All Saints: Are you Parental, Praying or Partying?

November 1, 2012 By

Today is the Solemnity of All Saints, one of my favorite days of the liturgical year. I love stepping out of church into the full thrust of Autumn and pondering that while the rest of the world goes about its business, we Catholics have taken some time to consider some of our great ancestors in the faith. Tomorrow, we consider the rest of them, for All Souls day.

While tomorrow is not, today is a Holy Day of Obligation and it occurred to me as I peered down my facebook feed that our personalities come forward in how we urge our fellows to Mass. Some people put up an unattractive graphic that “teased” but to me seemed to me a little parental:

Others posted beautiful images and extolled the Cloud of Witnesses in a prayerful way, and didn’t tell anyone else what they should do.

And a few posted this and danced around:

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Everyone went to Mass — or will make a later one today (and if you haven’t or even if you have you might want to read Deacon Greg’s Homily) — and none of these prompts were especially better than the other, but it left me wondering, which are you, parental, praying or partying?

And…are you a saint in the making?

I like Katrina’s picture a lot, too.

UPDATE: Great timing for the day! Don’t miss Tony Rossi’s interview/podcast with Colleen Carroll Campbell about her new book, My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir. This, btw, is a terrific book. I started reading it while we were without power, and will write more about it soon, but let me recommend it right now for your Christmas shopping list. Great for friends, great for your sisters or women you wish were your sisters!

Filed Under: Bookchat, Saints Tagged With: , ,
About Elizabeth Scalia
  • Diane

    Party! Celebrating my patron, St. John the Beloved, who got me to Israel this year and blessed me every day I was there. Looking forward to the drawing of saints names for the new liturgical year coming up, too. This year, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of the Rosary were both drawn for me and it’s been extraordinary.

    [Thanks for your prayers while you were in the Holy Land!-admin]

  • http://www.thewinedarksea.com MelanieB

    I figure I’m a little of all three. I got the kids and myself to Mass this morning. But that’s where my parental ends. I don’t feel a need to be mom to everyone else. I might have posted about it on Facebook; but as something we did, not as a wagging finger at anyone else. Enjoyed the Office of Readings and shared an excerpt from St Bernard’s sermon but not any beautiful images. So there you have prayerful. And ate far too much candy and danced along with Louie and the kids in the living room: party!

  • Peggy m

    I have to party, seeing how both of my children were born on November 1st. They were born two years apart, both sick and premature, due dates not all that close. My husband, not then a Catholic, said it was only right and just that they be born on All Saints Day, seeing how “they were all being invoked” by my relatives. They are both healthy, though they are unable to find work and are increasingly despondent and I worry about them. I found myself near my grandparents’ parish today and went in to pray. I had not been there since my grandfather’s funeral in 1973 and was so moved to be there, knowing this was so familiar to them. There is a statue of the Little Flower—my grandmother’s patron saint—and I found much comfort asking for help from the communion of saints, the cloud of witnesses, my beloved dead.

  • Manny

    Well, since I went to a special 1 PM mass today (off from work) and at 50 years old I looked like the youngest person in the church, I would have to say, partying! Plus I love the Satchmo. Well, I would love to say I’m going to be a saint, but I know my limitations. Still I’m striving and there is always hope. I’m reminded of the Flannery O’Connor quote describing one of her characters, “She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr… if they killed her quick.” LOL, that’s me, and yes I know Katrina has that quote up on her blog masthead.

    By the way Anchoress, when do you post your random saint generator? I need a new saint to get to know.

  • http://marycatelli.livejournal.com/ Mary

    Party. I posted a hymn in my livejournal.

  • Carl

    I was a little smug and sort of in a party mood when I attended Mass tonight. Then my pastor zeroed in on the line in John’s Epistle that said: “We are all God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed.” He put emphasis on the “not been revealed.” So, now I’m sitting here sipping a brew and contemplating on all that!!!

  • http://catholicsacristan.blogspot.ca Wendell

    Mostly Praying. Morning daily Mass and evening candlelit visit to a cemetery (Liturgy of the Word, Litany of The Saints) with our chaplain and students, followed by a gathering afterward for tea and dessert. Donations of non-perishable food items were collected for the needy.