Dancing? Saints???

It certainly caught my attention.
I subscribe to a monthly devotional. I guess you could call it that. It is titled: Give Us This Day and it is a publication of Liturgical Press. (And if this catches your interest, you can Google Liturgical Press for more information.)
This little publication contains a daily Morning and Evening Prayer, loosely based on the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily reflection on a holy person, the texts for each day's Mass followed by a reflection on the Mass texts. There are some other items included, but all in all, this is a simple daily devotional that can help with one's prayer.And having provided that commercial, back to the matter at hand.
What really grabbed my attention is the November cover, front and back, for this publication.
At first, I merely saw some saints, which, of course, would make sense since November launches with the Feast of All Saints.
Then I looked again.
And still again.
And then I realized it. I was right.
They are all dancing!
And there is even one playing a saxophone!
And I liked it!
Really liked it!
You know, all those pictures we see of angelic creatures floating around in the clouds, harps in hand!
That's a rather common image of heaven, isn't it?
And I just bet that really turns a whole lot of folks on (NOT!)
But why should heaven be depicted as boring to say the least?
After all we do have that New Orleans favorite "When the Saints Go Marching In," and that certainly has a beat.
And now this!
Dancing Saints!
The cover credit is given to a larger work, a mural by Mark Dukes titled, exactly, Dancing Saints. It is a work seen at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Fransisco, California.
What appears on that cover is a sampling of this larger work.
Naturally I Googled the church, found its site and began to learn more and more about the Dancing Saints.
On the church site is a listing of all the holy people depicted in this mural. Also to be found are brief biographies including, often, information about why they are included. Well worth the read.
You can check out the site for yourself. And as you do be sure to click on the brief video showing the entire mural with background music included.

ST. GREGORY OF NYSSA

And as I reflect on this art piece, I see captured something of the joy of heaven, the joy of the saints, the joy of our beloved who have gone before us and the joy that awaits us.
Why not?
Dancing Saints!
Brings to mind my Aunt Betty.
She has been long gone from us now but while she was with us, though she may have gotten a tad ornery and cranky in her later years, she knew the joy of dance.
She taught me how to dance, got me ready for my first school dance back in the ninth grade.
If she had no one else to dance with, she just danced by herself.
Dance spoke of life.
In her later years movement was often difficult. She had trouble just getting out of chairs.
I had a lift chair that once was my dad's. I offered it to her to help her.
She refused.
I can still hear her words from back then to me, "Someday I will dance again!"
Dance on, Aunt Betty! Dance on!
Join the Dancing Saints.

Clearing Out Purgatory

I am old enough to remember (and, perhaps, you are as well.)
I remember back in the day when we could annually clean out Purgatory!
Yep!
Clean it out!
Empty it!
Or at least come close.
Or so we thought and so we tried to do.
I am reminded of that time as we approach another November, a month to remember our beloved dead, a month that includes the Day of the Dead as well as All Souls' Day.
We had a chance in those days long ago to do our part in cleaning out Purgatory.
And let me say, we did take full advantage of it.
Purgatory Cleaning began at noon on November first, All Saints' Day and the period extended all through the following day, November second, All Souls Day.
We were assured that we could gain a plenary indulgence, which, it was believed, removed or remitted all temporal punishment due to sin.
And isn't that what Purgatory is all about - paying off that temporal punishment that is due.
To gain this plenary indulgence we had to enter a church, recite six Our Fathers, Hail Marys and Glory Be's, praying for the intentions of the Holy Father. We also had to go to Confession and Communion within a week. (In those days Communion was a very infrequent thing for many.)
Fulfill those requirements, you got a plenary!
However, you could not use it for yourself!
It had to be intended for someone in Purgatory!
That meant release! Freedom for someone in Purgatory! Full pardon!
That is what we understood "plenary" to involve.
So that visit to church, those prayers and Sacraments sent someone soaring out of Purgatory and straight into Heaven!
Glory be!
And that happened as often as you entered a church, said those prayers and named a beneficiary
from noon November first all the way to the end of November second.
Know what many of us did?
You guessed it!
In and out of church and in and out again and again and again and repeat.
Purgatory Cleaning was well under way.
Oh, there was one theological note of concern.
What if someone for whom our plenary was intended was no longer in Purgatory?
Theology had an answer for that, of course.
Then God could use that plenary for someone else, someone who needed it, perhaps someone now long forgotten.
And interestingly, for us just to be safe, the following year we would be at it again. We would still keep sending those plenaries for people we remembered the previous year. No worry. God could take care of things.
Can you imagine: every year on November third outside the Gates of Purgatory the sign would appear: "Vacancies!"
I suspect that even these days there is someone still making those plenary visits this year.
In many places now, while we still celebrate All Saints and remember All Souls, something different is to be found.
Sometimes it is a special Mass, sometimes it is a special prayer service. Sometimes these include candles or crosses marked with the names of the community's deceased from that year.
We gather to remember and we should gather, not just those who have lost loved ones in recent months but all of us. We are a community. We gather to remember and support and show faith and hope and most of all love for one another and for those who have gone before us.
Love has power, an incredible power.
Love has the power to transcend even the boundaries of death itself.
And love has the power to set free!
It was love that inspired us in days of old and it is love that inspires us still to profess that death does not have the final word.
Our loved ones and still our loved ones.

Guess you can forget it!

For the past few days I have been inclined to do some more writing, a new blog post. Each time I did not, at least not until today. And as I pen these words, it occurs to me that the idea I had the past couple of days, well, you can just forget about it.
Actually, the idea was quite unrealistic even yesterday or a couple of days ago. Nevertheless, it was a thought.
And that thought got hit with pure, simple reality today.
We are approaching mid-October and here in Michigan the days of October have been marked with temperatures initially in the 80's and then easing into the 70's. It was actually possible to keep the heat off and open windows.
Sleeping with windows open in October in Michigan! Unreal!
Which led me to my "idea."
I was going to suggest that the time draws near when we can start ordering palm tree saplings!
Palm trees in Michigan!
Awesome!
And then today arrived and it is time to don a jacket, shut the windows and turn on the heat.
That is Pure Michigan - in October.
Forget ordering those palm trees!
But the idea of palm trees in Michigan - well, that just invites comments on climate change. Is it getting warmer? Colder? Drier? Wetter?
Is the climate changing?
That is a issue which, of course, some still do not believe.
We can have icebergs and glaciers melting at record pace.
We can have a heat wave baking most of Europe as never before.
We can have historic floods in Texas and storms in the Caribbean.
We can have young Greta Thunberg pleading before the United Nations.
But still we have a debate with regard to the reality of climate change.
Maybe we need a new viewpoint, a change of vocabulary.
Maybe we need to speak of Ecological Responsibility and Stewardship.
Just days ago we remembered and honored Francis of Assisi, that great and humble man who in word and deed reminded us that all of creation is deeply interrelated and that we are stewards of Mother Earth.
In recent times we have had from Pope Francis his encyclical to the world, Laudato Si, a letter not just to Catholics but to all people again reminding us that the world - air, seas, lands, resources - are not our possessions but our care, our trust, our sacred trust. We are caretakers, stewards.
Presently in the Vatican a unique Synod is taking place. The topic under consideration is
The Amazon - its resources, people and importance - all a sacred trust.
We need to come to the realization that The Environment and its care is not a political question.
It is a moral matter, an ethical question, a concern for religion.
If we are to be truly "Pro-Life," then we must be Pro-Environment, Pro-Ecology.
We look for things that can unite us.
This should be it.
We all share the same air.
We all share the same earth.
We all share the same water.
We all share the same responsibility to care for and consider sacred the very things that sustain us.
And we all share Ecological Responsibility and we are all Stewards of God's creation.
Amen!