Yes, there´s Halloween in Spain.
And although it was never a huge deal for me growing up, now I love seeing pictures of my nieces´ and nephews´ costumes…and of course, I never mind an excuse to eat chocolate. It’s the first year in a long time that I haven’t been trick-or-treating or given out candy. (We still got some American Halloween candy, though.) But I barely noticed because of what I was doing instead.
Among several members of my community, the idea developed to pray vespers together on October 31. We offered our prayer in reparation for all of the offenses that happen to the Sacred Heart that day, and to worship God in place of those who were not. As we came together around the Eucharist, it struck me how profoundly appropriate of a prayer it was to offer in reparation on that evening – precisely when so many people were using Halloween to celebrate evil, we were celebrating the true Christian feast of All Hallow´s Eve, joining in the prayer of the Church for All Saint´s Day.
The words of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary come to mind:
“Behold the Heart which has so loved men that it has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, in order to testify Its love; and in return, I receive from the greater part only ingratitude, by their irreverence and sacrilege, and by the coldness and contempt they have for Me in this Sacrament of Love. …Do you at least console Me by supplying for their ingratitude, as far as you are able.”
