All Saints & All Souls

School Mass

Dear  young people of St. John Vianney school, today is All Hallows Eve, also called Halloween. It means that it is the day we prepare for All Saints Day, tomorrow.  That’s what All-Hallows-Eve, Halloween, really means.

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Tomorrow is All Saints Day and Sunday is All Souls Day.  All Saints Day, we remember the great saints that have already succeeded in getting to heaven, such as St. Alphonsus, St. Bernadette, St. Francis, St. Maria Goretti, & St. John Vianney –  

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But we also remember the not-so-famous saints who made it to heaven.  People we love who have died, maybe grandparents or an uncle or a friend;  if they are up in heaven by now, then they are also saints.  A saint is anyone who makes it to heaven, so we all want to be saints.   

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On Sunday we will have All Souls Day; that is the day that we pray especially for people who have died but who have not made it to heaven yet.  

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If a person dies and is not fully in love with God, living a holy life, then they are purified before they go to heaven, and we call that Purgatory: the place to be purified.   I imagine if a person’s soul is in Purgatory, they have to think about their sins and  how they could have been a better Christian in this life.   

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When my brother was bad, my mother told him to go to his room to think about what he had done, I don’t know if your parents say that.  But I think Purgatory must be like going to your room; you have to think about your sins and be sorry for them, and you can come out and go to heaven when God says so.   

When I was young, if I asked mom, ‘Mom, don’t you think Joe has been in his room long enough? Can’t he come out now?’ ‘Well, mom might say, ‘ok, since you asked, he can come out early.’  

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If we pray to God, to allow someone we love to be finished with Purgatory, then God will let them out early!   But Purgatory is not just like being punished,  it’s a time to be healed from all the bad effects of sins.

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The great thing is, when a person is purified of their sins and gets to go to heaven, they are now called Saints,  and that is what we want to be.  We are having a saints party tonight downstairs; you have to dress up as a saint and be with a parent at the party.

But not only dress as saints, we are all supposed to become saints!   

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St. Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him one time, ‘Thomas, how can I become a saint?’ He said, ‘Just decide to do it.’  

If we try to be very good, to love Jesus and pray – do God’s will all the time –
then we will be great, we will be happy,  and we won’t even go to Purgatory, but straight to heaven.