At the sorrowful times, it is quite difficult to know what to do. Please be assured that the Parish is by your side with sympathies, prayers, and support. Just give the Parish Priest or the Parish volunteers a phone call, you will be safely guided through the procedures.

 

The Church earnestly recommends that the pious custom of burial be retained, and it is good to have a Requiem Mass with the community in the Catholic Church. However, due to pastoral circumstances, funerals can be celebrated anywhere within the boundaries of the Parish, or at the crematorium. If you would like OLOL&SJF Parish Priest to celebrate a funeral outside the Parish boundaries unless it is at a crematorium, permission from the parish priest(s) of that location / building is required.

 

Please bear in mind that ‘At the funerals of its children the Church confidently celebrates Christ’s paschal mystery. Its intention is that those who by baptism were made one body with the dead and risen Christ may with him pass from death to life. In soul they are to be cleansed and taken up to heaven with the saints and elect; in body they await the blessed hope of Christ’s coming and the resurrection of the dead… Because of the communion of all Christ’s members with each other, all of this brings spiritual aid to the dead and the consolation to the living. As they celebrate the funerals of their brothers and sisters, Christians should be intent on affirming with certainty their hope for eternal life.’ (Rite of Funerals)

 

Therefore, Church funerals are to be celebrated according to the liturgical books. If you would like to have an Order of Service, please speak to the Parish Priest about it. He will help you to have a proper format whether it is a Requiem Mass or an ordinary Funeral Service without Mass.

 

It is the practice in the Catholic Church that the faithful visit cemeteries where the bodies or ashes are buried and pray for the dead, especially on or around All Souls Day. You may wish to ask the Parish Priest to bless the gravestone / headstone in memory of the deceased.

 

It is also the custom of the Church to have Mass said for the dead, especially on their anniversaries. Please contact the Parish Priest for Mass to be said for the repose of the souls of your loved ones.