This week, St. Michael's will be holding three significant events that all center around All Saint's Day - these three events are referred to as AllHallowTide.

It starts with Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, on the night before All Saint's Day (10/31). Traditionally, it was a vigil where the faithful would stay up all night praying and waiting for the next day. It also has many other expressions and is found in many cultures; for Christians in America, it is a mixture of fun and scary. We encounter death and mortality through costumes and fun fright (and sometimes we just dress up for fun). We mock death by dressing up as vampires, living dead, axe murders, or zombies - as though death holds no power over us. On October 31 we are hosting Trunk or Treat from 4:30-7:00 pm for all in the community.

However, the truth is that "to dust we shall return," and as we move through Allhallowtide, our next liturgy is one of remembering our loved ones who have come before -All Soul's Day. On Friday evening November 2 at 6:30 p.m., we will celebrate All Souls, or properly called The Commemoration of All Faithful Departed, with a Requiem Mass. We cannot mock and deny death any longer, and the truth is that death affects us all here and now. Each of us has felt the grief that comes with losing someone we love. All Souls is a way of remembering, celebrating, and grieving the loss of those we love but see no longer. Our choir will be singing pieces from the Rutter Requiem.

Finally, on Sunday morning November 4, we will celebrate All Saint's Day. Over the centuries, the church has identified individuals who have shown great faith in their lives and in their death, and serve as examples for us today. In particular, on Sunday we will honor St. Vincent of Spain, whose relic resides in our altar at St. Michael's. Vincent was a deacon, and adamantly professed his faith during the Great Persecution and suffered a cruel death for it at the hand of Emperor Diocletian. Even under the threat of torture and death, Vincent refused to burn the Scriptures and renounce his faith. Through each of these services we encounter something we like to forget: that each of us is mortal and one day our life will end. And throughout this triduum of celebration, liturgy, and grief, we also get to hear one more time of the saving love of God, who made a way for life even after our death. As the prayer book says, "even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia." (BCP 499).

We hope you have a chance to journey with us through this year's Allhallowtide.