On each first Friday of the month, we celebrate a Requiem at 12.00pm for all whose anniversaries of death fall during that month. Once a year on All Souls Day (2 November) we celebrate a festive Mass commemorating all the departed. A Requiem can also be offered for an individual who has died, at any time.
If you would like a loved one to be remembered in any of these ways, please email the parish priest, who will be happy to include their name in our intercession prayers, or at a Requiem Eucharist.
Christians have prayed from the dead from the earliest days of the Church. We do this not because we believe that our prayers will free the dead from punishment, but because of our faith in the communion of saints. Although we see the departed no longer, we believe that we remain connected to them within ‘the mystical body of Christ’, which includes the living and the dead. We naturally pray for our loved ones who are still alive, that they may be happy, healthy and blessed. Just as naturally, we continue to pray for our loved ones who have died, that they may know the peace and joy of God’s love in eternity, and share in the glory of the resurrection.
We pray for the dead at every Eucharist, remembering by name the recently departed and those whose anniversaries of death (‘year’s mind’) occur nearby.
A more particular way to pray for the dead is to offer the Eucharist for them, praying that they will experience the effect of Christ’s death and resurrection – which every mass commemorates – in their life beyond the grave. This is called a Requiem.
