October 31, 2016

My little reflection book today talks about this day of Halloween.  It says: “Halloween’s origin date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, the eve of their new year on November 1.  Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred, and the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.  Ghosts came to the doors of the living asking for forgiveness.  Until they were forgiven for harm they had done, they would never be at rest.  I have never forgiven that image of the spirits of the dead utterly unable to repay the living, begging for forgiveness,”

As I type, I am listening to the radio and they are talking about the big snowstorm 25 years ago when we got about 25 inches of snow in the Halloween Blizzard.  Do you remember it?  I remember.  I had gone to a Halloween party and had 6 plus inches of snow on my car three hours later.

The other day the little white posts with red tops were put along the driveways so the snow-plow-ers know where the edges of the roads are when the big snow fall comes.

Here are a few pieces of information that you probably don’t need to know.  What are baseball pitchers scared of? (Bats)  What’s a boxer’s favorite part of a joke?  (The punch line.)  What is a battery’s favorite football team? (The Chargers)   Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants? (In case he got a hole in one.)

The Music Center’s Halloween Recital on Sunday was lots of fun. Forty plus pianists and violin players entertained us for an hour.  Most of the musicians are in the beginning of their musical careers and the pieces were quite short…but easy to listen to.  Some of the players were dressed for the perfoirmances.

The Franciscan Community Volunteers were at the Motherhouse last weekend for a couple days of retreat.

The Grotto is very beautiful right now with all the plants in full bloom.  Thank you, Bev, for your work in caring for the flowers.

Last week about 30 volunteers got the Christmas Appeal envelops all stuffed and ready for mailing about Thanksgiving time.  I think they set a record by doing the job of readying 15,000+ envelopes in 2 ½ days.

Allen really got into the Halloween spirit when he came dressed for work today.  And some Sisters decorated cookies for lunch this noon.

I got my copy of the Minnesota Conservation Volunteer last week.  The cover is a picture of a lone fisher-person on a big lake trying to catch the big one.  Many years ago when the Sisters from Africa came to the United States, they were surprised to hear about ice-fishing.  I believe someone took them out one time.  All the clothing to keep warm was another surprise.

November 1^st is the Feast of All Saints—a time to remember those ordinary holy people who we know are Saints.

November 1^st is the 125^th anniversary of the creation of the game of Basketball in1891 by James Naismith in Springfield, MA.

November 1^st is also World AIDS Day.  Let us pray for all those people who have the disease.

November 2^nd is All Souls’ Day.  We pray for those who have died, that they may soon be admitted into heaven and have Eternal Life with the Lord Jesus.

Don’t’ forget to set the clocks back one hour Saturday night.

God bless you.                                                                                                                         Sister Mary Lou