Mass for All Souls

Good Evening!

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

Calvary Cemetery

On Sunday, February 21, 2010, my pal and fellow blogger Mark asked if on the way back from Our Lady of the Holy Cross we could stop at the cemetery and take pictures since it was such a dreary day.  Sure, why not? Calvary Cemetery began in the 1850s.  Many of the smaller cemeteries, such as the one attached to the Old Cathedral, were moved here.  Former Archbishops, bishops, priests, religious are all buried here with all sorts of people like the Chouteaus and the Soulards.  There are all kinds of tombstones.

A Priest Forever

Archdiocesan Priest Graves

The grave directly in the front of the cross was Cardinal Ritter.

He's at the New Cathedral now.

Monsignors are to the left in the back.

Really Really Old Priests graves.

I think the newest I found was 1920.

Many parishes had the monuments erected for their pastors.

Archbishop Kenrick's tomb is directly in front of the crucifix.

Bishop Kain's tomb is to the left.  

Gothic Spire Monument

I've seen angels, crosses, hearts, lambs.  

This is a first.

 I didn't realize the mausoleum was so totally cool.  There was a chapel downstairs.  On the first floor there was an altar where one could theoretically say Mass.  All of the windows were stained glass.

Peacock

Symbol of eternal life

Ceiling on the first floor, in the chapel area.

It reads:

"I am the Resurrection and the Life, 

He that believeth in Me, although dead,

shall have eternal life."

All of the stained glass windows are of this style.

There is a stained glass window at the end of each hall.

The halls are named after either Mary's various names or

the different names for Jesus.

Pray for the Souls of the Faithfully departed.

God is Love

View from the Back Pew

Chapel downstairs

Chapel Windows

Looks rather like the Creation

St. Francis of Assisi

This window was off the side down one of the hallways.

There is a squirrel, bird, bunny and a wolf.

Death of St. Joseph

Ste. Anne de Beaupre

I've never seen a statue of St. Anne like this.

Links:
St. Louis Archdiocesan Cemeteries
From Rome of the West:  here, here, here, here