Tag: "funeral"

Jesus, May You Increase
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Jesus, May You Increase

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Billboards around St. Louis recently are showing a new advertising slogan for a franchise of gyms: “What Will Be Your Legacy?” Nothing against people who enjoy working out and lifting weights — which I should do more often — but my idea of a real legacy to leave my family and friends has nothing to […]

Unbearable Loss
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Unbearable Loss

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My earliest recollection of Caitlin was in her mother’s womb. Her mom and I were both pregnant with daughters. Information we did not know at the time, but would later bring great delight. This “wasn’t our first rodeo” as they say, I was on child number four and Caitlin made six. The girls were born […]

Mass of Christian Burial: Ecclesial Crisis on Display
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Mass of Christian Burial: Ecclesial Crisis on Display

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Make no mistake about it: The Church in our day is in the midst of a terrible, and in many ways unprecedented, crisis of faith. This objective reality, however, is largely lost on the overwhelming majority of Catholics, both clerical and otherwise. While some Catholics, with deliberate intent, actively promote the various agendas that underlie […]

In Thy Wounds, Hide Us
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In Thy Wounds, Hide Us

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My husband and I recently attended the funeral of a relative who died suddenly at age twenty-one. During the lovely Baptist service, family and friends told stories and gave testimonies of a girl who loved generously, especially children, and was about to obtain a teaching degree. She not only had a special gift of capturing […]

The Cruelty of Casual Canonizations
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The Cruelty of Casual Canonizations

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In recent years it has become commonplace to turn funerals into casual canonizations. “Bob is in a better place,” we’re told, which, if taken literally, can only mean Heaven, as neither Hell nor Purgatory are better places than earth. Never mind the fact that Bob wasn‘t very generous with his time or money, drank too […]