Can Catholics Participate in Halloween Activities?

Source: Ora et Labora et Zombies

Trick or Treat?

This time of year there is a bunch of chatter on the Internet about the origins of Halloween. Many good Catholic and Christian families wrestle with whether not to allow their children to participate in Halloween festivities. Some parents might even go so far as to forbid dressing in costume and trick-or-treating.   Others will attempt to provide some alternative festival or outlet like an Autumnfest or All Saints festival.

Pagan Festival?

One of the prominent issues comes up is whether or not Halloween has its roots in a pagan festival.  The short answer is that Halloween is not based on a pagan holiday. Instead Halloween has its origin as being the eve of the hollow day of all Saints Day.

Other Resources
Instead of writing a long post on the subject I thought I would share a few articles written by A few Catholic resources have a little bit more "street cred" than I do.

Word on Fire: Halloween and Catholicism

Catholic Answers: Halloween or Samhain?

About.com Catholicism - Should Catholics Celebrate Halloween?

Navarre Bible Commentary:Thursday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Thursday, October 31, 2013

30th Week In Ordinary Time

Luke 13:31-35

Herod's Desire to Kill Jesus

31 At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. 33 Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 35 Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism paragraphs 557, 575, and 585.

Commentary:

13:31–35 This passage is a record of two episodes. The first (vv. 31–33) seems to have occurred in the Perea region, which came within the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas (cf. 3:1); it was relatively close to Jerusalem. The second (vv. 34–35) seems to have occurred even closer to Jerusalem. The whole passage reveals a great deal about how Jesus saw his life. “Jesus freely accepted his Passion and death: ‘No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ (Jn 10:18). Hence the sovereign freedom of God’s Son as he went out to his death” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 609). Jesus is aware, moreover, that the failure of his mission to the Jews is only a temporary one, for the time will come when they will acknowledge him as the Messiah (v. 35).

The warning given by the Pharisees (v. 31) allows us to see (as happens elsewhere: see 7:36; 11:37) that Jesus had a lot of contact with them, and that even though he criticized their behaviour, he did so only to expose their faults so that they could correct them.

In vv. 34–35, Jesus lets us see how profoundly saddened he is by Jerusalem’s resistance to the love of God—a love of which there was much evidence. By using the simile of the hen and her chicks, he shows that his actions are those of God (cf. Mt 23:37–39 and note). St Augustine explores the meaning of this touching simile, saying: “You see, brethren, how a hen becomes weak with her chickens. No other bird, when it is a mother, shows its maternity so clearly. […] But the hen is so enfeebled over her brood that even if the chickens are not following her, even if you do not see the young ones, you still know her at once to be a mother. With her wings drooping, her feathers ruffled, her note hoarse, in all her limbs she becomes so sunken and abject that, as I have said, even though you cannot see her young, you can see she is a mother. That is the way Jesus feels” (In Ioannis Evangelium, 15, 7).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:Wednesday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

The Cross, The Narrow Way by David Hayward

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
Wednesday, October 29, 2013
30th Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 13:22-30

The Narrow Gate
[22] He (Jesus) went on his way through towns and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. [23] And some one said to him, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" And he said to them, [24] "Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. [25] When once the householder has risen up and shut the door, you will begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us.' He will answer you, 'I do not know where you are from.' [26] Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.' [27] But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!" [28] There you will weep and gnash your teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. [29] And men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. [30] And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."

Cited in the Catechism: In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium." He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are not cited in the Catechism.

Commentary:
23-24. Everyone is called to form part of the Kingdom of God, for he "desires all men to be saved" (1 Tim 2:4). "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience: those too may achieve eternal salvation. Nor shall divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to those who, without any fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God, and who, not without grace, strive to lead a good life. What- ever good or truth is found among them is considered by the Church to be a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 16).

Certainly, only those who make a serious effort can reach the goal of salvation (cf. Lk 16:16; Mt 11:12). Our Lord tells us so by using the simile of the narrow gate. "A Christian's struggle must be unceasing, for interior life consists in beginning and beginning again. This prevents us from proudly thinking that we are perfect already. It is inevitable that we should meet difficulties on our way. If we did not come up against obstacles, we would not be creatures of flesh and blood. We will always have passions that pull us downwards; we will always have to defend ourselves against more or less self-defeating urges" (St. Josemaria Escriva, Christ Is Passing By, 75).

25-28. As at other times, Jesus describes eternal life by using the example of a banquet (cf., e.g., Lk 12:35ff; 14:15). Knowing the Lord and listening to his preaching is not enough for getting to heaven; what God judges is how we respond to the grace he gives us: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 7:21).

29-30. Generally speaking, the Jewish people regarded themselves as the sole beneficiaries of the messianic promises made by the prophets; but Jesus pro- claims that salvation is open to everyone. The only condition he lays down is that men freely respond to God's merciful call. When Christ died on the cross the veil of the temple was torn in two (Lk 23:45 and par.), a sign of the end of the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. St Paul teaches: "For he [Christ] is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall [...] that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end" (Eph 2:14-16). Therefore, "all men are called to belong to the new people of God. This people therefore, whilst remaining one and only one, is to be spread throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the de- sign of God's will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as one" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 13).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." -- St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:Tuesday, 30th Week in Ordinary Time

A Little Leaven by James B. Janknegt

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

30th Week In Ordinary Time

Luke 13:18-21

The Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Leaven

18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”

20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism paragraph 2660.

Commentary:

13:18–21. The grain of mustard and the leaven symbolize the Church, which starts off as a little group of disciples and steadily spreads with the aid of the Holy Spirit until it reaches the ends of the earth. As early as the second century Tertullian claimed: “We are but of yesterday and yet we are everywhere” (Apologeticum, 37).

Our Lord “with the parable of the mustard seed encourages them to have faith and shows them that the Gospel preaching will spread in spite of everything. The Lord’s disciples were the weakest of men, but nevertheless, because of the great power that was in them, the Gospel has been spread to every part of the world” (St John Chrysostom, Hom. on St Matthew, 46). Therefore, a Christian should not be discouraged if his apostolic action seems very limited and insignificant. With God’s grace and his own faithfulness it will keep growing like the mustard seed, in spite of difficulties: “In the moments of struggle and tribulation, when perhaps ‘the good’ fill your way with obstacles, lift up your apostolic heart: listen to Jesus as he speaks of the grain of mustard seed and of the leaven. And say to him: ‘Edissere nobis parabolam—explain the parable to me.’ And you will feel the joy of contemplating the victory to come: the birds of the air under the shelter of your apostolate, now only in its beginnings, and the whole of the meal leavened” (St Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 695).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:Monday, 30th Week in Ordinary

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Monday, October 28, 2013

30th Week In Ordinary Time

Feasts of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles

Luke 6:12-16

The Mission of the Twelve

12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray; and all night he continued in prayer to God. 13 And when it was day, he called his disciples, and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles; 14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism paragraphs 880, 1577 and 2600.

Commentary:

6:12–13. The evangelist writes with a certain formality when describing this important occasion on which Jesus chooses the Twelve, constituting them as the apostolic college: “The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father, called to himself those whom he willed and appointed twelve to be with him, whom he might send to preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Mk 2:13–19; Mt 10:1–42). These apostles (cf. Lk 6:13) he constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. Jn 21:15–17). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all peoples (cf. Rom 1:16), so that, sharing in his power, they might make all peoples his disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf. Mt 28:16–20; and par.) and thus spread the Church and, administering it under the guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). They were fully confirmed in this mission on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:1–26) […].

Through their preaching the Gospel everywhere (cf. Mk 16:20), and through its being welcomed and received under the influence of the Holy Spirit by those who hear it, the apostles gather together the universal Church, which the Lord founded upon the apostles and built upon Blessed Peter their leader, the chief cornerstone being Christ Jesus himself (cf. Rev 21:14; Mt 16:18; Eph 2:20). That divine mission, which was committed by Christ to the apostles, is destined to last until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20), since the Gospel, which they were charged to hand on, is, for the Church, the principle of all its life for all time. For that very reason the apostles were careful to appoint successors in this hierarchically constituted society” (Vatican II, Lumen gentium, 19–20).

Before establishing the apostolic college, Jesus spent the whole night in prayer. He often made special prayer for his Church (Lk 9:18; Jn 17:1ff), thereby preparing his apostles to be its pillars (cf. Gal 2:9). As his passion approaches, he will pray to the Father for Simon Peter, the head of the Church, and solemnly tell Peter that he has done so: “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail” (Lk 22:32). Following Christ’s example, the Church stipulates that on many occasions liturgical prayer should be offered for the pastors of the Church (the Pope, the bishops in general, and priests) asking God to give them grace to fulfil their ministry faithfully.

Christ is continually teaching us that we need to pray always (Lk 18:1). Here he shows us by his example that we should pray with special intensity at important moments in our lives. “ ‘Pernoctans in oratione Dei. He spent the whole night in prayer to God.’ So St Luke tells of our Lord. And you? How often have you persevered like that? Well, then …” (St Josemaría Escrivá, The Way, 104).

On the need for prayer and the qualities our prayer should have, see the notes on Mt 6:5–6; 7:7–11; 14:22–23; Mk 1:35; Lk 5:16; 11:1–4; 22:41–42.

6:12. Since Jesus is God, why does he pray? There were two wills in Christ, one divine and one human (cf. St Pius X, Catechism, 91), and although by virtue of his divine will he was omnipotent, his human will was not omnipotent. When we pray, what we do is make our will known to God; therefore Christ, who is like us in all things but sin (cf. Heb 4:15), also had to pray in a human way (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, 3, 21, 1). Reflecting on Jesus at prayer, St Ambrose comments: “The Lord prays not to ask things for himself, but to intercede on my behalf; for although the Father has put everything into the hands of the Son, still the Son, in order to behave in accordance with his condition as man, considers it appropriate to implore the Father for our sake, for he is our Advocate […]. A Master of obedience, by his example he instructs us concerning the precepts of virtue: ‘We have an advocate with the Father’ (1 Jn 2:1)” (Expositio Evangelii sec. Lucam, in loc.).

6:14–16. Jesus chose for apostles very ordinary people, most of them poor and uneducated; apparently only Matthew and the brothers James and John had social positions of any consequence. But all of them gave up whatever they had, little or much as it was, and all of them, bar Judas, put their faith in the Lord, overcame their shortcomings and eventually proved faithful to grace and became saints, veritable pillars of the Church. We should not feel uneasy when we realize that we too are low in human qualities; what matters is being faithful to the grace God gives us.

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome

Navarre Bible Commentary:30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Sunday, October 27, 2013

30th Sunday In Ordinary Time

Luke 18:9-14

Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Cited in the Catechism:  In promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Blessed John Paul II explained that the Catechism "is a statement of the Church's faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church's Magisterium."  He went on to "declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion" (Fidei Depositum). Passages from this Gospel reading are cited in the Catechism paragraphs 588, 2559, 2613, 2631, 2667 and 2839.

Commentary:

18:9–14. Besides constancy, prayer requires humility. That is the message of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector: “When we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or ‘out of the depths’ (Ps 130:1) of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer. Only when we humbly acknowledge that ‘we do not know how to pray as we ought’ (Rom 8:26), are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. ‘Man is a beggar before God’ (St Augustine, Sermo, 56, 6, 9)."

Our Lord here rounds off his teaching on prayer. In addition to being persevering and full of faith, prayer must flow from a humble heart, a heart that repents of its sins: Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies (Ps 51:17), the Lord, who never despises a contrite and humble heart, resists the proud and gives his grace to the humble (cf. 1 Pet 5:5; Jas 4:6).

The parable presents two opposite types—the Pharisee, who is so meticulous about external fulfilment of the Law; and the tax collector, who in fact is looked on as a public sinner (cf. Lk 19:7). The Pharisee’s prayer is not pleasing to God, because his pride causes him to be self-centred and to despise others. He begins by giving thanks to God, but obviously it is not true gratitude, because he boasts about all the good he has done and he fails to recognize his sins; since he regards himself as righteous, he has no need of pardon, he thinks; and he remains in his sinful state; to him also apply these words spoken by our Lord to a group of Pharisees on another occasion: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (Jn 9:41). The Pharisee went down from the temple, therefore, unjustified.

But the tax collector recognizes his personal unworthiness and is sincerely sorry for his sins: he has the necessary dispositions for God to pardon him. His ejaculatory prayer wins God’s forgiveness: “It is not without reason that some have said that prayer justifies; for repentant prayer or supplicant repentance, raising up the soul to God and re-uniting it to his goodness, without doubt obtains pardon in virtue of the holy love which gives it this sacred movement. And therefore we ought all to have very many such ejaculatory prayers, said as an act of loving repentance and with a desire of obtaining reconciliation with God, so that by thus laying our tribulation before our Saviour, we may pour out our souls before and within his pitiful heart, which will receive them with mercy” (St Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, book 2, chap. 20).

Source: The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries. Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.

"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." St Jerome