On reflection of my grandmother this evening, I was focusing in on her Funeral Mass, a few things bothered me and I'm not just trying to be picky here
- Minimal Holy Water
- For some reason I was expecting holy water to be sprinkled on everyone during the procession and after... maybe I was fabricating this one in my head, My later talks with a different priest said this was not common practice....but I just expected more
- Sloppy Accord
- The Priest started mass with the sign of the cross in the back of the church with the body in the back, after the procession in, he started to say the sign of the cross again but halted to an "Let us Pray"
- Priest tried to do some eulogizing at mass in a round about way but not proper for a Catholic Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
- Rushed a Burial Site
- The burial site ritual, was lacking. Father seemed to be in a hurry to eat back at the church hall.
Requiem Mass
Some Key note differences-
- The Requiem Mass, also known formally (in Latin) as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum, is a wholly different ritual form and texts.
- Its theme is a prayer for the salvation of the souls of the departed, and it is used both at services immediately preceding a burial, and on occasions of more general remembrance.
- This use of the word requiem comes from the opening words of the introit: Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. (Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.)
- The requiem Mass differs from the ordinary Mass in omitting certain joyful passages such as the Gloria, Credo, and Alleluia, and by the addition of the sequence Dies Iræ.
- The Dies irae was rendered optional in the Requiem in 1967 and was omitted from the revised Mass altogether in 1969; at the same time, the Alleluia was added to funerals outside Lent.
