The Liturgies at the Passing of a Loved One I have lost three loved ones in the past 18 months. First, my mother died suddenly
Read more
Category: Funerals/Burial
Webinar from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music to Launch June 21
The series is entitled, “Accompanying the Dying and the Dead in the Time of COVID”
Read moreYale Offers Summer Course in Music for Funerals
Professor Markus Rathey of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music will be offering a virtual one-week summer course on funeral music through the ages, as
Read more
“I want Westlife played at my funeral”
Many people outside Ireland still tend to think of Ireland as a Catholic country. However, I think that the days of identifying Irishness with Catholicism
Read more
Church and State, Remembrance and Commendation: The Funeral of HRH Prince Philip
Watching the funeral of Prince Philip today (like so many people around the world) elicited a sequence of often-conflicting emotions in this liturgist. In my
Read more
Why Commemorating the Dead in November Matters
I like to believe that titles are important. Not necessarily heraldic titles, though these can be equally amusing and impressive. Titles for books, however, need
Read more
Singing for the Dead: Pie Jesu
Soul-searing beauty has the power to permeate the places we so often guard, to allow the grace of God’s love to enter.
Read more
The Liturgies Marking the Passing of a Loved One
9/16/2019 – One Year Later It was one year ago this evening that I received an unexpected call from Life Alert saying that my mother
Read more
A Virtual Vigil and Wake in the Time of the Coronavirus
A Virtual Vigil It was a Monday morning when I received the news that a dear friend of mine had become “unresponsive.” She had battled
Read more
Ought we to consider readopting the catafalque?
At the moment many of us are at the survival setting and we just want to get through another day. However, whatever the resolution of
Read more