Since I first encountered it in my high school days, the Requiem Mass has been my favourite Roman liturgy. Within it are gathered the mysteries that attend human life from beginning to end: grief at our loss, hope for better things hereafter, the promise of reward in Christ, the plea for forgiveness and the terrible possibility of hell. There is comfort in facing our mortality in such a beautiful setting. Here is a grief as sweet as laughter. The Requiem teaches us how to face death with Christian courage. Something of that courage should also belong to Halloween.