Mourning
in g e n tl e lig h t
by Fr. Daniel P. McCarthy, OSB
When I suggest to the bereaved that we receive the body of their beloved deceased into church during a candlelight vigil, their gut reaction is: “Yes! We want that.” I knew the beauty of this service could offer consolation to the grieving. In December 1993 I was appointed pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Bendena, where Abbot James grew up. I was charged by Abbot Owen, to prepare the parish to become part of a grouping of three parishes, before I left to pursue further studies in liturgy at Sant’Anselmo in Rome, where I now teach. Eighteen months later I was appointed pastor also of St. Charles Parish, Troy, and St. Joseph Parish, Wathena, forming the tri-parishes of Doniphan County Kansas. The difficulty in developing the funeral practices of a parish lie foremost in not pressuring or offending people in their time of grief, but also in gradually developing a vision for renewed funeral practices suited to these people and their community. Eventually a family agreed to celebrate the funeral vigil, which is basically the Liturgy of the Word, but I soon realized that we would have to pick two different sets of readings, one for the vigil and the other for the funeral mass, and, even more daunting a task, I would be expected to give two homilies. At other times we celebrated evening prayer for the dead first from the official book, and then we borrowed the monastic practice of the Abbey, but the contemplative liturgy of the abbey was not well suited to the more active celebration of a parish. The key insight came during a course I took on the Liturgy of the Hours at Notre Dame. I learned that the monastic celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours is different from the cathedral or parish tradition. What we needed, I realized, was to revive aspects of the parish celebration. This is what we came up with: At evening twilight, while tolling the bell, we brought the casket to the baptismal font at the entrance of church where the
Easter candle was already lit. After all had gathered, I sang “Christ our Light” and all responded “Thanks be to God.” We passed the flame from the Easter candle around – the candle-light gave a gentle comfort to all present. Then we sang the hymn Now Fades All Earthly Splendor to the tune of The Church’s One Foundation. I then sprinkled the casket with holy baptismal water directly from the baptismal font itself, perhaps from the very font where the deceased had been baptized. Several women next clothed the casket with the funeral pall. Because the funeral pall corresponds to the baptismal garment, and thus to the alb, it should not be designed to coordinate with the cope or chasuble of the presider. We carried the casket further into church and set it before the altar. During this procession we sang the Subvenite, rendered as “Receive her/his soul, you angels” arranged by Joan Wingert. The angels receiving and presenting the deceased before God parallels our carrying and presenting the body of the deceased to God in prayer. We sang the same hymn as we carried the body out of church at the end of the funeral mass. In order to introduce this hymn to the parish communities, we sang it at mass as the conclusion to the prayers of the faithful first after notification of someone’s death and again when the bereaved attend mass following the funeral. I have never seen an assembly sing this beautiful piece so well. Evening prayer continued with an offering of incense and singing Psalm 140/141, As Incense Let my Prayer Arise, sung to the tune of Amazing Grace, as we burned incense in an earthenware bowl placed on the altar. Next we sang one or two other Psalms in the form of hymns such as On Eagles’ Wings. After each psalm we observed a period of silence, followed by an invitation to pray. All stood for a psalm prayer composed to reflect the inspiration of the
Fr. Daniel McCarthy became a monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey in 1983. He is a lecturer in liturgy at the Pontifical Liturgy Institute, Sant’Anselmo, Rome and the Liturgy Institute, London. He is a guest professor at the Catholic University Leuven (KU Leuven). He writes and lectures on mass prayers, church architecture, and the Latin language. You can attend Fr. Daniel’s lectures on designing or renovating a church for the celebration of liturgy. The First Liturgy Week Architecture for Liturgy I will be held Monday-Friday, January 20-24, 2020 at the St. John Paul II Center, Denver Colorado. www.architectureforliturgy.org/liturgy-week-1 Read his book on designing church interiors for the celebration of liturgy: Come into the Light, available from the abbey at Kansasmonks.org/shop 12
S t. B e n e d i c t ’ s A b b e y
