Evil at Our Doorstep
Dear All Saints Parish Family,
Since early September and in fever pitch now, the American cultural vibe has been to push Halloween themes. Some of this is wonderful and helps us mark the changing of seasons. Some of it needs to be avoided at all costs. Pumpkin Spice, harvest themes, sweater-weather, the KoC Pumpkin Patch…all great. But we need to be aware of, avoidant of, and intentionally fighting against the darker side of these weeks.
Perhaps initially inspired by the martyrs brutally murdered for the Faith and the themes of the grave, death, and dying, ghosts and spirits, something that was deeply Catholic and holy (All Hallows Eve) became more and more divorced from its sacred roots into a celebration of the occult…witchcraft and sorcery, demons and darkness, terror and horror.
And these powers are real. They don’t work like we see in movies, but the influence of evil is no less real. The devil works not by showing up as a red humanoid with horns and a pitchfork. He is a master deceiver, who whispers lies into the mind and heart. His main objective is to get us to fall again into the same slavery he tricked Adam and Eve into in the Creation narrative of Genesis…you cannot trust God. You should have the power to determine for yourself what is good, what is evil. YOU are the ultimate power.
Ask anyone who has dabbled in satanism…they worship themselves, their own bodies, their own passions, desires, their own will. They cloak their hedonism in altruistic language, like they exist to “promote justice” and “self-expression”.
Sometimes, though, the true colors come out. On Friday, October 25, the so-called “Satanic Temple of Atlanta” will host a Black Mass, which Archbishop Hartmayer denounces and against which he calls us to action.
“Even though tickets are being sold for this event as if it were merely some sort of dark entertainment, this satanic ritual is a serious sacrilege. It is a blasphemous and obscene inversion of the Catholic Mass. Using a consecrated host they claim they obtained illicitly from a Catholic church and desecrating it in the vilest ways imaginable, the practitioners offer it in sacrifice to Satan.
This terrible sacrilege is a deliberate attack on the Catholic Mass as well as the foundational beliefs of all Christians. It mocks our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we Catholics believe is truly present under the form of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist when it has been consecrated by a validly ordained priest.
I am calling on all Catholics of the Archdiocese of Atlanta to face this attack to our faith through prayer, penance and prayers of reparation. I am asking that each parish conduct a Eucharistic Holy Hour with Benediction to honor the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, ideally on Friday, October 25, at 9 p.m., or between now and October 25 as an act of reparation to this proposed sacrilege.
We commend our efforts to the Lord through the loving intercession of Mary, the Mother of God.”
We should take this stuff as seriously as the Lord Jesus Christ does. And He takes it very, very seriously. Please join me in a special Holy Hour of Reparation on Friday, October 25, from 9-10PM, praising the One True God, revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, worshiping His True Presence, and calling upon all the Holy Ones for protection against the evil at our doorstep.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever!
All you holy saints of God, pray for us!
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael Silloway
Pastor