I cut class to spring some poor soul from Purgatory! I went to St. Joseph Cemetery in Imperial, where a Mass was held at 6:30 pm for the Feast of All Souls.
There is no permanent altar in this cemetery so Father brought a table along with all of the necessary items for Mass.
The readings were supposed to be from Wisdom, a Letter from Paul and the Gospel of John. Instead, we didn't have a second reading. The first reading was from Isaiah (chapter 25) about God wiping our tears and the Gospel was the Good Friday/Easter reading from Mark I think. The Responsorial Psalm was 42: My Soul Thirsts. It appears that the reading, Psalm and Gospel are valid options for Funeral Masses. I'm not sure why the 2nd reading was skipped.
Father gave a brief homily about how he really liked the passage from Isaiah. The big message was that Jesus doesn't expect us to do anything He didn't do. Jesus became fully human and died. Somehow that's supposed to comfort me. Then there was some stuff about hope.
Father wore white/gold vestments and used Eucharistic Prayer II.
We did sing the first verse of Amazing Grace at the end.
It was a very lovely and thoughtful Mass at the cemetery. The parishoners were all very nice and friendly. They even put candles on the tombstones. But I think I preferred the Mass from last year at St. Francis de Sales. It seemed more funeral like. But then again, when you dig up a fake coffin....
Pictures:
Entrance to Cemetery
For All the Souls
For the Unborn
There were names on the bottom but I erased them to be sensitive.
Altar for tonight
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