What to Do When the Death of a Loved One Occurs
Call the Funeral Home and Let Your Parish Know
- Hold Firm to the Faith
- It is now time to begin the process of formalizing specific funeral plans. In the face of death, Catholics are to firm their faith. The Order of Christian Funerals makes clear what Catholics believe and what they are to do prayerfully and liturgically. Through rituals, signs, and symbols, the Church takes important action.
- Remember What We Believe
- In the face of death, the Church confidently proclaims that God has created each person for eternal life and that Jesus, the Son of God, by His death and Resurrection, has broken the chains of sin and death that bound humanity.
- Allow the Church to Intercede & Bring Comfort
- After the death of a Christian, whose life and faith was begun in the waters of Baptism, and strengthened at the Eucharistic table, the Church intercedes on behalf of the deceased because of its confident belief that death is not the end, nor does it break the bonds forged in this life. The Church also ministers to the sorrowing and consoles them in the funeral rites with the comforting Word of God and the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
- Plan a Beautiful Funeral Liturgy, the Mass of Christian Burial
- Christians celebrate the funeral rites to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of life which has now been returned to God, the Author of Life, and the Hope of the just. The Mass, the memorial of Christ’s death and Resurrection, is the principal celebration of the Christian funeral. It is the centerpiece of the Church’s ministry when death comes.
- Pray for the Deceased, Who Needs Our Help
- The Church, through its funeral rites, commends the dead to God’s merciful love and pleads for the forgiveness of their sins.