This is an All Souls Requiem at St. Joseph Church in Macon, Georgia in 2014. It fell on a Sunday that year. The choir sang Faure's Requiem. This is a Modern Missal Mass but with a TLM influence!
We also had the catafalque with the six candles flanking it.
The Mass is a mix of Latin and English. All the parts in Latin were translated to English in a program distributed to the congregation for this Sunday Mass.
3 comments:
Unless I am mistaken, All Souls Day was once a Holy Day of Obligation and the calendar was revised to make it non-obligational. I only remember this because as a young student in Catholic schools, I remember resenting the nuns marching us off to Mass for two days in a row!
This could be an apocryphal story, but I remember reading that when the calendar was changed, Padre Pio complained that now the souls in Purgatory would be even more forgotten.
Was it obligational? If not, it probably should be. Did Padre Pio actually say that? It sounds like something he might have said. Regardless, the Poor Souls are THE most forgotten branch of our Church. When was the last time, outside of All Souls Day, did we hear any homily at Mass encouraging us to offer prayers and sacrifices for those poor souls?
They are utterly helpless right now. The good news for them is that they are saved. They will never commit another sin. The bad news is, they await their liberation and it depends upon the prayers and good works of others. God's mercy is infinite, but God's justice is terrible and, as much as it scares me to say so, we must atone and do penance for every single sin we commit in our lives, right down to every idle word and thought. We cannot and will not be able to bear God's Presence so long as we have even the most miniscule attachment to sin--another good reason to abhor the "instant canonizations" so many priests offer at funeral Masses, "Now he/she is with God." We have no business presuming that and priests have no business depriving the dead of our prayers by assuring us that the salvation of the deceased is a "done deal". I can't get to Mass today for practical reasons, but I plan to offer at least an extra rosary for the dead. I encourage all readers to do the same. If you can, please go to Mass. The most helpless of us all are counting on you.
I don’t recall it being obligatory because if it was, my father would have seen to it that we attended. However, I think for many people during the pre-Vatican II period All Souls was like Ash Wednesday still is, they felt a need to attend to pray for their dead.
Today, with disposal of the dead become the norm rather than a Christian Burial, or what is now call a “Celebration of Life” few think it is necessary to pray for the dead, let allow give them a Christian burial.
I was around before the Council and All Souls Day was not a holy day of obligation in the US, but we were strongly encouraged to visit the Church that day to pray for the Poor Souls in Purgatory. I do not know if in other countries it might have been.
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