Happy All Saints Day

103_korean_saints_1
Don’t forget to go to Mass if you didn’t go Monday evening.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

14 thoughts on “Happy All Saints Day”

  3. I was wondering because of the picture Jimmy posted. (Check the file name!)
    Thanks in advance if you are able to find out.

  4. My favorite day of the year. It’s autumn, the year is shutting down, we’re back on Standard Time, and it’s the only day in the year that I get to hear Ralph Vaughan Williams at my parish.

  5. Nice painting of St. Andrew Kim and other Korean saints!!!
    I’ve always admired Korean Catholicism. As far as I know, Korea is the only nation that was evangelized by books without any missionaries. (After reading several Catholic books, they sneaked some men into China to get them ordained.)

  6. Chanmi Yesu-nim! [Laudetur Jesus Chrsitus!]
    “All Saints’ Day” in Korean is “Modeun Seongin Daechuckil.”
    “Happy All Saints’ Day” might be rendered as “Modeun Seongin Daechuckil-eul Chukhahamnida,” but it sounds a bit awkward to my non-native speaker ear.
    And “pha” is correct; Koreans in a sense “self-evangelized.” Korean priests, the first of whom was Saint Andrew Kim Taegon, returned from China to spread the Faith. French missionaries later lent a hand. About 10,000 were martyred in 19th Century persecutions, 103 of these martyrs canonized. With a Catholic population of only about 8%, this gives Korea the highest per capita number of saints, if I’m not mistaken.
    Joshua Snyder
    Pohang, South Korea

  7. Err…
    What if I am not officially catholic yet? I’m still in RCIA and didn’t know it was a day of obligation.
    Also, what if I join the byzantine rite?

  8. What if I am not officially catholic yet? I’m still in RCIA and didn’t know it was a day of obligation.
    You can still go to Mass. November 1 is not over.
    Also, what if I join the byzantine rite?
    The Eastern Catholic Churches in the United States have different holy days of obligation from the Latin Church in the United States. Consult the laws of the Church you are joining.

  9. If you are a RCIA candidate, you are not a Catholic, thus are not obligated to attend Mass.
    Eastern Rite Catholics celebrate this feast day shortly after Pentecost. Consult a Eastern rite Calendar.
    Roman Rite Catholics who attend Eastern Rite, but have not formally changed rites, must attend Mass today.
    Missing Mass is a mortal sin, so if you happen to miss Mass, always make a visit to confession before receiving Holy Communion the next time you attend Mass. If Confession is not available, you must still attend Mass, but may not receive communion until such a sin is confessed.

  11. Meanwhile, I crawled out of bed half an hour early to make it to early morning Mass. Which was easier because I was skipping breakfast anyway, having managed to lose a temporary crown on Halloween candy, and eating was painful.
    I was afraid that with the dentist office opening at noon (when the downtown church had Mass), and open until 7 (when my parish has its evening Mass), there would be no other time.
    So — the dentist was able to get me in within half an hour, and I could easily have gone to evening Mass.
    Life is like that. 0:)

  12. Oooooh, Mary, I did that a few years back. I feel your pain. Besides the tooth pain there’s also the pain in the wallet.

  13. it is nice to meet God early in the morning specially in the celebration of the holy eucharist. i’m a seminarian and i like always to meet God early in the morning to thank Him for the gift of life that Godhas given unto me.Thanks!!!

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