The Feast of All Souls

This is the first picture I have taken and managed to get out of my camera and onto my blog, all by myself. It is what I saw today when I walked into St. Anthony's Church for the first All Souls Day Mass I have ever been to in my life.

What a sight! Right away you can tell that whatever is going to happen, it is going to be no joke. In the background you can see the six candles I wrote about back in the supernatural month of October, the six candles they burn at every High Mass.

I wish I could have taken pictures of the actual ceremony but I would have felt weird taking out my camera. But it was something. The priest wore black vestments and there were powerful and beautiful chants going back to the third century, and clouds of incense. The idea is that you pray for all the souls who have gone before you. The Mass lastnight focused specifically on all the dead associated with St. Anthony's Church, which includes Leonard Pennario because his parents were married there. Anyway it is a very emotional thing.

Pennario loved the Latin Mass and Gregorian chant. We had that in common.

Back to my All Souls experience. Here is what I could not get over: When the Mass was over, the priest walks out and everyone leaves and what you see in the picture, it just stays there. The candles are still burning, there in the empty church. When I got in my car and I was back in the world again, the busy city with traffic and bars and lights on all over downtown, I looked back at the church, and I thought of what was in there. Talk about a funny feeling!

I think this is a fine note on which to put to bed our supernatural month of October. We went a little bit over because it is now November 3 but what can I say, my life being the way it is, there were a lot of things to cover. There are many things I did not even get to.

We will have to do this again next year!