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Views from the Choir Loft

All Saints celebrations

Veronica Brandt · November 1, 2014

All saints day costumes St Michael, St Francis of Assisi, St Thomas More and St Bernard of Clairvaux DEALLY, CELEBRATING ALL SAINTS day would be a case of an awesome Mass in the morning, a festive lunch then cap it off with Solemn Vespers. Funnily enough our local parish wasn’t offering this, but a local homeschool group was reviving an All Saints Day Parade which had been a regular feature of Western Sydney’s Catholic Homeschool year back when my boys were tiny.

The idea is fairly simple. Children choose a saint to dress up as. They prepare a little speech to introduce their saint. We try find impartial judges to award prizes. Then add in our usual end-of-year concert items plus food and games and there you have an afternoon to remember.

That still leaves the question of how to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve. There are objections to the custom of Trick or Treating on all sorts of levels – nutritional, psychological and here in Australia there is a feeling that it is a foreign custom, another attempt by crass commercialism to make more money.

But the general idea of meeting your neighbours and having sweet food sounds okay.

Talking about ghosts and death is an awesome part of being Catholic. There is this common misconception that conservative people don’t believe in ghosts – which probably relates back the the Protestant rejection of Purgatory – but we can blow this out of the water with true ghost stories such as those featured in the movie Purgatory: the forgotten Church.

There’s a Museum in Rome preserving evidence of the Poor Souls and if you can’t travel all the way there, you could read Hungry Souls.

People are fascinated by death and the afterlife. Catholics have the answers.

November is dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory. There are indulgences attached to visiting cemeteries. Many parishes will have extra requiem Masses for the Holy Souls. You can use the Office of the Dead for your own private prayers.

You can sing Dies Irae and Requiem Aeternam. And that reminds me of Lux Aeterna, the Communion verse too. Hopefully I’ll get to a sung requiem soon!

After all the joy of All Saints Day I still get more excited about praying for the souls in Purgatory – maybe it’s closer to us here on earth, working out our salvation in fear and trembling.

Happy All Souls Day!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“The argument moves from the existence of the thing to the correctness of the thing: what is, ought to be. Or, a popular variant: if a thing is, it doesn’t make any difference whether it ought to be—the correct response is to adjust, to learn to live with the thing.”

— ‘L. Brent Bozell, Jr.’

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