Holy Cross

It was brought home to me  especially last year when my husband died and there was a funeral to arrange.   It is not something one does every day.   However with Father Pat’s help  I chose the readings  and the hymns to be  used with the familiar and disciplined ritual of the Requiem Mass.    His expert knowledge of  the computer enabled the order of service to be sent to the undertakers to be printed.  The funeral Mass  was an uplifting, prayerful, and comforting occasion:  an important rite of passage.

With Father Pat officiating, my cousin, Canon Devane took part in the service. Our son  and younger daughter read the lessons. Seven of the grandchildren  delivered the bidding prayers.   Two other grandsons with our nephews acted as pall bearers.  In his kind and intuitive homily Father Pat captured the essence of what it was to be Aidan, and all that he meant to me and to our family.  My elder daughter paid tribute.   The pièce de résistance  was Father Pat’s singing of Panis Angelicus.   As one of my sisters said, “Eat your heart out Pavarotti”. 

I am very grateful to Nicholas Lane , the organist, for providing the music, and to Philip Smyth and to the undertakers, Chelsea Funeral Directors, for the dignified way they played their part.  Afterwards one or two of my non-Catholic friends said “Please may I have a Catholic funeral when my turn comes.”   All I can say is “Thank you, Father Pat, for making what could have been a sad day into a very special occasion, when those of us who were mourning were fortified by the rites of  the church.”

Mary Laing