Friday, May 29, 2009

THE FUNERAL - AN UPDATE

Well, the funeral liturgy was beautiful and the music went very well.

4-6th grade students sang at the liturgy.

The "Be Not Afraid" went quite well - accompanied/led (whichever you prefer) in a very traditional style, complete with the addition of the reeds (well, that's what they're supposed to be called, but toaster reeds are still binary codes....another story for another time).

The bulletin for the funeral included "rubrics", since we knew that quite a number of non-Catholics (and, indeed, LAPSED, lazy Catholics) would be in attendance. Some of those people were just plain rude....but I digress.

Many people went forward for Holy Communion - and crossed their arms over their chest to receive a blessing. I was surprised that this happened, but still happy about it. Heaven knows it must be a bit distressing for the priest who is distributing the Blessed Sacrament, not knowing the state of mind and heart of the non-regulars attending such liturgies. Father Glen mentioned the importance of the Sacrament, and gave a very brief talk about it (perhaps three sentences....give or take one or five). This, too, helped.

Natalia, who has been teaching music this year, served the liturgy as psalmist. She chanted Psalm 23 to tone VIII. The repeated antiphon was in Spanish, "El Senor es mi Pastor. Nada me puede faltar." (More formal Spanish, I think, than a lot of parishes do....and perhaps a different dialect as well).

Natalia, God bless her, also sang the Schubert "Ave Maria", accompanied by Josh, who plays classical guitar. They have worked together for a long time, and it was beautifully rendered.

Father Glen chanted the first section of the "In Paradisum" at the conclusion (in English), and I improvised on that tune for the remainder of the exodus.

There were a lot of people present.

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