The Catholic Church dedicates the month of November to the Holy Souls as a time for the faithful to especially pray for those who have gone before us.
The Diocese of Harrisburg offered its greatest prayer for the Holy Souls on November 5, with the celebration of the Mass for the Dead. With the sublime tones and chants of Duruflé’s Requiem, consoling Scripture readings, and words of solace in Bishop Timothy Senior’s homily, the liturgy offered a solemn occasion for prayer, remembrance, healing and hope for those in the congregation at St. Patrick Cathedral and those who watched the livestream of the Mass.
A Paschal Candle, a list of members of the Cathedral Parish who died since last November and a book containing the names of thousands of family members and friends submitted by the people of the Diocese were placed before the altar for the Mass.
“How significant it is this evening that we’re accompanied in our prayers for the faithful departed – and perhaps even at those moments when we remember those we love so much and miss them and grieve them – with the beautiful music of Duruflé’s Requiem,” said Bishop Senior, who shared that music is a soothing antidote to grief in his life.
Completed in 1947, Maurice Duruflé’s nine-part composition uses Gregorian chant and serene tones, creating an atmosphere of solace and hope. It was performed during the liturgy by the Diocesan Schola Cantorum.
“We’re opening our hearts, opening our emotions to allow God to speak to us and to touch us with hope – hope for our loved ones, but also hope for ourselves,” the bishop said. “And what is the greatest assurance and consolation that we have in our faith? It is the hope that we have in Jesus Christ.”
The Scripture readings for the Mass offered messages of consolation and hope as the nighttime sky descended over the Cathedral and the Paschal Candle flickered as a symbol of Christ’s light shining through the darkness.
“The author of the Book of Wisdom that we heard from in the first reading reminds us that the souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them,” Bishop Senior said. “We have that hope for them. They appear in the eyes of the foolish to be dead, and their passing away is thought in affliction, but they are in peace in the hands of God.”
The truth of that revelation is seen in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us,” Bishop Senior remarked.
“Our hope is rooted in God’s desire to save us, His passion to save us, that led Him to do the irrational thing of sending his Son through the incarnation, who gave his life for us,” he said.
“Jesus in the Gospel reminds us of His own mission, and I think gives a particularly consoling thought: ‘Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me,’” the bishop remarked.
“My brothers and sisters, we need to find hope for ourselves and hope for our loved ones in these consoling words,” he told the congregation. “We do continue to grieve in our humanness, but we also cling to that hope, the hope that will not disappoint, trusting that our loved ones, even those who journey on to see the face of God, will one day, by God’s mercy, by God’s passionate love, the love that is poured out through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, will one day, together with the saints, and by God’s grace we pray, behold the face of God.”
For prayers for the dead and Church teaching on the Four Last Things, visit https://www.hbgdiocese.org/the-final-things/.
(Photos by Chris Heisey, The Catholic Witness.)
By Jen Reed, The Catholic Witness
