{"id":4988,"date":"2006-10-26T09:39:01","date_gmt":"2006-10-26T09:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/10\/preparing-for-november.html"},"modified":"2006-10-26T09:39:01","modified_gmt":"2006-10-26T09:39:01","slug":"preparing-for-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/10\/preparing-for-november.html","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for November"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop Blair of Toledo has a column clarifying misunderstandings about the focus of All Souls’ Day, November and Catholic funerals.<\/a><\/p>\n

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It is this last category, the souls in purgatory, who are the special focus of the month of November. Except for those dead whose presence in heaven is confirmed by miracles and the church\u2019s canonization, we simply cannot know the state of a deceased person\u2019s soul. God alone is capable of comprehending with exquisite justice and mercy the truth of each and every person. Since we cannot know even ourselves, much less others, as God knows us, it is an ancient instinct of Catholic piety, firmly rooted in doctrine, that we commend to the mercy of God all those who have passed from this world. <\/p>\n

Heaven is no doubt home to countless saints \u2014 including relatives and friends \u2014 whose names will never appear on the church calendar. But we do the dead no eternal kindness by denying the possibility that on the other side of the grave they may still have to face some purification from the effects of sin. When I die, I certainly want the benefit of Masses and prayers offered for me. This makes no sense if we are all ready to be canonized at our death. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He goes on:<\/p>\n

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In the language of morticians, a Memorial Service is one in which the deceased is eulogized without the body present. For us, by contrast, a Funeral Mass is one in which we commend the deceased \u2014 body and soul \u2014 to the mercy of God, we console the sorrowing with God\u2019s Word and the Eucharist, we thank God for the life of the deceased, and we affirm the bond between the living and dead in the communion of saints.<\/p>\n

The wake is the primary place for remembering and celebrating the person\u2019s life in this world. For that reason the liturgical books allow some brief word of thanks by a family member at the conclusion of a Funeral Mass, but not extended eulogies that are more appropriate for a wake service or for delivery before the Funeral Mass begins. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop Blair of Toledo has a column clarifying misunderstandings about the focus of All Souls’ Day, November and Catholic funerals. It is this last category, the souls in purgatory, who are the special focus of the month of November. Except for those dead whose presence in heaven is confirmed by miracles and the church\u2019s canonization,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nPreparing for November - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/10\/preparing-for-november.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing for November - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bishop Blair of Toledo has a column clarifying misunderstandings about the focus of All Souls’ Day, November and Catholic funerals. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}