In some conversations we have with family, friends, neighbors, and even with ourselves, we gently plant seeds for thought. Some seeds take time to take root and grow. I ask you now in late September to begin to plan for early November by sowing some seeds of thought among family and friends.
Every year during the month of November we are asked to pray for the dead in a special way. Pope Francis reminds us that “Remembering the dead, caring for their tombs and prayers of suffrage are testimony to confident hope, rooted in the certainty that death does not have the last word on human destiny, as humanity is destined for a life without end, that has its root and its fulfillment in God” (Angelus, St. Peter’s Square, November 2, 2014).
Over the years I have invited families prayerfully to consider that if they possess the cremated remains of a loved one in their home, they now may now decide lay them to rest in St. John’s Cemetery. This is free of any costs on the Saturday following All Souls Day in November. Many have responded over the years and it has been a very positive experience.
The Church in her funeral rites asks that cremated remains be buried in a grave or entombed in a mausoleum or columbarium. The practice of keeping cremated remains of a loved one in one’s home is not the reverent disposition that the Church requires.
I am mindful that the reasons for possessing cremated in the home well after the death of a loved-one can be numerous. The reasons can be sentimental, financial, or from feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the loss. As pastor of St. John’s, I wish to offer pastoral support and a respectful solution to the issue of any uninterred cremated remains of which you or other family members may be guardians.
On the Saturday following All Souls’ Day (Saturday, November 9, 2024), we will offer the 8am Mass at St. John’s Church for our beloved dead. If you are in possession of cremated remains of deceased family members or friends, you will be invited to reverently place them in front of the Altar for that Mass.
At the conclusion of this Memorial Mass, Funeral Director Tom Comeau will help us bring these cremated remains to our cemetery in a hearse for a committal service. St. John’s Cemetery will provide free of charge, a single, common vault for the interment of all of these cremated remains. A ground-plaque marks their resting place reading “Eternal rest, grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.” The names of all the deceased interred in this resting place will be kept on file at the parish.
If you wish to participate in this November 9 Mass at St. John’s Church and committal service at St. John’s Cemetery, and present the cremated remains of one or more deceased family members of which you are guardian, please contact the parish secretary by October 24th, 2024. The customary information of the deceased will be gathered and recorded for our parish records.
Please consider this offer. I know that you will be deeply consoled that those you loved in this life will be interred prayerfully and reverently on the sacred grounds of St. John’s cemetery, and that they will benefit from the thousands of prayers that are prayed there each year.