All Saints Eve Halloween Party
We had fewer heavenly visitors attending our annual Halloween party last night, but there was no lack of creativity! Two sisters dressed as their patron saints: Sr. Joseph Maria arrived as St. Joseph, and Sr. Maria Julia came as Bl. Julia Rodzinska. Sr. Lucia Marie was St. Simeon the Stylite, an ascetic who built himself a pillar to live on top of in order to be alone with God in prayer. St. Simeon kept building taller pillars since people wouldn’t leave him alone, with the last one 50 feet tall. Sr. Mary Magdalene came as St. Margaret of Castello. St. Margaret was born blind and deformed, and her parents, ashamed of her appearance, first hid her and then finally abandoned her, leaving her on the steps of a church in Castello. She became a Dominican tertiary and devoted her life to works of charity among the poor, and to prayer and penance. She was never embittered by her sufferings, but rather allowed it to make her more compassionate towards the sufferings of others. And finally, not a saint, Sr. Natalie arrived as something “scary” — an out-of-order dishwasher! We spent a week and a half without a working dishwasher until it was fixed a few days before Halloween.
The novitiate sisters carved a couple of intricate pumpkin designs, with a monstrance on one and a “soap nun” on the other. The “soap nun” is the image we use as a logo for our Cloister Shoppe. It is a nun holding a recipe, drawn many years ago by one of our sisters now gone to the Lord.
Halloween colored cookies, candy, and sparkling cider rounded out the evening. And now today, we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints! May St. Joseph, Bl. Julia Rodzinska, St. Simeon the Stylite, St. Margaret of Castello, and all the saints pray for us, that we may one day join their number!
