Cemetery Mass: 14.07.25
St. Mary’s Cemetery Mass @ 7.30pm
Introduction:
We gather as family around the resting place of loved ones. It’s been a splendid weekend, we pray the weather holds up for our special time together.
I welcome you warmly to St. Mary’s. I thank all who have tended to plots in recent weeks. I acknowledge the many who visit here on a daily basis. I welcome the many who have travelled home to be here this evening.
I acknowledge the huge work done by Carlow County Council in operating and maintaining this cemetery. I thank the Gardai, the Civil Defence, the Order of Malta and all who are here to ensure this annual devotion runs so smoothly. I welcome the priests from the Cathedral Parish, from Askea Parish and from Graiguecullen, as well as native priests of Carlow who join in concelebrating this Mass.
A Mass when we gather with just one purpose, to remember and honour our dead. Gathering in that spirit of prayer and reconciliation, let us begin by calling to mind our sins as we bless the water that will be used to sprinkle the graves later …
Homily:
It’s usually just a line that follows a death notice: “burial in St. Mary’s”.
St. Mary’s Cemetery is a sacred place where we visit to commune with our loved one, tell them our bothers and our troubles and commune with God, in whose arms they now rest.
Matthew’s gospel offers the respite we need when we are bothered, preoccupied, troubled or distressed. Remember we can come to the Lord. His arms are always open.
St. Mary’s Cemetery as well as being a sacred place must always be a safe place. A safe place, a safe place, when a loved one can feel safe to visit at any time of day or night.
St. Mary’s Cemetery in addition to being a sacred place, a safe place, it’s also our place. It’s the place where our loved ones rest. None of us have the right to intrude on another’s grief with our behaviour.
We visit St. Mary’s to pray, to unburden ourselves, sometimes just to be present. We don’t visit to be upset by the antics of others. Every bit of this cemetery is sacred, every blade of grass, every piece of cut-stone, every morsel of clay, let none of us spoil it or soil it.
This is where our loved ones rest, our neighbours rest, our friends rest. Some died too soon, others lived a long life, but leave behind a huge void. Some died tragically; some died in their mam’s womb. Some died in a road accident, an industrial accident, a farm accident. Some died after a long illness, others barely got the few weeks. May they all rest in peace.
And may we who visit this sacred and safe place always remember that this is the only reason we visit, to pray for the dead, to remember the deceased that they may have a bed among the saints, a “leaba i measc na hAingeal”. Amen.