

This observance of the Bendictines of Cluny was soon adopted by other benedictines, and by the Carthusians. Pope Sylvester II (1003) spproved and recommended it. It was some time though, before the secular clergy introduced it in the various diocese. From the elventh to the fourteenth centuries it gradually spread in France, Germany, England, and Spain, the day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed in the official books of the Western Church for November 2 (or November 3 if the second falls on a Sunday).

November 2 was chose in order that the momeory of all the "holy spirits" both of saints in Heaven and of the souls in purgatory should be celebrated on two successive days, and in this way to express the Christian belief in the "Communion of Saints." Since the feast of All Saints had already been celebrated on November 1 for centuries, the memory of the departed souls in purgatory was place on the folowing day.

In the Greek Rite the commemoration of all the faithful departed is held on the Saturday before Seagesima Sunday, and is called the "Saturday of the Souls" (Psychosabbaton). The Aremenians celebrate it on Easter Monday, with the solemn Office of the Dead. The Mass, however, is that of the Ressurection. An interesting and moving observance is held in the Syrian-Antiochene Rite where they celebrate on three seperate days: on Friday before Septuagesima they commemorate all departed priests; on Friday before Sexagesima, all the faithful departed; and on Friday before Quinquagesima, "all those who died in strange places, away from their parents and friends."

Pope Benedict XV in 1915 allowed all priests to say three Masses on All Souls' Day in order to give increased help to the suffering souls in purgatory. The Church has also granted to all faithful special privileges of gaining indulgences for the holy souls in November 1 and 2. The Office of the Dead is recited by priests and religious communities. In many places the graves in cemeteries are blessed on the eve or in the morning of All Souls' Day, and a solemn service is usually held in parish churches.

The liturgical color at all servies on November 2 is black. The Masses are part of the group called "Requiem" Masses because they start with the words Requiem aeternam dona eis (Eternal reast grant unto them). The sequence sung at the solemn Mass on All Souls' Day (and on other occasions) is the famous poem Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) written by ta thirteenth century Franciscan. It has been often ascribed to Thomas of Celano (1260), the friend and biographer of Saint Francis of Assisi, though the authorship is not certian.

Traditional Observances, cultural traditions and Halloween to be continued...

Taken from Your Home, A Church in Miniature
Excerpt from Mexican Family Customs in Our Catholic Southwest
Rev. Theodore J. Radke

All Souls Day in Mexican custom calls for a religious celebration that requires preparation. For a week in advance the people will be making ready garlands and wreaths and rosses of real or paper flowers of every color under the sun to be used in decorating the graves of their deceased relatives. From early morning on All Souls Day the people will trek to the cemetery on foot, in cars, and in buses. The majority of them will spend the entire day at the cemetery.

At a set house of the afternoon the parish priest goes out to the cemetery for the recitation and singing of the prayers of the ritual at the graveside. Following this sermon a is preached to the assembled crowd. Then the priest is flooded with requests to go about the cemetery blessing the individual graves of the dead. For weeks following All Souls Day the cemeteries in our southwest are colorful with the hundreds of garlands and wreaths and crosses. During this period the cemetery becomes a sight-seeing stop for visitors to our cities.


Excerpt from Religious Customs Among the French of Louisiana
By: Rev. J. Albert Le Blanc

Possibly nowhere in America is All Saints' Day observed so strikingly as it is among the Louisiana French. For days preceding it, each family will clean, whitewash or paint the tombs, prepare artificial flowers, design wreaths and place these on the tombs. Among the financially better fixed, chrysanthemums and dahlias are used in decorating the graves. Before the expansion of the Church as we have it today, family neighborhood cemeteries were common. In our parish, St. Ann's at Mamou, La., we have six cemeteries besides the Church cemetery. In the afternoon of All-Saints' Day, the blessing of the graves takes place. A procession is held around the cemetery. The priest is at the head; the people follow. The beads are recited while the blessing is taking place. The ceremony ends with a sermon and the singing of the Libera. In some sections where the priest cannot assist, candles are lit at dusk, one for each member deceased and an all night vigil is held. Where out-door altars exist, Mass is celebrated in the cemeteries on All Souls Day.


Except from Russian German Customs from Ellis county, Kansas
By: Sister Mary Eloise Johannes, S.S.J. Ph. D.

On the feast of All Souls', November second, the priest and people go in procession to the cemetery and pray for the dead buried there and for all the faithful departed. The priest sprinkles the graves with holy water and the people frequently do likewise.

Last weeks Keeping It Catholic Monday was about All Hallow's Eve and All Saint's Day featuring an section out of Maria Von Trapp's book A Year with the Von Trapp Family. This week is the rest of that story, we will continue to feature articles on All Saints/All Souls day throughout the rest of October. November will be similar in the posts but the subject will be on that of keeping Advent, the season before Christmas. May you have a blessed week!

The Saints & All Souls Day
By: Maria Von Trapp
A Year Around with the Von Trapp Family

Besides these "appointments" of patron saints, there are many chosen by the people. I never could find out why St. Anonthy of Padua (June 13th) has to find lost objects for everybody around the glove or why St. Matthew (February 24th) is the patron of repentant drunkards. With other saints it is easy to see why some incident of their life or death was taken up by the people as indications that they should be invoked in special cases. Good St. Anne is the patron saint for mothers-in-law and domestic troubles; St. Florian (May 4th), who was a Roman soldier condemned to death as a Christian and drowned in the River Enns in Austria, is universally invoked to extinguish fires, obviously with the help of the alter hallowed by his death; St. Bartholomew (August 24th), who was skinned alive, was made the patron for all tanners and butchers. It is easy to see why the Holy Innocents (December 28th) are the patrons of choir boys and foundlings but rather hard to fathom why St. Margaret (July 20th) cures kidney diseases.

One of our children made a list once, "in case we need it," of saints to be invoked for special illnesses. Here it is:

Against fever - St. Hugh (april 29th)
Against epilepsy - St. John Chrysostom (January 27th)
Against burns and poisons - St. John the Evangelist (December 27th)
Against inflammations - St. Benedict (March 21st)
Against cough and whooping cough - St. Blaise (February 3rd)
Against consumption - St. Pantaleon (July 27th)
Against cold - St. Sebaldus (August 19th)
Patron of all the sick and dying - St. John of God (March 8th)

One of our boys got interested in patron saints for special professions. Here is his little list:

St. Jerome - patron of students (September 30th)
St. Isadore - patron of laborers (May 10th)
St. Ives - patron of lawyers, jurists, advocates, notaries and orphans (May 19th)
The "Four Crowned Martyrs" - patrons of masons and sculptors (November 8th)
St. Francis de Sales - Patron of writers (January 29th)
St. Gomer - patron of the unhappily married (October 11th)
St. Gregory the Great - patron of singers (March 12th)
St. Cecilia - patroness of musicians
St. John the Baptist - Patron of tailors (June 24th)
St. Paul - patron of rope-makers (June 30th)

If there are girls and boys in a family and one of the boys has made a list of various saints for different professions, the girls simply have to make a list of patron saints too. Ours found patron saints for animals:

Bees- St. Ambrose (December 7th)
Pigs - St. Anthony the hermit (January 17th)
Dogs - St. Rochus (August 16th)
Horses - St. Leonard (November 16th)
Asses - St. Anthony of Padua (June 13th)
Birds - St. Francis of Assisi (October 4th)
Fish - St. Anthony (June 13th)

And once in a while somebody would come running with a special discover. "Mother, look! We have enough girls in our family. I found a patron saint to obtain male children: St. Felicitas (July 10th)!" "Mother, do you think Aunt Susan knows there is a stain of old maids- St. Catherine of Alexandria (November 25th)?"

They also found that St. Gaston is the patron of children who learned to walk very late, and they discovered a few valuable saints for weather. If you want rain, pray to St. Odo; if you want sunshine, pray to St. Claire. But the head of the heavenly weather department is of course St. Peter.

And so it goes. If the children in a family become sufficiently interested in their big brothers and sisters, the saints, to start making such lits and finding out about the respective feast days, it is just as if one of their grown-up sisters were getting married and the new in-laws taken into the family. Their birthdays and feast days are noted down, the enlargement of the family circle is celebrated, and this, each time, is a happy occasion.

While close relations are kept up with a great many of the saints, some of them are singled out by the Church to be celebrated in a special way. There is, for instance, St. John the Baptist, whose feast is celebrated on the twenty-fourth of June. We learn that as far back as the eighth century bonfires were being lit in honor of the precursor of Christ - the Johannesfeuer - as a special solemnity. In the old world, the young people of the villages and towns take kindling wood up the mountains or outside of town to some beautiful spot on a river bank. Before it is lit a few words point out the significance of this fire at the height of the year, at the beginning of the summer when the nights are shortest; and the symbolism of fire and light in relation to that radiant figure, the Baptist. "He was a burning and shining light: and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light" (John 5:35). When the flames are leaping up, everybody present joins in singing one of the old songs of the occasion. When the fire is burning low, everyone leaps over it- boys and girls holding hands and leaping by twos. Then they settle down around the fire for the fire-watch until the last spark has died out.

Soon afterwards, on June 29th, we celebrate the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. The badge of St. Peter is the cock, in memory of the "thrice-crowing" of that animal. As St. Peter is the "Great Fisherman," his feast day is celebrated in many seacoast towns with great festivity. Boats are decorated with garlands and ribbons. There are races, and the chief dish is fish, of course.

In our extensive traveling throughout many countries over three continents we have come across many a saint who is very famous locally but of whom we otherwise might never have heard. One day in the year is set aside to remember them all- the ones whose names are mentioned in the calendar and the multitudes who stand around the throne of God. This is All Saints' Day, on November 1st. In the Epistle, St. John tells us about the vision he had of the "great multitude which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and in the sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands," singing praise to God.

The teaching of Our Lord in the Gospels tells us what makes a saint a saint: "Blessed are the meek... Blessed are they that mourn... Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice... Blessed are the merciful ... Blessed are the clean of heart... Blessed are the peacemakers... Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake..." Nothing is so encouraging as to consider, on All Saints' Day, those millions and millions around the throne of God who followed this teaching. Like St. Augustine before her, our Martina, when she was still quite little, said once on All Saints' day, "As I think of it, Mother, if all those people could do it, why not we!"

All Soul's Day
Toward the end of the year, on November 2nd, the Church sets a day asaide which is devoted to the suffering souls in Purgatory. Just as we turn to our big sisters and brothers, the saints, to intercede for us as the throne of God, the poor souls are also turing toward us: "Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you, my friends, because the hand of the Lord has touched me" (Job 19:21; Office of the Dead). Helpless in themselves, since the purification they are undergoing is passive suffering, they can be helped by us. We can pray for them. we can offer up sacrafices and good works with the desire that God may accept them and, seeing in them the prayer and suffering rise from the Mystical Body of His only Son, hasten the delivery of those souls whom He deems worthy and ready for such help on the day of "all the faithful departed" the Church reminds her children to listen to the message of the Scriptures in her liturgy and to do some thinknig and meditating on Purgatory and the holy souls there.

We know Purgatory is a ralm of twilight, so to speak - an inbetween darkness and light, a place of regret and longing. If the suffering which is undergone there, we are told that it is bitter and great, that it surpasses all imaginable suffering here on earth as an ocean surpasses a little puddle.

A knowledge of Purgatory we find already in the Old Testament. Two hundred years before Christ Judas Macabeus "making a gathering... sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrafice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (for if he hand not hoped  that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead); and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is, therefuore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for thedead, that they may be loosed from thier sins" (II Macc. 12:43-46).

All Souls' Day is a solemn day for families. We mothers must tell our children again about the Communion of Saints, which functions in the same way as life in large family, where each member depends on the others. In this case, the poor souls depend on us. They depend on our love, but love does not consist in words only, it consists in our deeds. The sooner the little ones learn to understand this, the better it is for their whole life. On All Souls' Day they will be encouraged to bring little sacrafices, to say special prayers. They will be told about the thesaurus ecclesiaae, the golden treasure chest of Holy Church filled with the atoning sacrafice of Christ, the merits of the Blessed Birgin, of the saints - canonized and uncanonized - into which we may delve. Itwas given to Peter to bind and loosen, and his successor, making use of that very power, sets the conditions under which this can be done. One such disposition is the toties quoties indulgence: each time we visit a parish church on the second of November and say six "Our Fathers,"  six "Hail Marys," and six "Glorys," we may gain a plenary indulgence applicable to the poor souls.

All Souls' Day is also the date when we remind our children that on the solemn day of their baptism the Church lit the baptismal candle and said: "Receive this burning light and see thou guard the grace of thy baptism without blame. Keep the Commandments of God so that when the Lord shall come to call thee to the nuptials, thou mayst meet Him with all the Saints in the heavenly court, there thou mayest meet Him with all the Saints in the heavenly court, there to live forever and ever." This baptismal candle of our children we should wrap reverently and keep in a special place together with our own. If, as happened to us, these candles are no longer in the family (we could not take along such things from the old country),  one can take candles blessed on Candlemas Day, tie the names of each child to a candle, and keep them in a special place. This is what we did. Only Johannes, being born in this country, has his own original baptismal candle. On All Souls' Day we take the candles out and look at them and remind each other to light our candle for any of us in case of sudden death, as a symbol that we want to die in our baptismal innocence, that the light which was kindled at that solemn moment has not been extinguished voluntarily by us. It is always a solemn moment when the children are called to think of their parents' death. 

In the old country the great event of the day used to be the visit to the cemetery. First I have to describe an Austrian cemetery. Out in the country every village has its cemetery around the church; bigger towns have them on the outskirts. Every grave is a flower bed at the head of which is a crucifix, sometimes of wrought iron, sometimes carved in wood. Occasionally there are also tombstones. Families take care of their graves individually. People who have moved elsewhere will pay the cemetery keeper to do it for them. The German word for cemetery is Gottersacker, meaning "God's acre." In the summer it looks like a big flower garden. People are constantly coming and going, working on their gaves, or just praying for their loved ones. On anniversaries you will see vigil lights burning and on All Souls' Day every grave will have its little vigil light as a token that we do remember. People will flock out to the cemeteries in the early evening because it is such a sight - those many, many flames and all the mouns covered with flowers. Slowly one walks up and down the aisles, stopping at the graves of relatives and friends to say a short prayer and sprinkle them with holy water.

When the father of our family died several years ago, we started our own old-world cemetery. Soon one of his children followed him and now there are two flower-covered mounds under the large carved-wood crucifix. The lanterns are lit not only on the anniversaries and on All Souls' Day, but every Saturday night. A hedge of rosa multiflora encircles this holy spot. Inside the hedge there is a bench and we often sit there in the peace and quiet of our little acre of God.

This coming week's post is a few days early, I wanted to make sure it got up in time with the holiday weekend approaching. This week I thought I'd share another little thing we re-made to make it Catholic. Our boys love board games and we have quite our share. One of the games that they enjoy is 'Guess Who' where you pick a card and then ask questions about the other person's card trying to guess who they have and putting down the pieces that don't fit the answer to your question. While pondering away and planning the All Saints/Souls lapbook I'm working on for the month of October I decided to take the Guess Who game and make it a Saint's Game. I've included the cards I made for the game, they fit the old version of the game (I noticed there are newer designs available as well).  The PDF has the directions attached, it's pretty simple to just print them on card stock and then cut them out and replace the old cards. You could even laminate these for duriablity.
 
Some other ideas for making board games Catholic:

* Re-do the game Chutes and Ladders to give it a Cathoic theme by making the object to climb Jacob's ladder to heaven. All the objects that get the player to Heaven could be virtues and all of the chutes could be venial sins and inpefections.

*Other Guess Who Versios: Bishops of Rome, this blog would be VERY helpful in this instance, Names of Our Lady (Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Our Lady of the Rosary ect), Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Ghost, Stations of the Cross and other Lenten ideas.

* Checkers- Make little saints to go on top of the checkers

* Replace Chess pieces using little wooden pieces painted as Saintly Kings for the Kings (and Queens), Saintly Bishops for the bishops, St. Joan of Arc'sand St. George's horse for the horses  ect.


We are also linking up with Catholic Icings First Friday, there are some great ideas over there! And we are also doing our own link up, please share anything that you have made Catholic that wasn't other wise!

In the book Mamma Margherita: St. John Bosco's Mother written by Marieli and Rita Benziger there is a reference to All Souls Day and a basic tradition. On page 182 in Chapter 15. "On November 2nd Don Bosco had gone with his boys to the Campo Santo. It was a good Italian custom to decorate the graves of the dead on All Souls day with flowers, to pray and to linger and think of the departed. Since most of his poor boys were orphans, he wished to instill in them a desire to pray for their parents, their dear departed ones."

Short Story from The Path to Rome
By: Hiliare Bellock


Once upon a time there was a man who was born in Croydon, and whose name was Charles Amieson Blake. He went to Rugby at twelve and left it at seventeen. He fell in love twice and then went to Cambridge till he was twenty-three. Having left Cambridge he fell in love more mildly, and was put by his father into a government office, where he began at £180 a year. At thirty-five he was earning £500 a year, and perquisites made £750 a year. He met a pleasant lady and fell in love quite a little compared with the other times. She had £250 a year. That made £1000 a year. They married and had three children--Richard, Amy, and Cornelia. He rose to a high government position, was knighted, retired at sixty-three, and died at sixty-seven. He is buried at Kensal Green...


AUCTOR. Thank you, Lector, that is a very good story. It is simple and full of plain human touches. You know how to deal with the facts of everyday life ... It requires a master-hand. Tell me, Lector, had this man any adventures?


LECTOR. None that I know of.


AUCTOR. Had he opinions?


LECTOR. Yes. I forgot to tell you he was a Unionist. He spoke two foreign languages badly. He often went abroad to Assisi, Florence, and Boulogne... He left £7,623 6s. 8d., and a house and garden at Sutton. His wife lives there still.


AUCTOR. Oh!


LECTOR. It is the human story ... the daily task!


AUCTOR. Very true, my dear Lector ... the common lot... Now let me tell my story. It is about the Hole that could not be Filled Up.


LECTOR. Oh no! Auctor, no! That is the oldest story in the--


AUCTOR. Patience, dear Lector, patience! I will tell it well. Besides which I promise you it shall never be told again. I will copyright it.


Well, once there was a Learned Man who had a bargain with the Devil that he should warn the Devil's emissaries of all the good deeds done around him so that they could be upset, and he in turn was to have all those pleasant things of this life which the Devil's allies usually get, to wit a Comfortable Home, Self-Respect, good health, 'enough money for one's rank', and generally what is called 'a happy useful life'--till midnight of All-Hallowe'en in the last year of the nineteenth century.


So this Learned Man did all he was required, and daily would inform the messenger imps of the good being done or prepared in the neighbourhood, and they would upset it; so that the place he lived in from a nice country town became a great Centre of Industry, full of wealth and desirable family mansions and street property, and was called in hell 'Depot B' (Depot A you may guess at). But at last toward the 15th of October 1900, the Learned Man began to


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STORY OF THE DEVIL


shake in his shoes and to dread the judgement; for, you see, he had not the comfortable ignorance of his kind, and was compelled to believe in the Devil willy-nilly, and, as I say, he shook in his shoes.


So he bethought him of a plan to cheat the Devil, and the day before All-Hallowe'en he cut a very small round hole in the floor of his study, just near the fireplace, right through down to the cellar. Then he got a number of things that do great harm (newspapers, legal documents, unpaid bills, and so forth) and made ready for action.


Next morning when the little imps came for orders as usual, after prayers, he took them down into the cellar, and pointing out the hole in the ceiling, he said to them:


'My friends, this little hole is a mystery. It communicates, I believe, with the chapel; but I cannot find the exit. All I know is, that some pious person or angel, or what not, desirous to do good, slips into it every day whatever he thinks may be a cause of evil in the neighbourhood, hoping thus to destroy it' (in proof of which statement he showed them a scattered heap of newspapers on the floor of the cellar beneath the hole). 'And the best thing you can do,' he added, 'is to stay here and take them away as far as they come down and put them back into circulation again. Tut! tut!' he added, picking up a moneylender's threatening letter to a widow, 'it is astonishing how these people interfere with the most sacred rights! Here is a letter actually stolen from the post! Pray see that it is delivered.'


So he left the little imps at work, and fed them from above with all manner of evil-doing things, which they as promptly drew into the cellar, and at intervals flew away with, to put them into circulation again.


That evening, at about half-past eleven, the Devil came to fetch the Learned Man, and found him seated at his fine great desk, writing. The Learned Man got up very affably to receive the Devil, and offered him a chair by the fire, just near the little round hole.


'Pray don't move,' said the Devil; 'I came early on purpose not to disturb you.'


'You are very good,' replied the Learned Man. 'The fact is, I have to finish my report on Lady Grope's Settlement among our Poor in the Bull Ring--it is making some progress. But their condition is heart-breaking, my dear sir; heart-breaking!'


'I can well believe it,' said the Devil sadly and solemnly, leaning back in his chair, and pressing his hands together like a roof. 'The poor in our great towns, Sir Charles' (for the Learned Man had been made a Baronet), 'the condition,


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AND THE LEARNED MAN


I say, of the--Don't I feel a draught?' he added abruptly. For the Devil can't bear draughts.


'Why,' said the Learned Man, as though ashamed, 'just near your chair there is a little hole that I have done my best to fill up, but somehow it seemed impossible to fill it... I don't know...'


The Devil hates excuses, and is above all practical, so he just whipped the soul of a lawyer out of his side-pocket, tied a knot in it to stiffen it, and shoved it into the hole.


'There!' said the Devil contentedly; 'if you had taken a piece of rag, or what not, you might yourself... Hulloa!...' He looked down and saw the hole still gaping, and he felt a furious draught coming up again. He wondered a little, and then muttered: 'It's a pity I have on my best things. I never dare crease them, and I have nothing in my pockets to speak of, otherwise I might have brought something bigger.' He felt in his left-hand trouser pocket, and fished out a pedant, crumpled him carefully into a ball, and stuffed him hard into the hole, so that he suffered agonies. Then the Devil watched carefully. The soul of the pedant was at first tugged as if from below, then drawn slowly down, and finally shot off out of sight.


'This is a most extraordinary thing!' said the Devil.


'It is the draught. It is very strong between the joists,' ventured the Learned Man.


'Fiddle-sticks ends!' shouted the Devil. 'It is a trick! But I've never been caught yet, and I never will be.'


He clapped his hands, and a whole host of his followers poured in through the windows with mortgages, Acts of Parliament, legal decisions, declarations of war, charters to universities, patents for medicines, naturalization orders, shares in gold mines, specifications, prospectuses, water companies' reports, publishers' agreements, letters patent, freedoms of cities, and, in a word, all that the Devil controls in the way of hole-stopping rubbish; and the Devil, kneeling on the floor, stuffed them into the hole like a madman. But as fast as he stuffed, the little imps below (who had summoned a number of their kind to their aid also) pulled it through and carted it away. And the Devil, like one possessed, lashed the floor with his tail, and his eyes glared like coals of fire, and the sweat ran down his face, and he breathed hard, and pushed every imaginable thing he had into the hole so swiftly that at last his documents and parchments looked like streaks and flashes. But the loyal little imps, not to be beaten, drew them through into the cellar as fast as machinery, and whirled them to their assistants; and all the poor lost souls who had been pressed into


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APPARITION OF ST CHARLES BORROMEO


the service were groaning that their one holiday in the year was being filched from them, when, just as the process was going on so fast that it roared like a printing-machine in full blast, the clock in the hall struck twelve.


The Devil suddenly stopped and stood up.


'Out of my house,' said the Learned Man; 'out of my house! I've had enough of you, and I've no time for fiddle-faddle! It's past twelve, and I've won!'


The Devil, though still panting, smiled a diabolical smile, and pulling out his repeater (which he had taken as a perquisite from the body of a member of Parliament), said, 'I suppose you keep Greenwich time?'


'Certainly!' said Sir Charles.


'Well,' said the Devil, 'so much the worse for you to live in Suffolk. You're four minutes fast, so I'll trouble you to come along with me; and I warn you that any words you now say may be used against...'


At this point the Learned Man's patron saint, who thought things had gone far enough, materialized himself and coughed gently. They both looked round, and there was St Charles sitting in the easy chair.


'So far,' murmured the Saint to the Devil suavely, 'so far from being four minutes too early, you are exactly a year too late.' On saying this, the Saint smiled a genial, priestly smile, folded his hands, twiddled his thumbs slowly round and round, and gazed in a fatherly way at the Devil.


'What do you mean?' shouted the Devil.


'What I say,' said St Charles calmly; '1900 is not the last year of the nineteenth century; it is the first year of the twentieth.'


'Oh!' sneered the Devil, 'are you an anti-vaccinationist as well? Now, look here' (and he began counting on his fingers); 'supposing in the year 1 B.C. ...'


'I never argue,' said St Charles.


'Well, all I know is,' answered the Devil with some heat, 'that in this matter as in most others, thank the Lord, I have on my side all the historians and all the scientists, all the universities, all the...'


'And I,' interrupted St Charles, waving his hand like a gentleman (he is a Borromeo), 'I have the Pope!'


At this the Devil gave a great howl, and disappeared in a clap of thunder, and was never seen again till his recent appearance at Brighton.


So the Learned Man was saved; but hardly; for he had to spend five hundred years in Purgatory catechizing such heretics and pagans as got there, and instructing them in the true faith. And with the more muscular he passed a knotty time.