Thoughts on the Funeral Service for Baroness Thatcher


Did anyone notice the black vestments and six unbleached candles? I don't think many people would comment on them: they were just the right and obvious thing.

Quite rightly our primary focus as Catholics is to pray for the repose of the soul of Margaret Thatcher and I assure you, prescinding from any political comment, that I have done so and will do so.

As I was travelling today, I didn't get to watch the service itself but did enjoy seeing part of the procession with the gun carriage, the display of some difficult drill at 70 paces per minute, the shouted orders, half-muffled bell and all that.

People I follow on Twitter seemed quite positive about the address given by Bishop Chartres. Having now read it, I agree that he rose to the occasion and was glad to see that he ended with the prayer "Eternal rest..." (or, as he put it "Rest eternal...") The music was all deemed superb as we are privileged to expect from one of the top Cathedral choirs in a world class field. I am currently catching up with that via the YouTube video.

Looking at the Order of Service, I confess to being confused - not that it wasn't most dignified and reverent but I couldn't work out how the order was put together. There were some parts that coincide with what I find in the Book of Common Prayer that I have on my shelves but that is only the order for the burial of the dead so I suppose there is another Order of Service for traditionally worded funerals. Some things puzzled me - not in a bad way, I hope, though I confess to wondering whether the Prime Minister becomes a sort of honorary Deacon for these occasions so that he can read the Gospel.

Leaving that flippant and unworthy thought aside, it struck me that Fauré's version of the In paradisum was sung; again a note of praying for the dead. Then later the Bishop of London read a short version of the Commendation of the Dying, listed in the service booklet simply as "The Commendation." Again quite appropriate but it surprised me.

More important than any of these observations, I think, is that the whole service was solemn, dignified and reverent, used "Thee's and Thou's", did not pander to instant accessibility, and was, as an act of religious worship, watched by millions around the world, the bulk of whom will simply be impressed by how well the British do these things. Not a bad idea to bear this in mind when we arrange Catholic funerals: and indeed, why not use black vestments and unbleached candles?

Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine et lux perpetua luceat ei.

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Image
On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist. Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work”...
Read more

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Image
Gregorian Chant Hymns is a most helpful website that I mentioned in a post just over a year ago. As I said then, the site "[...] promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites." Work has continued at the site and there is now a section which makes available pdf (or .docx format) booklets for Vespers for every Sunday of the Year and a few major feasts. There is the basic booklet for ordinary Sunday Vespers which is supplemented by separate files for the Sundays after Pentecost which contain the Magnificat and Collect. Then there are booklets, for example for Advent and Lent, where the office is different from the regular Sunday Vespers with its antiphons. All of the booklets have texts and notation for Benediction and the Maria...
Read more