Halloween

In the dark, we fear the dead that haunt our steps and our thoughts. Perhaps what really haunts us isn’t someone who has passed beyond the veil, but the suspicion that it will soon enough be us making that journey out of life. Halloween.

But Halloween ushers in the Day of the Dead/All Souls Day. On this day, we remember loved ones and how they sustained us. We honor and name those who came before us – the ones we commended to God’s love and laid to rest. They walk with us, in memory and in how we live in this world.

My favorite definition of the Church comes from Orthodoxy: it is the unbroken chain of prayer throughout time and space. We never pray alone because all who have come before pray with us.

Maybe a visit from the spirits isn’t so much a haunting as a prayer meeting…