In the Catholic Church, the month of November is dedicated to praying for the souls of the faithful departed who have gone before us. On Monday, November 14, with autumn’s bitter nip and the final remnants of fallen leaves under foot, faithful gathered at St. Patrick Cathedral in Harrisburg for a poignant Mass to remember their loved ones.
The Paschal Candle is seen during the celebration of the Diocesan Mass for the Faithful Departed. The candle is a symbol of our belief in the resurrection of the dead and life with Christ in the world to come.
The Paschal Candle is seen during the celebration of the Diocesan Mass for the Faithful Departed. The candle is a symbol of our belief in the resurrection of the dead and life with Christ in the world to come.
Celebrated by Father Joshua Brommer, pastor and rector of the Cathedral Parish, the Diocesan Mass for the Faithful Departed was a solemn and stirring liturgy in the middle of the month of the Holy Souls.
The Paschal Candle was lit in front of the altar – a symbol of our belief in the resurrection of the dead and life with Christ in the world to come. To the side was placed a folio containing the names of several thousand faithful departed submitted by parishioners throughout the Diocese.
The poignant Mass featured selections from Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. With sung prayer presented by the Diocesan Schola Cantorum, pieces such as Pie Jesu and In Paradisum added an element of consolation to the stirring liturgy for those in the pews and those watching the Mass via its livestream.
“Our song this evening is not a lullaby to assuage the restlessness of grief and heartache. Our song is not a ballad that hearkens the joys and pains of earthly love. No, our song this evening is the Church’s song, Her requiem – to sing our loved ones to heaven,” Father Brommer said in his homily, which is reprinted below.
“In this song, we proclaim our faith in the power of the Lord’s Death and Resurrection. In this song, we announce our hope in the mercy of God and in eternal life. In this song, we sing the victorious love of Christ, a love that is ‘stronger than death (Sng 8:6)’, a love that will never fail (cf. 1 Cor 13:8), a love that forges a bond so firm that it remains when a soul pierces the veil between time and eternity,” he said.
Prayer through Music
A harpist lends his musical talents to the celebration of the liturgy.
A harpist lends his musical talents to the celebration of the liturgy.
Dr. Richard Skirpan, Director of the Diocesan Schola Cantorum and Director of Liturgical Music at the Cathedral Parish, told The Catholic Witness he has studied and performed settings of the Requiem Mass, and those by Mozart, Duruflé and Fauré were intended for liturgical use.
He said he first encountered Fauré’s Requiem nearly 20 years ago during a Mass he attended on All Souls Day in Virginia; he experienced it again on the holy day several years later in the Diocese of Raleigh, as Catholics gathered for a Mass in a Catholic cemetery.
Those experiences inspired Dr. Skirpan to introduce the Requiem in the Diocese.
“When I became director of our Diocesan Schola Cantorum, composed of singers from parishes across our Diocese, most of the liturgies for which we sang – Rite of Election, Chrism Mass, and the Ordination Masses – were in the spring. As we have begun to expand our apostolate’s work more year-round, I thought it would be a great opportunity to combine aspects of those two All Souls Day traditions that had touched me deeply – but on a day when we’re not taking people away from their parishes on All Souls Day – and which also serves as a reminder that the entire month of November is dedicated to praying for the faithful departed,” he said.
The Schola, which is open to singers from all parishes in the Diocese, began rehearsals for the Fauré Requiem in mid-October at the Diocesan Center in Harrisburg, with a final rehearsal with instrumentalists at the Cathedral a week before the Mass.
“The Fauré Requiem was a bit challenging for us in that the parts for men’s voices often divide into three or four parts, and while we had some strong men’s voices singing for this Mass there were only so many of them, so many of our altos had the unenviable task of jumping back and forth between parts to make sure that everything got covered,” Dr. Skirpan said.
During the Mass, Schola soloist Hannah O’Donnell moved many in the congregation to tears with her serene presentation of Pie Jesu.
She later told The Witness, as tears welled in her eyes, that she was thinking of her grandmothers, who have passed away.
“Getting to sing this in the Cathedral was absolutely incredible,” said O’Donnell, a member of St. Patrick Parish in Carlisle. “To sing those words, ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy; let them rest in peace,’ was just so moving. It’s a beautiful piece, and I wanted to do it well.”
“It was wonderful to be part of this unique experience for the Diocese,” she said.
Dr. Skirpan said the presentation of the Fauré Requiem within the context of the Mass for the Faithful Departed offers a balance of the reality of death and the hope in the resurrection.
“I think what touches me the most about Fauré’s music in the Requiem is how its beauty can give voice to so many individual prayers. While the Fauré Requiem is sung by a choir and soloists and not the entire congregation, our hope on this special occasion was to offer music to help provide the space for individuals to pray for their departed loved ones,” he said. “There are some settings of the Requiem Mass that emphasize the harshness of death, while others choose instead to focus primarily on consoling the living. I find Fauré’s setting (along with a handful of others) to sit in a very healthy middle ground, not ignoring the pain of sin and death, while still providing us with reassuring glimpses of the heavenly glory we pray our loved ones attain.”
Original source can be found here.
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