The Barefoot Journey Home

Among all the doctrines of the Catholic Church, I can't think of one that we Catholics seem to neglect more than the doctrine of Purgatory. For those who've at least heard of the doctrine, it is often understood as the need to appease an angry God for the sins we've committed in this life. And since most of us know that God is loving and merciful, the doctrine of Purgatory is often written off by Catholics. Some of us are also convinced that the doctrine of Purgatory is not even mentioned in scripture (even though it's in Maccabees) and therefore it's probably some man-made teaching which the Catholic Church uses to encourage people to work on keeping their souls clean. Some just don't understand the doctrine enough to appreciate it fully.  It's no secret that the topic of Purgatory is something that most Catholics would avoid as much as possible. It's hardly mentioned at funerals, and I only know of two priests who are bold enough to preach about the s...

God certainly has a sense of humour. When I wrote about the three things I wanted for my funeral liturgy last week, little did I know that I was going to be involved with the planning of a funeral liturgy during the week. I suppose it was a reminder for me, that like the gospel from last Sunday tells us, an important thing which our faith demands is that we have our lamp of faith lit at all times, because we really never know when God is going to call us. And like I mentioned in my previous musings, the funeral liturgy is indeed a celebration, though it is much more than a mere celebration of the life of the deceased.  From the beginning of the celebration, when the casket is transferred from the Wake Parlour to the Church, something appropriate to be sung, is in fact Psalm 122, even though it is hardly used at funerals.  "I rejoiced when I heard them say,   Let us go to the House of God,  And now our feet are standing,  In your gates, O Jerusalem" From the...

In my days as an Altar Server, I've served at quite a number of Wedding and Funeral liturgies. In fact, up till this day, I still occasionally go back to serve at such liturgies when the need arises. More for funerals actually, because the current generation of servers are generally in school when Funeral Masses take place.   And more often than not, when I somehow get involved with the planning of the Funeral Liturgy with the family of the deceased, the question that often comes up would be if the deceased would have wanted certain things done in a certain way for their funeral. I find that it often leaves the family of the deceased with an additional burden as to how to best say goodbye to their loved one.  In light of this, I have decided that on this day, the second day of November, where the Church commemorates our loved ones who have gone before us, I want to make it clear that there are certain things that I want, and do not want to happen at my Funeral Mass. Fortunatel...