Monday 3 January 2011

If Mass is All About "Active Participation" Then What Do You Do at Your Funeral?

Celebrant: "He does not appear to be responding."
Just a thought...

14 comments:

OF Fan said...

You say your goodbyes. That's participating isn't it? Imagine a funeral in which none of the relatives turn up - it does't make sense to me. It might do to you, after all, the ceremony remains the same. But I would imagine no one (and this holds for all cultures, irrespective of religious conviction) would not want to participate in the event

Patricius said...

Why! A litugical danse macabre!

Mulier Fortis said...

One of the funniest ever - I laughed out loud (scaring people in the restaurant!)

Thanks for this one, Bones!

Ben Trovato said...

At my funeral I'll be the dead centre of attention.

The priests will wear black and the schola will sing the Missa pro defunctis from the Liber, and everyone will pray for my soul - which will certainly need it.

pelerin said...

Like Mac McLernon I too laughed out loud at this. I think OF Fan has missed the point though!

Andrew Plasom-Scott said...

OF Fan not only misses the point,he or she makes a silly one all of his or her own:

"Imagine a funeral in which none of the relatives turn up - it does't make sense to me."

I would be quite happy for my funeral Mass to be said by a sole priest with no congregation, if for some reason (say I died abroad) that were necessary.

For the Sacrifice of Calvary would be being offered for the repose of my soul, and in the priest the whole Church is acting on my behalf; and Christ himself is present.

'It might do to you, after all, the ceremony remains the same' -what a cheap and fatuous comment...

Adulio said...

One of the inherent disadvantages of the Novus Ordo is the need for a congregation. A Novus Ordo, celebrated versus populem without a congregation, is quite frankly ridiculous.

georgem said...

Pray that the place I end up is not hotter than the place I'm just about to go to.
Sorry to have to tell you, but OF Fan's post is even funnier than yours.

The Bones said...

"Hello, everybody! Thanks for all turning up. I've left some instructions about the Mass, but I'd just like to say I'm off for Judgement now. Crikey! I didn't see this coming! Byyyyyeeeee! Okay. You can start...Oh, and also with you. I wish I was still a lay reader, I used to love doing that, you know..."

OF Priest said...

Andres Palsam-Scott - mass with only a celebrant and no one else present would be against the rubrics. At least an altar server is needed according to the EF rubrics.

Andrew Plasom-Scott said...

OF Priest - perhaps you should have read what I posted a little more carefully (and even my name).

I said a sole priest with no congregation: that does not mean no server.

Could you, by any chance, be in any way related to OF Fan...?

OF Fan said...

Andrew Palsom-Scott misses my point (which was poorly put) when he says:

"I would be quite happy for my funeral Mass to be said by a sole priest with no congregation, if for some reason (say I died abroad) that were necessary." You might be, but your parents/children/friends/spouse wouldn't!

We also hold funerals so the living can say goodbye.


while we're on cheap and fatuous - let me just get this correct: you don't think funerals are held the world over so the living can part with their dead? You think we have to have a special ceremony so the dead can get into heaven? So you must think that God, if he does not see the ceremony take place, will prevent the soul of the deceased from entering His kingdom? You must do, or there would be no special significance to the ceremony itself

georgem said...

Yes, OF Fan it is preferable to be able to say a formal farewell to our loved ones. (That wasn't possible for the thousands who died on the battlefields in two world wars and those preceding. None of their bodies was repatriated and their families and friends obviously could not be present at the funeral and burial of the fallen.)
But surely the primary purpose of a Christian funeral service with, ideally, a Requiem Mass, is not about us and saying goodbye. Because if it is, then we are stepping into the realms of humanism.
Surely, it is to pray for God's mercy upon the soul of the faithful departed.
In fact, the more important rite, I'd have thought, is the sacrament of Extreme Unction in the hope that the Christian soul goes forth to face God.
Laurence was merely displaying a little New Year light-headedness, which is something we can handle, can't we?

Anonymous said...

He's not dead.He's "resting".Dead is so doom-and-gloom, hell-and-damnation pre-vatican two.

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