Halloween at the Heart

Around 2,000 excited Halloween-goers poured through the doors of the seminary for the annual Halloween in the Neighborhood outreach, October 31.

Yet again, Sacred Heart offered a safe place for the children of the neighborhood surrounding the seminary. The kids came to enjoy games and costumes, to be prayed-with, to receive a holy card or a rosary, and, of course, to go home with a bucket-load of candy. And the seminarians don't mind having an excuse to re-live their youthful dreams by dressing up as Spiderman, Fred Flintstone, or even Waldo.

Despite the rain, the crowd was, by all accounts, the largest the seminary has ever seen. Superman and his friends began lining up two hours before the doors opened and the line stretched around the block for the entire three and a half hours of the event. (Even a four-year-old Pope John Paul II made his first visit to the seminary since his 1987 trip to Detroit and offered his apostolic blessing!) It was such a pleasure for the seminarians to be able to welcome so many people to their home. Halloween in the Neighborhood would have been impossible, however, without the generosity of parishioners and school students and parents in the Metro Detroit area who donated much of the candy.

Halloween coordinator Adam Nowak commented how amazing it was that, despite the bumper crowd, the candy lasted to the end with nothing left over. God is good! Adam said, referring to the candy supplies and also to the blessings God gives to the seminarians. It's great for us to have a chance to interact with the neighbors on such a fun level and hopefully show them Jesus, too. There was a lot of openness to prayer, and a lot of smiles tonight.