The Funeral

On Monday June 18th we celebrated Dad's life with a funeral mass. For those of you not familiar with a mass, it is a Catholic religious ceremony - the same as every other mass. Mass is celebrated daily in nearly every Catholic church around the world.

There are two parts to a mass: Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Word part is when we listen to and reflect on readings from scripture: one from the Old Testament (Pre-Jesus) one from the New Testament (Post-Jesus) and a gospel reading - a teaching from Jesus himself.

After the Word we move on to the Eucharist. This is where the priest leads us in a re-creation of Jesus's last supper before he was crucified. We believe that the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ Jesus and that when we eat it we are receiving the miracle and healing power of Christ himself.

The funeral mass is no different. It just usually has scripture readings chosen that provide thought and reflection on life and death and welcoming into Heaven.

(I'm no priest, so I'm sure someone better trained than me can expand on all of this)

At the conclusion, a family member typically gives a Eulogy - which is a reflection on the deceased person. I represented our family and the Eulogy is posted earlier in this blog.

The great thing about this celebration for Dad is that there were 4 priests and a deacon present to co-celebrate the mass. That's a BIG deal. I haven't seen that many priests since a Confirmation celebration. What's great about it is that it reminded us how involved and committed to the Church Dad was.

The priests also gave wonderful reflections and words about Dad. I wish I could have copy of what they said. It was humbling all the more.

After mass the congregation headed over to the hall to have a luncheon reception. There were about 150 guests and some of his railroad friends had set up a display of trains for the crowd. It was good fun.  My sister headed up creating a video of Dad's life. It was 30 minutes and we let it play during the luncheon. Many people in the crowd could be seen throughout Dad's life in the photos.

I'm unskilled at posting the link to the video - maybe my brother in law Ryan can go in to this blog and help with that....Hint Hint.

When all was said and done, the family headed back to Mom and Dad's house and we all sat around eating leftovers and telling stories until about 9pm. Then we crashed only to be up and ready on Tuesday for the burial. More to come on that....