Old-fashioned "sad" funeral

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Hello,

I couldn’t think of a better subject title.

Is there a link somewhere that has readings for an old-fashioned “sad” Catholic funeral, like the type with black vestments, etc…

English, not Latin.
 
Karl_M said:
Hello,

I couldn’t think of a better subject title.

Is there a link somewhere that has readings for an old-fashioned “sad” Catholic funeral, like the type with black vestments, etc…

English, not Latin.
Click to expand...
“old fashioned” implies you are speaking of the Tridentine Mass, in which case the funereal would be a Solemn High Requiem Mass, which is in Latin. The Tridentine Mass cannot be said in the venacular.

latin-mass-society.org/westminstercath.htm - look at the first lot of pictures on this link, of a Solemn High Requiem Mass in the Tridentine rite. I think this is the “old fashioned” funereal you were implying.

The Latin Mass really shouldnt be reffered to as Old fashioned…
 
I couldn’t think of a good way to describe it, but I think you know what I mean.

I don’t know if it’s exactly the Tridentine Mass. I mean in English, it has what has been called “sad” music. And there’s a part that has something to do with the congregation singing while Angels take the deceased up to heaven.

I’m piecing together tidbits of a vague memory, but I hope that helps.
 
Karl_M said:
I couldn’t think of a good way to describe it, but I think you know what I mean.

I don’t know if it’s exactly the Tridentine Mass. I mean in English, it has what has been called “sad” music. And there’s a part that has something to do with the congregation singing while Angels take the deceased up to heaven.

I’m piecing together tidbits of a vague memory, but I hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about the end of the funeral Mass where the priest incenses the coffin? At my aunt’s recent funeral, the priest walked around the coffin, singing something to the angels to “send up her soul to God the most high” or something along those lines. It was beautifully heartbreaking. If that’s what you’re talking about, I’d love to find the words to that.
 
I just threw out all my funeral links from my father-in-law’s. Drat the luck.
 
The English words to “In Paradisum:”

*May the angels lead you into paradise
May the martyrs come to welcome you
And take you to the holy city
The new and eternal Jerusalem

May the choirs of angels welcome you
Where Lazarus is poor no longer
May you have eternal rest.*

The setting I know of this is by a contemporary composer named Howard Hughes. It’s just lovely.

Just an aside - the Lazarus referred to is not the one Jesus raised from the dead, but the one in the story of Dives and Lazarus - the rich man who ignored the poor man. Lazarus, the poor man died and went to be comforted in the Bosom of Abraham. The rich man died and went to hell. He asked God (to no avail) to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water to cool his tongue. As they say, people in hell want ice water!

Betsy
 
Hello,
Click to expand...
I couldn’t think of a better subject title.
Click to expand...
Is there a link somewhere that has readings for an old-fashioned “sad” Catholic funeral, like the type with black vestments, etc…
Click to expand...
English, not Latin.
Click to expand...
Well not a link, but at my AU parish, the priest will use black vestments at funeral mass and the black cloth over the coffin (I can’t remember the name of the cloth). Altar boys will also use the black cassocks. One or twice a month, he does celebrate a low requiem mass with black vestments and also the altar boys will wear the black cassocks instead of the regular red. Also the altar boys wear black during Advent and Lent.
 
I remember Requiem funderal Masses quite well. I do, however, think it’s a mistake to characterize them as “sad” Masses. I was just an impressionable kid at the time, but I did not think of them that way.

Some years back, my daughter wrote a college paper; perhaps in psychology. It was a comparison of Mozart’s “Requiem” and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ “On Death and Dying”. It was fascinating how Mozart’s Mass contained every single element in Kubler-Ross “enlightened” analysis, though Mozart actually contained more than did Kubler-Ross. Ultimately, my daughter demonstrated some ways in which Mozart (and the Church, as Requiem Masses had a particular liturgy pattern, no matter who wrote the music) had a better understanding of death than did Kubler-Ross.

I can’t repeat what my daughter wrote. Wish I could. It was very complicated, and she received an A+ and a rave review by her professor. But what she said fit what I remembered about the Requiem Mass.

Yes, there are “sad” parts. But the “sadness” is a respectful sympathizing with the natural, and inevitable, sadness of those who were close to the decedent. There is one “terrifying” part; the “Dies Irae”. (“Day of wrath, day of mourning…”) Reminds us, the living, of death and judgment, so that the decedent’s situation was instructive to us, and thus had more meaning that perhaps we supposed. There were “comforting” parts. The “Requiem” itself was soft and comforting; almost a lulaby. “Eternal rest grant to him/her O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him/her.” Very peaceful and accepting.

There was definitely an upbeat aspect to it, as the congregation committed the decent’s soul to God; prayed for the decedent and expressed hope and trust in God.

Others might have thought so, but I didn’t find it “sad” at all, except to the extent that it acknowledged we were already sad at the loss of a loved one, or even a fellow human being we might not have known. Seems to me acknowledging that sadness is a natural part of the mourning process; something we should not ignore or pretend away.
 
what is really sad is a funeral where the music does nothing to express either what the family is feeling, or hope in the resurrection that sustains them in their grief, but is in such a grating modern arrangment and performance that it grates on the nerves.

It is sad when even very close family and friends can’t find time to come, or if they do come, act like they are the center of attention and forget the reason they are there. It is sad when the grieving spouse gets lots of support as long as there is still a lot of free food in the house to eat up, but a week later can’t get a phone call or a visit even from her own kids, unless it is to quarrel about the estate. yes, there are a lot of real sad funerals.
 
I am sorry to follow myself here, but I remembered something else. I’ll tell it, then quit.

There was a part called the “Voca me”. That means “hear me”. It begins on almost a desperate, drowned out note, arising out of another hymn called the “Confutatis”, which is overwhelmingly powerful and speaks of confusion; a feeling of being lost. It is the voice of the soul facing the overwhelming power of judgment and eternity. It is acknowledged smallness calling on the Ultimate Greatness…“hear me” “hear me”. It is the soul crying out from the threatened anihilation of death to the Source of Life. “Hear me”. The voice gains strength as the hymn progresses, and ultimately overcomes the “Confutatis”. It is the imperfect soul asking for mercy from Ultimate Goodness and Mercy. “Hear me”

And that expression reflects exactly what we feel in the presence of death. We feel small. We feel helpless. We feel directionless. We feel confused and lost. In our powerlessness we call on God…“Hear me”. We are then assured that God does, indeed, hear us. We are comforted.

I’m sorry to go on like this, but to me, the Requiem Mass is inexpressibly beautiful; one of the most beautiful things ever devised by man; more brilliant than everything all the psychologists ever born, put together, have been able to come up with.
 
Servulus

Thanks, you are correct. I was going to say pall but wasn’t sure.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Some years back, my daughter wrote a college paper; perhaps in psychology. It was a comparison of Mozart’s “Requiem” and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ “On Death and Dying”. It was fascinating how Mozart’s Mass contained every single element in Kubler-Ross “enlightened” analysis, though Mozart actually contained more than did Kubler-Ross. Ultimately, my daughter demonstrated some ways in which Mozart (and the Church, as Requiem Masses had a particular liturgy pattern, no matter who wrote the music) had a better understanding of death than did Kubler-Ross.
Click to expand...
I would love to read your daughter’s paper. Any chance she might post it to a website or blog somewhere, or send it to a Catholic magazine?
 
Ridgerunner said:
I can’t repeat what my daughter wrote. Wish I could. It was very complicated, and she received an A+ and a rave review by her professor. But what she said fit what I remembered about the Requiem Mass.
. . .There were “comforting” parts. The “Requiem” itself was soft and comforting; almost a lulaby.
Click to expand...
In my elementary school the children’s choir often sang these requiem Masses for morning funerals.

But I never fully appreciated the power of the music until my brother’s funeral, a requiem Mass for a young priest. The first strains of the “Requiem” hit me in a new way; they were not sad but more like a comforting waterfall, expressing the feelings which I could not.
 
I think that is one of the greatest losses we have experienced as a Church-the Requiem Mass. I have never been to one, but I love the music. It expresses much more than some lame-o rendition of “On Eagle’s Wings” and a sappy eulogy (which shouldn’t be there as per the rubrics).

It is sad, sure, but so much more than sad, rather it transcends sad. I would say that the proper Catholic expression of death is the most profound understanding of Man’s final end as expressed through the individual’s final end through the ceremony of Holy Church. Nothing can compare.

Being shot out of a cannon, or shot into space, or having your ashes scattered over the ocean, being mummified, having the latest sappy pop songs played etc. all just try to glorify the person-and it is all in vain. People today seem to want too much psychobabble, flowers, and other “things”-but you can’t take “it” with you and “it” is not very efficacious to the survivors.
 
JimG said:
In my elementary school the children’s choir often sang these requiem Masses for morning funerals.

But I never fully appreciated the power of the music until my brother’s funeral, a requiem Mass for a young priest. The first strains of the “Requiem” hit me in a new way; they were not sad but more like a comforting waterfall, expressing the feelings which I could not.
Click to expand...
my first impulse when I realized what I was watching on TV one morning in September 5 years ago was to kneel down and pray the rosary. The second impulse was to turn down the TV sound and play Verdi’s requiem as I watched the continuing coverage.

I also watched our dear late pope’s funeral on a TV in an airport lounge during a long layover and was strongly affected by the responses and attitude of the viewers, most of whom where clearly not Catholic, and the beauty of that Mass and its ability to affect and move people, instill awe and respect. the televised funerals of firefighters and other 9-11 victims also exposed people to the beauty and wisdom of the Church’s funeral liturgies, but you are right, remembering the funeral of Pres. Kennedy, the beauty of the “old” funeral, a real requiem, cannot be surpassed.

I remember as a third-grader attending with my class the funeral of a classmate’s father, as we sang 2 songs (in Latin no less). We also that year attended a memorial Mass when Pope Pius XII died, and both experiences impressed me indelibly.
 
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