Today marks the beginning of the “Days of the Dead”—a spiritual triduum spanning All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), All Saints’ Day (November 1st), and All Souls’ Day (November 2nd). For the faithful, these days, also known as “Allhallowtide”, are a profound, annual invitation to contemplate the reality of eternity and the spiritual bonds that connect us across time.
A thousand years ago, the Christian church recognized the wisdom of ancient traditions, like the Celtic Samhain, which observed these days as “thin times”—moments when the veil between this world and the next world felt most easily traversed. It is a moment of liminal space, or a sacred threshold, that opens us up to a deeper reality.
The Sacred Moment: Past, Present, and Future
Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, highlights that these “thin times” gather the past, present, and future into one especially holy moment. We are called to awareness of deep time, realizing that our ancestors—those who lived and struggled before us—are still in us and work through us. This is the truth proclaimed in our creeds: the Communion of Saints.
To live in the Communion of Saints means realizing two liberating truths simultaneously:
- Our goodness is not just our own, nor is our badness just our own. We are intrinsically social beings. We carry the lived, unlived, and unhealed histories of our parents and grandparents. It truly takes a village to create a person, and modern genealogy confirms this truth genetically.
- We are part of a Great Whole, yet just a part. This perspective frees us from unnecessary individual guilt and releases us from taking ourselves too seriously. We are not the entire story, but a very small and critical piece of a very Big Thing.
In the New Testament, this “thin time” is called the “fullness of time”—the moment of readiness when God’s reign is announced (Mark 1:15). As we observe these holy days, we are invited to stand on that threshold, honoring the full cycle of life and acknowledging that we are partners in God’s triumphant parade through history (2 Corinthians 2:14).
May this Hallowtide remind you of the sacred connectedness of your life, honoring your past while stepping boldly into your future, secure in the knowledge that you are never alone.