One Last Mass

Does your family know that you want a funeral mass when the time comes? It may not necessarily be a given so it is something that needs to be discussed now, regardless of your age or health.  If your closest family members do not practice the Catholic faith, will they know that this is something you want and will they follow through when the time comes?

While this can be part of pre-planning your funeral so that all arrangements are made and paid for, it also can be just a simple discussion with your spouse, children, siblings or closest friend.

With the number of practicing Catholics dwindling, unfortunately, the absence of funeral masses for loved ones is a byproduct. I recently read a Facebook post where someone was asking how to go about getting a priest for a funeral mass as she knew this was something her parent wanted.  It made me wonder how many other people either do not know if their family member belongs to a parish or what is involved in scheduling a funeral mass. Hopefully, the funeral home was able to assist in this question.  It also is comforting to know that this person knew enough to ask and did not just bypass the religious component of the funeral.

  I was blessed with parents who practiced their faith in the same parish for 50 years and that faith was instilled in me so there were no question marks about a funeral mass – it was a given and I knew where to go and what to do.   However, I know this is not always the case and at some point, either a spouse or siblings or children of a deceased family member will be left trying to figure it out and may opt to bypass the mass altogether.  And I find that sad.  For those of us baptized Catholic there are memories of First Communions, Confirmations, Baccalaureate masses, May processions, Forty Hour devotions, and funeral masses for family members, neighbors and friends. So much of our lives revolved around The Catholic rites of our faith. I would like to think that those whose Catholic faith is important to them would have an opportunity for one last mass – a funeral mass - to celebrate their life with friends and family congregated together around the altar of our Lord. So, this is just a suggestion to broach the topic if it is important to you.

   All I know is I believe there are multitude of things to be sad about at the end of life, but not to have the opportunity for one final mass could be the saddest.