November Cemetery and Grave Blessings

On the first Sunday of November the parish processes after Mass to the nearby cemetery to pray for the dead and bless the graves of departed loved ones, all in accordance with the rite in the Book of Blessings. I'm sure there's one in the more traditional Rituale Romanum but I think it's worth the reminder that this is very much part of the current practice of the Church, at least in theory. However, all of my parishioners have said that they never experienced this before I introduced it last year. I hope this brief post assists in promoting the practice.

Further photos at the parish facebook page.

Suicide - what does the Church say about suicide and the fate of those who have committed it?

As I mentioned in a previous post, suicide is becoming quite a problem here. I recently conducted a funeral for someone who had committed suicide. Naturally, family members asked about the Church's position on the fate of their loved one. All I could do was give them the Church's teaching on (a) the seriousness of the sin of suicide and (b) the possibility of circumstances such as depression, anguish, grief, in some way reducing the responsibility of the person who committed suicide and (c) how we must entrust the person to the mercy of God and pray for his/her soul very much.

Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us:

2280 Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.

2281 Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.

2282 If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law. Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.

2283 We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. the Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.

Funerals, Suicide, Hope and general thoughts

Suicide is becoming a rather too common occurrence. I have learned that if you read in the local paper that "NN died unexpectedly at his/her residence on dd/mmm" it is quite likely that the person committed suicide.

There is also a lot of gloominess with the number of deaths in the town at present.

A couple of thoughts have occurred to me which may or may not be fair. I'd be interested in readers' thoughts:

• This paragraph from my Easter homily:

To abandon faith is to abandon hope and ultimately to lose any sense of the purpose of life. To journey in faith is to live by hope, and to live a life of the deepest charity – love – united with the Risen Christ in this life, so that we shall live forever with him in the next.

• Where a local population is ageing and the birthrate is in decline, deaths/funerals are bound to outnumber births/baptisms. This will lead to a general gloom in the community, possibly perpetuating a cycle of despair.

Funeral liturgies at funeral homes do not quite do it in the way a funeral liturgy in the parish church does. In our parish, the parishioners love to provide hospitality (i.e. a good luncheon) for the family and mourners. We want to provide a dignfied liturgy with a choir and organist. We want to bring the body of the deceased person - who entered upon the "door of faith" when they were baptised - into the church where they began their lifetime journey of faith which leads inevitably to the "door of death" to eternal life.

The parish church is a sacred place where the Lord is present both sacramentally and spiritually. It is a place hallowed by the prayers of so many generations of faithful catholics. There is a natural experience of the Communion of Saints, so important at the moment of death and grief.

Having said that, the local funeral home is a very dignified one, run by a faithful catholic who does everything possible to ensure that the funeral is carried out with reverence. So I have conducted funeral liturgies there. I do, however, observe the liturgical norms fully. The funeral service is carried out in the same way as it would be in church: a crucifix in a prominent position, the symbols of the Gospel Book and crucifix placed upon the coffin, the people invited to stand and sit as they would in church. Of course, no one wants to sings hymns in the funeral home and so there is no music during the funeral liturgy itself (I will not have recorded music played while we just sit and listen), apart from the In paradisum which I sing whilst sprinkling the casket/urn during the final commendation.

While extending the warmest possible invitation to the family to have the funeral of their dearly beloved departed in the church, one cannot refuse to hold it in the funeral home, and there is always the possibility of reaching out to those who perhaps have fallen away from attendance at church or who are simply non-churchgoers. I have recently had a very good experience of encountering some good young people who are rediscovering the Christian faith in one or another denomination even if their parents/grandparents are not particularly diligent in attendance at any particular church.

I now experience the several generations of people who have been lost to the Church. Why did they leave? Did the upheavals in liturgy and catechetical formation of the last forty years have anything to do with it? I cannot help thinking it did. Good liturgy and clear teaching will strengthen the faith of those who come to church. As for those who do not experience the now happily re-reformed liturgy of their parish church, we need to find every opportunity of reaching out to them and giving them reasons for hope in eternal life.

Steve Jobs: Inspirational!

I think so. His Stanford University 2005 Commencement Speech is inspirational. OK, I think we can interpret his words concerning "dogma" in a way that we can accept: if someone tells you you can't fulfil your dream, ignore them.

I was particularly drawn by his comments on "joining the dots of the past" (you can't join the dots of the future - you have to trust - in God, we would say), beauty and death. If a man who clearly has no faith in God can inspire in this way, what ideals shouldn't we Catholics be able to inspire in our young people?

His life started off on a completely wrong footing, yet he achieved so much.

Perhaps not all in his life was consistent with how a Christian would seek to model his life, but whoever enjoys using an ipod, ipad, iphone, apple computer... has an opportunity - and an obligation - to pray with hope for the repose of the soul of this man.

The Souls in Purgatory

FOSS (Friends of the Suffering Souls) has sent an email round to its members telling them about the post I did two weeks ago. So that post has been receiving a higher than normal number of visits. Why not revisit it and see the comments FOSS members are leaving and be encouraged to join up yourself?

Be a friend to the Souls in Purgatory

By joining Friends of the Suffering Souls:

a Catholic Lay Association conducting a perpetual novena of Masses for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

This association was inspired by the 100 consecutive Masses offered for the Holy Souls by the Venerable Archdeacon Cavanagh, Parish Priest of Knock prior to the appearance there of Our Blessed Mother in 1879.

Each member undertakes to arrange at least one Mass each year for all the holy souls and our deceased member.

But you can arrange as many Masses as you wish for this novena.

It is our goal to reach an average of 100 Masses for the holy souls each and every day of the year.

You can ask any priest to offer Mass for the Holy Souls. The website also tells you which priests have indicated their availability to offer Masses for this intention. You can also check if any of the priests will offer the Mass in the Extraordinary Form if you prefer this.

Why was this removed from Masses for the Dead?

I had the good fortune to be able to celebrate my first Mass for the Holy Souls today privately in the Extraordinary Form in the Cathedral Crypt. (My second was the 12.10 at the Cathedral and my third will be at Big Bay this evening.) As I was reciting the Offertory, I couldn't help wondering why such a beautiful prayer is no longer offered for our good friends the souls in Purgatory. Here it is:

O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell
and from the deep pit:
deliver them from the lion's mouth,
that hell may not swallow them up,
and may they not fall into darkness;
may Thy holy standard-bearer, Michael,
lead them into the holy light;
* which Thou didst promise to Abraham and his seed.
V/. We offer to Thee, O Lord,
sacrifices and prayers:
do Thou receive them in behalf of those souls
whom we commemorate this day.
Grant them, O Lord,
to pass from death unto life;
* which Thou didst promise to Abraham and to his seed.

The prayer seems strangely inclusive, even daring to pray not only for speedy purification through Purgatory but the avoidance of hell of those who have departed.

I always find the 2 Machabees (12: 43-46) reading about Judas Machabeus (one of my favourites for funerals) strangely challenging on this point. Judas sent money for sacrifices to be offered that those dead soldiers who were found to have placed their trust in trinkets or charms rather than in God might be loosed from their sins.

The Church in its ancient liturgy seems incredibly daring and generous in its prayers for mercy to be shown on the departed, our brothers and sisters, without of course falling into any sense of universalism. There is a deep sense of solidarity and extraordinary charity, desiring that not one of the Lord's flock be lost. (Jn 6:37-40)

One might also wonder why the Dies Irae was expugned from the revised liturgy, with its beautiful cry:

What shall I, frail man, be pleading
Who for me be interceding,
when the just are mercy needing?

Yes, the faithful departed are justified, but who remembers their suffering in purgatory? The forgotten Souls in Purgatory ask you, ask me: who will intercede for me?

I see Father Blake has similar thoughts.

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Indulgences for November

It's good to be reminded that in the first week of November the Church grants indulgences to those who pray for the faithful departed as follows:

1st - 8th Nov: Visit a cemetery

On any day of the year an indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. From 1st to 8th November the indulgence is plenary; on other days of the year it is partial.

2nd Nov, All Souls Day: Visit a church or oratory

A plenary indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who on the day dedicated to the Commemoration of all the faithful departed, piously visit a church, a public oratory or -- for those entitled to use it -- a semipublic oratory. To gain the indulgence one must one Our Father and the Creed.

This indulgence can be acquired either on All Souls Day or, with the consent of the Ordinary, on the preceding or following Sunday or the feast of All Saints. (This is the case in my native archdiocese of Southwark).

Some helpful facts about indulgences:

• What is an indulgence?

An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned, which the follower of Christ with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquires through the intervention of the Church which, as minister of the Redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the saints.

• Partial and plenary indulgences

An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due sin.

• For ourselves or for the faithful departed?

We can gain indulgences for ourselves unless otherwise stated. The ones referred to above are specifically for the dead. Partial as well as plenary indulgences can however always be applied to the dead by way of suffrage. And this is a great act of charity towards our departed brethren, an expression of the communion of saints.

• How much temporal punishment is remitted in the case of a partial indulgence?

The faithful who at least with a contrite heart perform an action to which a partial indulgence is attached obtain, in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church.

• How many indulgences can we gain on any particular day?

A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once a day, unless one is at the point of death in which case one can gain a further plenary indulgence if one has already gained one that day. A partial indulgence can be acquired more than once a day, unless there is an explicit indication to the contrary.

• What must one do to gain an indulgence?

To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached (i.e. make the visits and recite the prayers mentioned above) and to fulfill three conditions : sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent.

If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will only be partial. Local Ordinaries can commute any of these requirements for those who are impeded from fulfilling them (e.g. by reason of age, or lack of access to confession, etc.)

The three conditions may be fulfilled several days before or after the performance of the prescribed work; nevertheless it is fitting that Communion be received and the prayers for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff be said the same day the work is performed.

A single sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences, but Communion must be received and prayers for the Supreme Pontiff's intentions recited for the gaining of each plenary indulgence.

The condition of praying for the Supreme Pontiff's intentions is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless the individual faithful are free to recite any other prayer according to their own piety and devotion toward the Supreme Pontiff.

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