“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord….” (Colossians 3:23)
This year’s Halloween outreach was such a great success! Sacred Heart Major Seminary has an annual tradition of opening its gates during Halloween to the community that it serves. This is one of the ways that the seminary has shown its love to the surrounding community by not only creating a safe environment for kids to trick-or-treat, but also by sharing God’s love to those whom we are called to serve.
This year’s Halloween fell on such a beautiful but windy day. This was noticeable when seminarians started to decorate outside trying to make the place look nice for the people we were going to serve. At first, the wind was very strong, the decorations seemed like they would never stay in place, but suddenly, it stopped. Warm weather followed, and it remained calm for the rest of the evening.
Another surprise we had while decorating was when people started to show up early! The line was already filling up at 1 p.m. even though the event didn’t start until 5 p.m.. However, we saw this as a blessing, an affirmation that the tradition seminarians are trying to keep alive is one that many in the neighborhood counted on.
We handed out over 200 bins full of candy to the community as well as donuts, apple cider, and other goodies for people to enjoy while in line. The people that came were so joyful and appreciative for this event . Music played, children had fun, cider was served, candy was given and prayers were offered making for a most beautiful evening.
While the neighbors who came to trick-or-treat were overwhelmingly thankful for the event, they weren’t the only ones who benefitted from the day, we seminarians felt great joy getting to see the smiles of the 2,000-3,000 people who came to receive candy. All were eager to participate in such a special event that has been going on for nearly 40 years.
None of this would have been possible without the support of the Archdiocesan parishes and their generous donations—the community was so appreciative.
As seminarians, there is nothing better than to have served the people of God and love them through our hard work and perseverance. There was nothing better than to know that when we served our neighbor, we served the Lord himself.
