On the Beach - Wait - The Beach?!

Chuck sent me this picture of himself on his quad "on the beach" in Oregon, near Florence. Brrr....

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Blessed All Saints Day, and All Souls Day

Since entering this Post I've re-read it, and made a few changes to it to help distinguish and clarify the two Feast days which are confused here.

All Saints Day is a feast day, when Catholics pray to all the Saints, known and unknown, to honor and glorify them, and ask for their help and blessings. The Saints in Heaven are called The Church Triumphant.

The Feast of All Saints Day, on November 1st, is a Holy Day of Obligation when Catholics go to Mass, Feast, and celebrate the Saints of the Church. 

The Vigil, or day before, of this Feast is now called Halloween (All Hallow's eve, or Holy Eve), it's practice today is not Catholic, but the Vigil is.

vig·il

ˈvijəl/

noun

2.(in the Christian Church) the eve of a festival or holy day as an occasion of religious observance

1. 
   

   
   

   
   

All Souls Day, November 2nd,  as the pictures below show, each country has its own activities and celebrations for these feast days, but during the next 8 days after All Souls, Catholics focus on our dearly departed family and loved ones, pray for the 'beatific vision' for them, and celebrate God's great gift of giving them to us, and try harder to follow their good example. Those in Purgatory are called The Church Suffering. They can't pray for themselves, they rely on our payers.

All around the world, Catholics (Catholics on earth are called The Church Militant) pray for the souls of the departed at cemeteries leaving votive candles and flowers All Soul's Day and for the next eight days.

 'The Day of the Dead' or 'Dia di Muertos' in Mexico, the 'Bones of the Dead' or 'Ossa di Morto' from Italy are just two off-shoots of All Souls Day. Here are some pictures of the different celebrations from around the world. (www.catholic.org has more information about this Feast and how it's celebrated around the world.)

The Japanese Saints/Martyrs.

The Catholic Church does not 'make' saints, she raises up saints from amongst sinners like us, declares their teaching is free from error, can be followed by the faithful, and the miracles associated with them are verified. The Church plays 'Devil's Advocate' during the process, and it may take centuries for the 'saint' to go through the entire canonization procedure. It's a very exhaustive and thorough process, because the Church is declaring, when she announces a saint, that they have reached 'the beatific vision'.

X O X

Happy Christ The King Feast Day!

This is the time of year when Catholics celebrate many feasts, the most important being The Solemnity of Christ the King, with hopefully, a large and beautiful Mass, Processions by Catholics through towns all over the world, and of course, FEASTING! 

Here are some pictures of Processions from around the world. There are some really great Procession videos from Spain and Italy on YouTube.

'The Church Militant...'

Catholic processions are very old, and probably come from Ancient Roman processions.

As the Mexican Martyrs say, 'Viva Cristo Rey!'

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Snow!

Waking up to this, and a lot of frozen coldness, fills us with excitement tinged with dread this early in the season. We could still have some warm days before our real snow begins the last week of December. In the meantime, just in case we don't have warm days, we had better hurry and finish our winter preparations.

This used to be my garden, obviously it's gone - to be replaced with a lawn in Spring. I already went through the 'pain of separation' this past summer. It was hard 'parting', but my gardening days are over!

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She Who Must Be Obeyed

Needless to say, Elmer the dog, got his curiosity handed back to him by Cricket the Barn Cat after this picture.

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The Dog Days of Autumn

Elmer found the only sliver of sunshine in the
cold side yard this time of year.


Each day, weather permitting,  Elmer stays in the north facing, side garden, where he is king! He runs, sniffs around lot, buries his bones, sleeps in the sun and guards me.

Our Fall colors are especially deep and beautiful this year. Here's the same garden this morning.

Happy Fall!

Guess What's Coming?

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Happy Feast Day St. Francis!

St. Francis and the Animals

St. Francis Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is error, the truth;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning, that we are pardoned;

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

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