Fr Lucie-Smith preached on a topic that doesn't get much time from an ordinary parish pulpit, that grief is part of life, and the Church gives you the hope, and the tools in the form of prayers and Masses for dead loved ones, to enable you to cope with it and also help the dead. He also reminded us that prayers for the dead are as old as the Church, quoting one of my favourites from St Monica, about being buried anywhere, but begging to be remembered at the altar of God.
The choir of St Mary Magdalen, Brighton, led by Clare, came along too and sang beautifully, the Dies Irae always makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, and they really did on Saturday. Clare also took some photos, which you can find HERE. Andrew and his serving team, also from St Mary Magdalen, were as polished as ever. Thank you, Team Brighton!
Thanks also to the sacristans at the Cathedral, who were very helpful in making sure we had everything we needed.
And of course, thank you also to everyone who came! I hope you found the Mass as beautiful as I did.
It is a real privilege and a real comfort to help our deceased family and friends by praying for them. It must be truly awful to believe that when you have lost someone, that's it, the end, gone forever. So I also love cemeteries. I visited ours last week, it was grey, murky and cold then too, but wandering about reading the headstones, I felt so peaceful.
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