Halloween, Marching Saints, Tuba, It's Some Kind of Doctrine...

 I don't think anyone has invited me to a good Halloween party in a long time. I'm talking about a party like the ones they used to have 45 years ago at that big old house out in Woden, Tx. There might be reasons for that lack of invitations and after all the house did burn down but it has not keep me from costuming. Maybe the last real Halloween party I was invited to was one I threw myself.  

Halloween is kind of a high holy day for us and I have written about all that stuff before. I asked Cathy to marry me this day. Granny Wallace was born on Halloween as was our daughter Rose, Cathy's brother John, cousin Tommy as well as several of our friends. 

Oct 31st this year as I was invited to zero parties but we did play at the Anticipatory Mass for Nov. 1st All Saints Day. Every year Cathy lets me play tuba for the Saints Go Marching In. Actually this year she also let me play tuba on "Dos Esta Aqui." I really appreciate my Pastor Father Denzil. He's unflappable when he comes into the church and sees a guy sitting there with a tuba. Instead of  being concerned that things are going to get out of hand Liturgically he says, "where's Mary with the drums?" I promise next year to work on adding a little more swing to Saints. 

This past weekend I played at another local church. The music was good, the people are my friends and I got to eat a good meal and socialize afterwards. 

I did see something yesterday that reminded me to forgive and keep my mouth shut which is what I did when the visiting pastor who gave the sermon got things all wrong about Catholics, Saints and relics. I mean there might have been some confusion a few hundred years ago on these subjects but failable human mortals who usually have more things in common than things different keep moving forward and trying to get things right. Who am I to get in a contest on who has said the right thing and the wrong thing. I might win. 

Just for the record, for All saints Day I'll borrow something my friend Deacon Gary whose birthday also happens to be on Halloween wrote:

Why do Catholics ask the saint to intercede for them? Isn’t this just a false doctrine created by man? Why would we ask a “dead” person to pray for us, instead of just asking God directly? Jesus is the only one who saves us, so why do Catholics do this?

Many non-Catholic Christians believe that it is wrong to pray to the saints, claiming that our prayers should be directed to God alone. True worship (as opposed to veneration or honor) does indeed belong to God alone, and we should never worship man or any other creature as we worship God. But while worship may take the form of prayer, as in the Mass and other liturgies of the Church, not all prayer is worship. When we pray to the saints, we’re simply asking them to help us, by praying to God on our behalf, or thanking them for having already done so.

Now some may take this as a grain of salt being that the good Deacon also thinks that the Dallas Cowboys are the best football team but anything you want to know about what a major faith or religion believes is on some kind of official website that just sits there ready to educate and inform with out making big headlines or lots of noise. Even if you are a non believer it will not hurt you to know stuff.

November is a month that the Catholic Community traditionally remembers those who have died. My mom has been gone three years this month. Undoubtedly she is a Saint in Heaven. My dad, a pretty good guy even though prone to occasionally do what we called "cussing and rarin" is probably in Heaven and who would not want a guy "cussin and rarin" on their behalf to the powers that be. Cathy's parents, Linda and Bill were people of faith and despite all Bill's banjo playing they did good things all their lives. There I said it. Banjo players are good people.

I didn't get invited to a party last night but I got away with playing tuba at Mass. With all that's going on in the world I think we should work on swinging our tunes a little more, getting Mary playing drums for Father D and find out why in the heck there is a town in east Texas named after the The Germanic chief god, distributor of talents and god of wisdom and war.