And the year turns again...

Here we are again, staring down the last few months of the year, watching the harvest ripen in the field, while the leaves change and the days grow cooler and the nights grow longer. 

It's October and that brings Halloween. Already in the stores and in many homes, elements of "the spooky season" can be seen. Werewolves, witches, spiders, ghosts - they are all in profusion. And although I know that I have a very different perspctive on Halloween than most Catholic bloggers, I still maintain that all these visual reminders can be a good, even healthy thing for us. Sure, most of the Halloween items around us are promoting impulse buying and even a descent into things that are not good for us (I mean, no one is THAT naive), but nevertheless, these images of ghosts and goblins and skeletens continue the long tradition of being aware of our own inevitable physical deaths, and even more importantly, of becoming aware of our own spiritual deaths as they are today.

All of these images serve both purposes - they remind us that ultimately we will have to take stock of our actions and decisions, but more importantly, they remind us to take a spiritual inventory of where we are right now. It is certainly possible to be physically alive but spiritually dead - spiritually in the form of a witch, werewolf, ghost or goblin. The Walking Dead is more than just the name of a tv series. 

And it is especially important to take stock now, in October, because November is approaching quickly!  The month of November is the month when we, as a church, pray for all the dead who have gone before us. But let's not constrain our prayers to just those who are physically dead (as important as that is). Let's also pray for those who are spiritually dead, that they may experience a resurrection now. 

So rather than just dismissing all these reminders of death and doom, why not use the month of October to take a serious look within? Are we entertaining werewolves, vampires, and their kind unawares?  Do they, in reality, journey with us for most of the year?  Don't let October and "the spooky season" pass without reaping its benefits and the wisdom it has to offer.