I am fascinated by the music lists that my liturgical music pals come up with for their own funerals…Most of these same folks are surprised when I say that my instructions are “Do whatever music helps you remember, grieve, and celebrate.”
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Category: Funerals/Burial
A Conveniently Delayed Funeral
In as a commodity driven society as is the United States, does a growing practice of delaying funerals inadvertently turn death into something that “fits into our schedules?” Does it communicate, “While grandma’s death was inconvenient, her funeral will not be.”
Read moreLiturgy Concerning Suicide
Those who minister at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in central London have devised a liturgy for those affected by suicide or attempted suicide. A description of the
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Civic celebration or Christian funeral? The memorial for Sen. John McCain
It was a lab for what we do and what we believe about death and liturgy, and an incredibly confusing one at that.
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A Place to Mourn – for Those Who have Lost “Their” Place
How and where to mourn – visibly, noticeably, publicly – when there is no cemetery that houses your beloved dead, and no public memorial to those you left behind?
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Viewpoint: Are Eulogies Allowed at Funeral Masses?
The funeral planning meeting is no place to argue liturgical principles, lay down the law, and provide an outright refusal of the request for someone to give a eulogy at Mass. This creates bad feelings that can ripple through the family for years. But it can be an occasion to explain as gently as possible the principles involved and come to a solution which can keep everyone relatively happy.
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Liturgy Lines: Music for Funerals
While a place might be found for an appropriate secular song at a Catholic funeral, it is the message of Christian hope that should predominate in the music chosen.
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Blessings Animals — and Burying Them, Too?
Will there ever be a Christian form of burial for our beloved animals?
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Tolling Bells for Justice
Imagine an entire city of bells, ringing once every five seconds, each solemn chime as an offer of consolation for every gun shot, a symbol of dignity accorded to every life lost to injustice.
Read moreLiturgy Lines: Catholic Cremation and the Columbarium
One could even imagine some elements of the rite of committal being incorporated into the Sunday Mass with a final procession to the columbarium.
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