If a person is nearing the end of life, the church offers a very special sacrament called Last Rites. It is given by a priest, deacon or a trained layperson. If given by a priest, an opportunity for Reconciliation (or confession) may be provided as part of the rite if the person desires.
Please contact the church office at 514-648-9424 for more information or to ask for this sacrament.
The Church encourages Catholics to have a funeral Mass, also known as a Requiem Mass because it includes Holy Communion. It therefore has at its heart the commemoration of Christ’s death and resurrection.
If the person who has died was a practicing Catholic, it is likely they would have wanted a funeral Mass in their parish church. Even if you are distant from the Church, a funeral Mass can be very consoling.
The Catholic funeral is at the heart of who we are as Church – a people gathered, saved and redeemed by Christ our risen Lord! The Catholic funeral is a witness to a secular world that there is a greater context to both life and death. A Catholic funeral speaks to the hearts of the people gathered and even converts hearts that might be hurting and searching.
In the Catholic funeral we commend our loved one into the mercy of God and we also commend ourselves, praying for God’s comfort and peace in a time of loss. The options of readings, music choices (i.e. church hymns) and what it is appropriate to do within the ritual are there precisely in order to perform this ritual of commending the loved one into God’s mercy and eternity.
This structure of the ritual is not meant to deny or diminish the loved one or her or his life in any way. The Catholic funeral, in its depth of ritual and meaning, reminds us that the grave has been overcome not by our wishing it so but by the death and resurrection of Christ our Lord! The Catholic funeral reminds us and brings us into this greater context and this is extremely important because only the resurrection of Christ conquers the tomb, only the resurrection of Christ says death is not the final word, only the resurrection of Christ gives the true hope that comforts and heals us in our sorrows.
For more information, please contact the parish office at 514-648-9424.
