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I recently heard a marketing expert explain how Halloween is one of the biggest consumer holidays of the calendar year. Many people love this day and decorate for it a month or more in advance of Oct. 31. In fact, it seems that, apart from Christmas, Americans spend more money on Halloween, tricks and treats, decorations and costumes, than any other holiday. Why this fascination with zombies (bodies without souls), ghosts (souls without bodies), tombstones, witches, wizards, monsters, animated pumpkins and scarecrows? Some sociologists allege that the reason for America’s growing fascination with the macabre, the occult and the dead is rooted in the erroneous notion that Halloween is a secular holiday. It is divorced from anything to do with family life, race, creed or sexual orientation. Nothing could be further from the truth, at least the part that asserts Halloween is a purely secular holiday. Perhaps in some circles, this is true but not the origins of Halloween, which takes us back more than 2,000 years ago to a tribe called the “Celts” that inhabited all of Ireland, most of the British Isles and part of France. The Celts celebrated the beginning of the new year on Nov. 1. This day symbolized the end of summer and the onset of winter. It was the time of the harvest. Celts believed that on New Year’s Eve, Oct. 31, the ghosts of the dead could roam the land from sundown on Oct. 31 until sunrise on Nov. 1. On Samhain, as this night was called, it was believed that the ghosts of the dead would rise from their graves, cause pranks and possibly ruin the harvest. To ward off these annoying spirits, the Celts wore costumes, usually made of animal heads and skins. They built a bonfire and paraded around the cemeteries of their dead until sunrise on Nov. 1.

Whoever thought that when we were saving our coins to help the missionaries in far-off lands, 30 or 40 or 50 years later, these missionaries would be working in our parishes? Yes, we, the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world, have become one of those “missions” that we envisioned only in third world nations of Africa, Asia and South America. How did this happen?

She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin was only 15 when she entered the Carmelite Monastery and was given the religious name of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.The only book of hers, published after her death is a brief edited version of her autobiographical journal called “Story of a Soul.” Within 28 years after her death, however, the public demand was so great that she be made a saint that Pius XI canonized her on Oct. 3, 1923.

Some of the early fathers of the Church were labeled “Apologists” because the focus of their work was on a defense of the faith or, more specifically, a defense of the teaching of the Church on a particular tenet of faith or morals. If we take a look at the work of the apologists, they were not against Greek philosophy but desired to show that Christianity and philosophy were not mutually exclusive. In addition to Origen and Tertullian, early Christian apologists include Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria. St. Athanasius and St. Augustine.

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the “New Evangelization.” To what does this phrase refer? It is an effort by priests, deacons, religious and laity to renew Catholics whose faith is stagnant. Many of these are practicing Catholics who do the minimum. They attend Mass regularly but their faith turns off when the liturgy ends. Once their faith is awakened and dynamic, these same individuals, in turn, go out and share their faith with non-practicing Catholics who feel marginalized, estranged from or hurt by the Church.

In 1980, I made my first retreat at Loyola House in Morristown. This period of recollection was entitled a “silent directed retreat” because the entire experience was to take place in a setting of silence, with periodic conferences with a retreat director. I decided on Loyola House because discerning a vocation to the priesthood, in my mind, required silence. I needed to remove all the distractions of daily life that could prevent me from hearing God’s “voice,” such as radio, TV and phones.

On Thursday, August 1, a pall was cast over the state of New Jersey as Governor Phil Murphy signed “Death with dignity” legislation into law. This made physician-assisted suicide legal. Should one who is “terminal” get the okay from a psychologist, who will assure that the person is of sound mind and right judgment, he or she can then request from a physician, a prescription of a death-inducing drug. Advocates for the law believe that those who are suffering from a terminal illness or condition can then choose when they end their lives “with dignity.”

The first evidence for the existence of deacons would be in Philippians 1:1 where they appear as a permanent ministry in the community, as they work under the bishops. If then the apostles, prophets and teachers can be traced back to Jewish (Hebrew-speaking Masoretic) traditions, the bishops and deacons appear to be rather in the Hellenistic (Greek-speaking Gentile) communities

On June 9, 1985, I was ordained a transitional deacon. What does this “transitional” imply? Following four years of college and three more years at the major seminary, I was called to holy orders by the Bishop of Metuchen. A bishop only calls a man to become a transitional deacon if it is his intention that following one year as a deacon, he would then ordain this man to the priesthood.

Last weekend the Church celebrated the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as “Corpus Christi.” This feast makes me nostalgic for a summer I spent in Portugal as a young priest. There, the feast in honor of the Eucharist was held on a Thursday, not on Sunday as it is in the United States. Also noteworthy is that the solemnity is called “Corpo de Deus,” or “Body of God.”

Theology of the body: Part seven of a nine part series “Admittedly, Christians have not always appropriated and developed the spiritual treasures bestowed by God upon the Church, where the life of the spirit is not dissociated from the body or from nature or from worldly realities, but lived in and with them, in communion with all that surrounds us.” (Pope Francis, “Laudato Si’,” pa. 216)

Many Catholics are still ambivalent about confession. In conversing with some Catholic adults, I was astonished to hear how people were reluctant to go to confession because they do not remember the words used in the confessional. These adults are embarassed to ask the priest confessor for help in making a good confession.

In this column, I thought that I would address a dilemma, which many of us, who have loved ones with a terminal disease or irreversible condition, face: “When is it ethical to withhold or withdraw nutrition and hydration?” The problem actually becomes less complicated if we make a distinction between medical treatment and palliative care. Medical treatment would include artifi cial substitutes for irreversibly broken-down body functions, such as kidney dialysis, a respirator, the installation of a mechanical heart, a feeding tube when used as a substitute for a malfunctioning alimentary system.

In light of the laicization of Theodore Mc-Carrick, some Catholics whose children or grandchildren were baptized or confirmed are wondering if the sacraments administered by McCarrick are still valid. “Must these individuals be re-baptized or reconfirmed?” Many couples who asked Mc-Carrick to officiate at their weddings are also puzzled by the sacramental status of their marriage. “Do they need to exchange vows again in front of a priest and two witnesses?” Then there are those, like me, who were ordained to the transitional diaconate and later to the priestshood by McCarrick.

In praying the Litany of Loreto, one of the titles ascribed to Mary is “Ark of the Covenant.” We find this title used in I Chronicles: 15:3-4,15-16 and 16:1-2. In this Scripture, the human author, in concert with the divine author, the Holy Spirit, pens an image of the honor associated with this ark, which, much like a tabernacle, housed the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments Moses received on Mt. Sinai. Jews believe that these tablets came down from heaven and were placed into the hands of Moses. As such they interpret this gesture as a gift from God to his chosen people.

October is the month of the rosary. A meditative prayer that has long been a part of Catholic piety has been for many of us an effective means to diminishing anxiety. Despite the current craze surrounding coloring mandalas or practicing mindfulness, the rosary has been with us since it was revealed to St. Dominic in the 13th century.

On September 11, 2001, we can all remember where we were when the Twin Towers crumbled. We can recall vividly how horrified we were as we watched on television the videotaped images of the towers as they collapsed, as people fleeing the scene were chased by huge, gray clouds of debris. We can all remember how shocked we were to learn that another plane hit the Pentagon—and yet another went down near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In a couple of weeks, volunteers from the pews of every parish will begin their first class of religious education as we do all things: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Much preparation goes into what each catechist offers his or her students. There is no winging classes for children who, in all likelihood, are seated before them after having been through a full day of public or private school.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, born near Lodz in Poland and ordained a Franciscan in 1918, had the conviction that the world was going through a time of intense spiritual crisis. As such, Christians, he believed, were called to fight for the world’s salvation through all means of modern communication, both print media and broadcast journalism. He founded a newspaper called the Knights of Mary Immaculate, which spread quickly through Poland and abroad.

Relatively nothing is known of St. James the Great’s early life, though it has been accepted by most scholars that he was the son of Zebedee and Salome and brother of Apostle John. The Church appended the title “Great” to St. James’ name to distinguish him from the apostle, St. James the Less. The title does not imply that the former was more important than the latter, it simply accentuated a fact, theformer was older than the latter.