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FUNERAL LITURGY PREPARATION |
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A Message from the Parish
May the Lord’s peace be with you in this most difficult time. Please be assured that the parish of St. John Neumann wishes to accompany you as you prepare to commend your loved one to the Lord. Many at this time ask what is customary. Most often either a Mass of Christian burial is chosen, or a scripture service commendation at the funeral home. In order to help you in preparing a Mass of Christian burial, this site contains frequently chosen readings from Scripture.
Please feel free to pick one that you feel is most appropriate. It is also helpful to have a family member or a friend as a lector for the readings. Also the family brings up the gifts. The family may place the Baptismal garment (funeral pall) over the casket at the beginning of the Eucharistic liturgy. It is a touching way of expressing personal care and love.
Many people ask for guidance in choosing the music for the Liturgy of Christian burial. The selections identified are ones that have become beloved over the years. We list them here to help you choose. As you may know, we are constrained to the norms that regulate our liturgy to keep all music played at funerals as sacred hymns. Secular songs may be sung at the wake service or at the cemetery, but we are not permitted to make them part of the sacred liturgy.
We want you to know that we wish to be at your service to assure that the commendation of the Christian soul to the Lord is done with dignity and with personal care. May the Lord strengthen you through all of these days.
Sincerely yours, Fr. James McKeaney, Pastor Sr. Carol Kelly, SSJ Pastoral Assoc. Isabel Momenee, Director of Liturgical Music Mary Alice Groch, Organist |