October leaves and November enters the scene....
October leaves and November enters the scene....
The last weekend of Respect Life month, we are praying for victims of Domestic violence and human trafficking. It is against the commandment of love. The violence against another person is a failure to treat that person as someone worthy of love. An article from the United State Bishop’s says, “We focus here on violence against women, since 85 percent of the victims of reported cases of non-lethal domestic violence are women. Women's greatest risk of violence comes from intimate partners—a current or former husband or boyfriend.”
Today human trafficking is a new form of slavery. The United Bishops Conference says, “Human trafficking violates the sanctity, dignity, and fundamental rights of the human person.” They state that every nation is affected by this disease—the United States is no exception. We all are called to love God and love one another. It is the essence of our discipleship. The month of October, we were reflecting and praying, especially through the devotion to the Rosary, on the dignity of human life from the womb to tomb.
All Saints Day and All Souls Day: In the month of November the Church invites us to pray for our loved ones. We celebrate November 1st as All Saints Day and November 2nd is All Souls Day. The Church has three realms. The church on earth is called militant church because we are in a battle between good and evil; the souls in purgatory are called suffering church because they are in a purifying state to fully experience God’s glory and the saints who have already entered in the heavenly glory are victorious or triumphant church.
All Saints Day is a feast honoring all Christian saints – known and unknown. All Saints Day is Holy Day of Obligation. We will have Mass on November 1st at 8:30 am at St. Anthony, at Noon at St. Francis and 6 pm at Immaculate Conception. On All Souls Day we remember all those who have gone before us. The souls in purgatory, they need our prayers to help their purification and to attain heavenly glory. On November 2nd we will celebrate a special Mass at St. Cecilia Cemetery at 11:00 am for all souls. We celebrate a Mass of Remembrance on November 3rd in the respective parishes in our cluster.
We ask saints to intercede for us. We pray for our loved ones who have gone before us. Every Mass there is a place we pray for our loved ones. Please remember your loved one every Mass. Another way to pray, the Church invites us to offer Mass in their name. It costs $ 20.00, but it takes conscious thought and action to do it.
The 30th Sunday readings talk about restoration of life: in the Book of Jeremiah, liberating the Israelites from Babylonian exile and in the Gospel restoring the sight of a man who was blind. In the first reading Jeremiah promises the return of the Israelites to the Promised Land. Their God is the one who walks with them, leads them through smooth roads, so no one will stumble including people who are blind, lame, mothers with their child. “God said, Ephraim is my first-born” (Jeremiah 31:9). In the book of Exodus 4:22 it says, “So you will say to Pharaoh, thus says the LORD: Israel is my son, my firstborn.” God calls Israel ‘my son’ two or three times in the Bible, but “Son of God” always refers to Jesus Christ.
The first reading prepares us to listen to the Gospel, the healing of the man who was blind, Bartimaeus. The Gospel passage is about the restoration of sight at the same time, it is a marvelous instruction on prayer. Bartimaeus not only cried out to Christ with a strong faith, but he was persistent in his prayer. In another way to look at it, he could Jesus more clearly than anybody else. Many asked him to be silent, but he could see Jesus restore his sight. Israelite knows when the Messiah comes, he will come from the house of King David and the rightful heir to his throne (Isaiah 9:7 and Ezekiel 34:23-24). They believed that he would possess the power to heal the sickness and exercise demons (Matthew 15:22). The healing ministry of Jesus was part of his leadership of a “new exodus” out of bondage to sin into the freedom of the sons of God in the heavenly Zion.