My mother-in-law died at the end of May. She had been ill for many years and was haunted by the memory of things for which she blamed herself, and perhaps by other things for which she was not at fault, but suffered nonetheless. One of her last requests was for a funeral in the Extraordinary Form, and thanks to the generosity of Fr. Scott Archer, Fr. Matthew Deptula, and Msgr. Stanley Deptula, she was buried with the full ceremony of the usus antiquior.
I had sung for many funerals before, but never one in the EF, and while I had the Mass pretty much under control, the burial service was almost entirely new to me. The first responsory at the Absolution quickly became my favorite piece as I practiced:
The mix of terror and hope, the dread in apprehension of the Latter Day mingled with the consolation that the souls of the just are in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1), seemed to me an appropriate prayer, something that my mother-in-law and I would be comfortable praying together.
Today we pray for all the faithful departed, and that is fitting and just, but if you could spare an extra prayer for Mary Ann Zeilenga, I would be grateful.
Save me, O Lord, from everlasting death, in that dreadful day when the heavens and the earth shall be shaken, when thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
V. I tremble and am sore afraid at the judgment and the wrath to come,
R. When the heavens and the earth shall be shaken.
V. That day, that day of wrath, of woe, and of misery, that great and most bitter day,
R. When thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord: and may perpetual light shine upon them.
Libera me, Domine
My mother-in-law died at the end of May. She had been ill for many years and was haunted by the memory of things for which she blamed herself, and perhaps by other things for which she was not at fault, but suffered nonetheless. One of her last requests was for a funeral in the Extraordinary Form, and thanks to the generosity of Fr. Scott Archer, Fr. Matthew Deptula, and Msgr. Stanley Deptula, she was buried with the full ceremony of the usus antiquior.
I had sung for many funerals before, but never one in the EF, and while I had the Mass pretty much under control, the burial service was almost entirely new to me. The first responsory at the Absolution quickly became my favorite piece as I practiced:
The mix of terror and hope, the dread in apprehension of the Latter Day mingled with the consolation that the souls of the just are in the hand of God (Wisdom 3:1), seemed to me an appropriate prayer, something that my mother-in-law and I would be comfortable praying together.
Today we pray for all the faithful departed, and that is fitting and just, but if you could spare an extra prayer for Mary Ann Zeilenga, I would be grateful.