Arthur's Requiem Mass (no Office I'm afraid) will be on Friday at 10:30am at St Margaret's Convent Chapel, 23 Bethell Road, London E13. Burial will be at St Patrick's Catholic cemetery, Langthorne Road, Leytonstone, E11 4HL.
More information can be obtained here.
I can't go I'm afraid, much as I'd have liked to, as I am under a lot of pressure at work, have a host of deadlines to meet before Friday and we are short staffed. This may sound selfish but why could the funeral not be on Saturday? It is most inconvenient. Most people work during the week, and even if I could have had the day off, my black suit needs to be dry cleaned and I have no money to have it done...until Friday!
Another Update: I have just been informed that Arthur is not in fact being buried, as is the decent Christian tradition, but is being cremated instead - just as well that I can't go then. Far be it from me to pass judgement upon his family at this time but that is not a good show. Cremation is an abominable pagan practice which destroys belief in the general Resurrection. The human body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and does not lose intrinsic worth after death, something to be discarded or burned as the heathens would. Did the holy women give up the body of Our Lord to be burned after death? No, they went to the tomb to prepare the body, and with reverence anoint the Lord. The worship of Mammon springs to mind here, as it did when 10 years ago my grandfather was cremated - against his wishes - just to save a few bob; and it's not as if my grandmother is poor. I am sure this is not what Arthur would want. Lord grant that the LMS do their part worthily. No comment on that front, I've said enough...
Priorities, Patricius, priorities!
ReplyDeleteYou spent ages attacking various Popes. Then you went for a good priest. Now you are attacking the family of a dead man when you cannot possibly know what has motivated their decisions. And, just to keep your hand in, you make a sneeringly insidious attack on a society the dead man belonged to.
ReplyDeleteAt some point could you do a post about being perfect, and what judging others from a position of perfection is like, given that you seem to have a monopoly these days on infallibility, where faith and morals are concerned?
On this point of cremation i can only agree with you, Patricius. Cremation is anti-christian and was rightly forbidden to christians for nearly two -thousand years. What has been allowed since the years after the 2nd Vatican Council - cremation in case of epidemy or such - has become a routine custom in many places. Nowadays in this country the friends and relatives go the crematorium hall where the coffin lies waiting. There someone makes a speach about the dead one's merits and demerits, then plays a piece of music which the departed was fond of , as the ''mourners'' then process past the coffin and into the next hall where - after the door has shut leaving the coffin alone- they will spend the next hour drinking coffee, as the coffin is rolled by belt into the oven and burnt. In some crematoria one can even see the smoke going up as one is drinking coffee. Very cold, merciless, remeniscent of Auschwitz.
ReplyDeleteWas Arthur a member of the LMS? He never used to be.
ReplyDeleteCremate me? Over my dead body!
ReplyDeleteI have actually experienced the grim reality of what goes on ‘round the back’ at the crematorium.
ReplyDeleteAny puffs of smoke that the mourners may see emanating from the chimney are highly unlikely to have been produced by the remains of the loved-one to whom they have just bid farewell. Coffins ‘behind the curtain’ tend to be ‘queued-up’—sometimes for days at a time—before the staff gets around to burning them. I have actually witnessed a coffin being used as a convenient substitute for an ash-tray in order to stub out a cigarette.
Cremation is repulsive and anti-Christian; do NOT tolerate it! In English Law, our mortal remains do not form part of our estate; and we can make no legally binding provisions for their disposal. Nevertheless, we can stipulate in our wills that any prospective beneficiaries may only inherit on condition that they conform to our wishes concerning funeral arrangements. That usually provides an incentive! Having said that, make sure that the prospective beneficiaries have been informed of this requirement well beforehand!