Halloween
October 31st
Br. Craig Driscoll
It's Hallowen! It's time for the Great Pumpkin! It's time for
"Trick or Treat" and lots of candy. It's also time for a great deal
of evil activities by satanic groups and covens of witches. When I
was a kid Halloween was innocent fun and the only thing to worry
about was too much sugar. Then it got dangerous. Children began to
be harmed. Also it seemed so harmless, years ago, to dress up as
witches and other spooky characters now it doesn't seem right for
there are so many real witches about. The problem with Halloween is
precisely that little children dressing up as devils, witches,
vampires and so forth makes it all seems so innocent. And, indeed,
the children are innocent. But to portray evil in a cute way;
protraying devils, etc in a less than realistic way takes away from
the lesson we should be giving ie. that evil is real and it's really
evil. A good friend and benefactor of our community was a school
teacher. (He's now a priest.) He told us of a young boy in his high
school English class who wore a witch's symbol on a chain around his
neck. He spoke to the boy about it. He said both his mother and
grandmother were also witches. When I was a child the only witch one
heard of was the wicked one from the West who made life hard for
Dorothy from Kansas!
Our world is so fill with evil. Our Lady told one visionary that
what pains Her most is the harm to children. Let us pray to all the
Saints on the eve of all Saints Day for all children throughout the
world. Pray to Our Lady Who crushes the serpent, to St. Michael who
conquered the devil and to St. Benedict who gives special care and
protection against the devil.
Let us pray for all children that they are safe on Halloween.
Please don't let them go door to door. Have a party at home. Gather
several families together and have the children dress up as Saints.
Some children did this once and sent me beautiful photos of Dominic
Savio, St. Therese and St. Michael.
Years ago G.K.Chesterton said that in fiction evil is more
fascinating than good. It also seems that evil parts in films (the
wicked witch, the nasty governess in Heidi, etc.) are better acted
than good hero or heroine! Halloween tries to make evil fascinating.
It glorifies it. Let's pray for a better way to have fun.
The night before Halloween and and Halloween itself many witches
do their thing. They hold ceremonies and dabble with
black magic. It is a time of year when we Christians should double
our prayers. We should pray and make sacrifices to convert these
mis-guided people. We should pray to prevent a black mass. Thousands
in our country are involved with satanic groups, witchcraft, the
occult, rock groups that sing demonic songs, and new-age nonsense.
Let's join together and pray. We should pray the Rosary during these
last days of the month of the Holy Rosary for the conversion of
those involved with evil. We must pray that what began as a holy
celebration of the Eve of All Saints Day (Hallows meant Saints) will
return to something holy and sacred.