November, 2014 - Overview for the Month
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The month of November is dedicated to the Souls in Purgatory, whose feast is celebrated on November 2. With the exception of the last Sunday, November falls during the liturgical season known as Ordinary Time and is represented by the liturgical color green. The last Sunday, which marks the beginning of the Advent season, the liturgical color changes to purple, representing a time of penance.
General: That all who suffer loneliness may experience the closeness of God and the support of others.
Missionary: That young seminarians and religious may have wise and well-formed mentors. (See alsowww.apostleshipofprayer.net)
The feasts on the General Roman Calendar celebrated during the month of November are:
The Gospel readings for the first four Sundays in November 2014, are taken from St. John and St. Matthew and are from Year A, Cycle 2. The last Sunday in November 2014 is taken from St. Mark and is from Year B, Cycle 1.
 During November, as in all of Ordinary Time (Time After Pentecost), the Liturgy signifies and expresses the regenerated life from the coming of the Holy Spirit, which is to be spent on the model of Christ's Life and under the direction of His Spirit. As we come to the end of the Church year we are asked to consider the end times, our own as well as the world's. The culmination of the liturgical year is the Feast of Christ the King. "This feast asserts the supreme authority of Christ over human beings and their institutions.... Beyond it we see Advent dawning with its perspecitive of the Lord's coming in glory."— The Liturgy and Time, A.G. Mortimort
This month the main feasts are the Solemnity of All Saints (November 1), All Souls (November 2), St. Martin de Porres (November 3), St. Charles Borromeo, (November 4), Lateran Basilica (November 9), St. Leo the Great (November 10), St. Martin of Tours, (November 11), St. Josaphat (November 12), St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (November 13), St. Albert the Great (November 15), St. Elizabeth of Hungary (November 17),Presentation of Mary (November 21), St. Cecilia (November 22), the Solemnity of Christ the King(November 23), St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions (November 24),St. Catherine of Alexandria(November 25), and.
The feasts of Sts. Margaret of Scotland and Gertrude (November 16), Sts. Clement I and St. Columban(November 23), and St. Andrew (November 30) are superseded by the Sunday Liturgy.
 The national holiday (USA) of Thanksgiving also falls on the last Thursday of November. There is a special liturgy which may be used on this day. (Read morehere.)
The tradition of eating goose as part of the Martin's Day celebration was kept in Holland even after the Reformation. It was there that the Pilgrims who sailed to the New World in 1620 became familiar with this ancient harvest festival. When, after one year in America, they decided to celebrate a three days' thanksgiving in the autumn of 1621, they went in search of geese for their feast. We know that they also had deer (a present from the Indians), lobsters, oysters, and fish. But Edward Winslow, in his account of the feast, only mentions that "Governor Bradford sent four men on fowling that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours." They actually did find some wild geese, and a number of wild turkeys and ducks as well.
The Pilgrim Fathers, therefore, in serving wild turkeys with the geese, inaugurated one of the most cherished American traditions: the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day. They also drank, according to the ancient European tradition, the first wine of their wild-grape harvest. Pumpkin pie and cranberries were not part of the first Thanksgiving dinner in America, but were introduced many years afterward.
The second Thanksgiving Day in the New World was held by the Pilgrims two years later, on July 30, 1623. It was formally proclaimed by the governor as a day of prayer to thank God for their deliverance from drought and starvation, and for the safe arrival from Holland of the ship Anne.
In 1665 Connecticut proclaimed a solemn day of thanksgiving to be kept annually on the last Wednesday in October. Other New England colonies held occasional and local Thanksgivings at various times. In 1789 the federal Congress authorized and requested President George Washington to proclaim a day of thanksgiving for the whole nation. Washington did this in a message setting aside November 26, 1789 as National Thanksgiving Day.
After 1789 the celebration reverted to local and regional observance for almost a hundred years. There grew, however, a strong desire among the majority of the people for a national Thanksgiving Day that would unite all Americans in a festival of gratitude and public acknowledgment for all the blessings God had conferred upon the nation. It was not until October 3, 1863, that this was accomplished, when President Abraham Lincoln issued, in the midst of the Civil War, a Thanksgiving Proclamation. In it the last Thursday of November was set apart for that purpose and made a national holiday.
Since then, every president has followed Lincoln's example, and annually proclaims as a "Day of Thanksgiving" the fourth Thursday in November. Only President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date, in 1939, from the fourth to the third Thursday of November (to extend the time of Christmas sales). This caused so much consternation and protest that in 1941 the traditional date was restored."
Exerpted from the Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, Francis X. Weiser
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Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Highlights
November 26
Christ the King  This feast is a public, social and official declaration of the royal rights of Jesus, as God the Creator, as The Word Incarnate, and as Redeemer.
The Hungarian version of pot roast. Known as gulyás in Hungary, this is a stew made with beef or other meat and vegetables and flavored with Hungarian paprika. This is offered in honor of all the saints who come from Hungary.
This is a good day to celebrate with your family. If there are children involved, saints costumes, goodies and games such as bobbing for apples or snap apples (a variation) and playing "Whose my Saint" are suggested.
Symbols
The crown refers to sanctity, the scrolls with the inscription Sanctus allude to the chant of the redeemed, "Holy, Holy, Holy." The left half of the shield indicates the brightness of the Heavenly life in contrast to the black right half and the trials of the earthly life.
The patron of Russia, Scotland, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. According to tradition St. Andrew was crucified on an X shaped cross, known as a saltire of St. Andrew's cross, in Achaia.
This emblem, a heart with wings and piereced by a sword and suggestive of Mater Dolorosa, is a reference to the words of Simeon, "Yea, a sword shall pass through thine own soul also."
Patron of chastity and learning. The wheel set with spikes refers to that mentioned in the legend, which is said to have been broken by divine interposition, when persecutors attempted to break her upon it.
The only apparent reason for her to be known as the patroness of music is that St. Cecilia is said to have been skilled in singing the divine praises, oft accompanied by an instrument.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
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