Funeral Liturgy Research Articles

Teologi Liturgi Dan Ibadah Virtual

Liturgy is not only about the arrangement of the service program, not only about the agenda of worship. But the service itself is a liturgy. Because of this, we know the terms Sunday worship liturgy, family worship liturgy, marriage confirmation and blessing liturgy, funeral liturgy and so on. What exactly do we understand by liturgical theology and virtual worship? Because churches have held virtual services and liturgy, which were not held before. And will virtual worship still be relevant when the pandemic has passed? Therefore, this article is intended to examine the theology of liturgy and virtual worship. Liturgical theology and virtual worship are actually theology and reflection, as well as Christian congregational activities that can be applied or practiced directly in certain situations, in this case during the Covid-19 pandemic. When the Covid-19 pandemic has passed, then virtual worship is possible is no longer needed. Because basically direct fellowship in places of worship or churches, where the congregation meets and shakes hands in person, is an essential need for humans as social creatures. However, it is still possible to hold virtual services because it is necessary for congregants who are sick and have permanent illnesses, so that congregants cannot come to worship at the house of worship directly and want to receive online worship services.

Benedict XVI Faithful Friend of the Bridegroom – Theologian of Beauty

On 29th August 2006 Benedict XVI wrote his spiritual testament which was published soon after his death, i.e. 31stDecember 2022. The Pope started his will with the expression of thankfulness to God. Immensely important, also in the context of the following article, seem to be his words: Do not be confused! Often it seems as if science - on the one hand, the natural sciences; on the other, historical research (especially the exegesis of the Holy Scriptures) - has irrefutable insights to offer that are contrary to the Catholic faith. I have witnessed from times long past the changes in natural science and have seen how apparent certainties against the faith vanished, proving themselves not to be science but philosophical interpretations only apparently belonging to science - just as, moreover, it is in dialogue with the natural sciences that faith has learned to understand the limits of the scope of its affirmations and thus its own specificity. (…) I have seen, and see, how, out of the tangle of hypotheses, the reasonableness of faith has emerged and is emerging anew. Jesus Christ is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and the Church, in all her shortcomings, is truly His Body[1]. 
 It cannot be denied that on the 31st day of December 2022, at 9:34, when Pope Benedict XVI went to the House of the Father, the Church lost her Shepherd, faithful to God and to every man, extraordinary and inspiring person, great theologian and mystic of Christianity, defender of faith and morality, and a humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard – as he used to call himself. The funeral service which took place on 5th January 2023 in St. Peter’s Square was attended by the author of these words who represented the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow, the university which had conferred upon Benedict XVI the honoris causa doctorate many years before. During the funeral liturgy His Holiness Pope Francis said the following, unforgettable words about his predecessor: Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever! These beautiful words certainly reflected the very essence of the mission of the deceased Pontiff.
 This article presents the way of life and the achievements of Pope Benedict XVI, showing him as an outstanding theologian of liturgy and music. It was also important to reflect on his honoris causa doctorate granted to him by the Pontifical University in Cracow. The article finishes with Benedict XVI’s spiritual testament and message of hope.
 It was not easy to present in such a short form the immense scale of the achievements of this extraordinary man, so beneficial for the Church and for the whole world. The following text merely outlines the above, for the subject concerns a remarkable theologian, proficient liturgist and musician, defender of Catholic faith and her transparency, humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard and the faithful friend of the Bridegroom – as recalled by his successor. And it seems certain that in the next years, even in the following decades we will still be reading his spiritual message, or maybe one day this great Pontiff shall be accorded the title of the Doctor of the Church, so well deserved.
 [1] Benedict XVI, Mój testament duchowy [My Spiritual Testament] [in] L’Osservatore Romano, year XLII, Polish edition, no. 1(449) 2023, p. 8.

Mourning and non-ordered religious behaviour in the tombs of Philip the Bold, John the Fearless and Margaret of Bavaria

Abstract The tomb of the Burgundian duke Philip the Bold in Dijon, designed by the Haarlem-born sculptor Claus Sluter, holds a key position in the development of Western funerary art, especially on account of the lively and moving depiction of the cortège of weepers around the tomb. In this monument it is they who provide an example to their beholders – namely, how to mourn the deceased ruler. Not only do these expressive statuettes encourage the viewer to pray for Philip’s soul, but they also evoke the actual funeral liturgy of the duke. While the clerical mourners move in a single direction and form a procession, the lay figures seem to move more freely, directing themselves towards the tomb’s onlookers and stimulating them to pray for Philip’s afterlife. This conflation of transitional and everlasting rituals expresses a duality in late Gothic attitudes towards death.

Liturgical reflections on the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II: mass participation and mass detachment

ABSTRACT The funeral of the late Queen raises questions for liturgists and for the associated disciplines of ethnography and ritual studies. It followed a rite little used for Christian funerals, framed in language now deemed archaic and unintelligible. Yet promoters of modern language liturgy who might have been expected to be critical remained silent. For a wider public, the language choice at the funeral was consistent with an image of a figure who embodied tradition. This article considers the funeral liturgy in three movements – outdoor, transitional, and indoor. It concludes that this was a funeral in keeping with the liturgical formation of the deceased and her sense of her symbolic role in the Church of England. But it also asks how the contemporary language rites of the Church of England could be shown to be capable of supporting the kind of pageantry and ceremonial expected of royal occasions.

Resurrection and Hope as the Content of the Chants of Proprium missae pro defunctis and Ordo Exsequiarum after the Second Vatican Council in the Polish Language

The present article examines the theme of chant used during the funeral service. First, the history of the burial of the dead in the first civilizations is presented. Next, the method of burying the dead and the course of the funeral liturgy in Christianity are shown. The large part of historical description includes analysis of the music that accompanied the deceased on the last journey. Subsequently, using the method of text analysis, the author proved a deficiency of liturgical songs that would contain the message of resurrection and hope.

“For your Faithful Lord, Life is Changed not Ended”. The Roman Catholic Funeral Rite in Flanders and the Paschal Mystery

Since Vatican II, the paschal mystery has become the focal point of all liturgy, a development that also has consequences for the Roman Catholic funeral liturgy. Celebrating the funeral in the context of the Eucharist underscores the concept of the paschal mystery very explicitly. Since 2011, a number of factors has led to the funeral liturgy without Eucharist becoming the liturgical norm in Flanders. This paper investigates this shift in light of the funeral liturgy being a memorial of the paschal mystery. It (1) sketches the shift that occurred in the revised funeral rite, (2) presents a detailed study of the new Flemish approach towards the funeral liturgy, using the diocese of Hasselt as an example, and (3) evaluates this new approach to the funeral liturgy, specifically from the perspective of the liturgy as a memorial of the paschal mystery. Finally, some conclusions regarding this case from a liturgical-theological and pastoral point of view are formulated.

The Face of Christian Hope in the Renewed Funeral Rites

The Second Vatican Council brought a new look at the ultimate reality of man. It has definitely contributed to the deepening of the understanding of the Christian faith and allowed to adapt its message to the needs of modern times. It was from its inspiration that, a few years after the promulgation of the Constitution Sacrosanctum concilium, the Ordo Exsequiarum was reformed, which made it possible to introduce the changes postulated by the Council’s fathers into the funeral liturgy. In accordance with their provisions, the funeral rites were to express more clearly the paschal character of the Christian’s death. Thus, the liturgy of the funeral became a special place for proclaiming Christian hope. It therefore seems necessary, on the basis of the texts of the renewed funeral rites, to notice its paschal character.

The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton by Peter Feuerherd

Reviewed by: The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton by Peter Feuerherd Daniel Cosacchi The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. By Peter Feuerherd . Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2019. 120 pp. $18.00. The Radical Gospel of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton . By Peter Feuerherd. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2019. 120 pp. $18.00. With the death of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen in July 2018, no U.S. Catholic bishop had been in the episcopal office longer than Bishop Thomas Gumbleton. Yet, longevity is only one aspect of Gumbleton's life, which entered its ninety-first year on January 26, 2020. Other aspects, which Peter Feuerherd examines in this text, are part and parcel of what it means to live the life of a Christian. This book is the third such book from the publisher (Orbis Books) in recent years pertaining to radical bishops of the peace movement. Others who have been featured are Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen (A Still and Quiet Conscience, 2015) and Bishop Walter Sullivan (The Good Bishop, 2013). Unlike these two other fine volumes, "this book [on Gumbleton] is not a comprehensive biography" (6). Nevertheless, it produces substantive fare—biographical, historical, ecclesial, and prophetic—within its pages. Faithful readers of Gumbleton's weekly homilies in the National Catholic Reporter (author Feuerherd's employer) will not be surprised by much of what they read in these pages. As Feuerherd quoted Gumbleton's longtime friend, Father Norman Thomas, Gumbleton "never learned how to speak bishopese" (66). This manifests itself in a number of ways in Gumbleton's life. When headlines reported on his 2006 testimony before the Ohio House of Representatives, his active ministry in the Catholic Church was effectively ended for violation of "the communio Episcoporum, the 'communion of bishops'. … My 'crime' was to offer a different perspective [from the Michigan bishops]" (109). The truth is that Gumbleton frequently offered a different perspective than his brother bishops. Even though, by his own admission, he was late to embrace the civil rights movement, "his contribution of $500 to a group with a reputation for militancy earned him an entry in what would become a growing FBI file" (41). One of the most entertaining anecdotes of this volume was Feuerherd's recounting of how Daniel Berrigan was able to convince Gumbleton, through [End Page 91] accusatory rhetoric, to take part in actions of nonviolent civil disobedience in response to war. Gumbleton did not take kindly to the request: "It made me somewhat angry and upset. I thought I was being judged unfairly" (46). Nearly a half-century later, at Berrigan's funeral, Gumbleton was the sole member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy who concelebrated the funeral liturgy of the famous peacemaker who had eventually become his close friend. Another conversion in Gumbleton's life was his work with the LGBTQ+ community. This conversion was initiated by Gumbleton's brother Dan announcing to the family that he was gay and by their mother's ensuing question: "Is Dan going to hell?" (91). In the years since Gumbleton was asked that heartbreaking question, he has been one of the only bishops whose ministry has been almost universally lauded by gay rights groups. But it is also a ministry for which Gumbleton has paid a price within the church, causing him becoming persona non grata in some dioceses. Perhaps because this book was so interesting, the reader may feel in need of more information. This reviewer, for one, wished the last chapter was augmented by answers to some key questions that remain. Two come to mind immediately, with respect to activities that Gumbleton has ceased. First, "ever since the 1990s, Gumbleton had grown increasingly disillusioned with the wider body of bishops. He no longer felt it was valuable to attend the annual meetings" (103). Many would disagree, and believe that Gumbleton's is precisely the voice the bishops most need to hear, especially at such a time as this, when faith in the episcopal leadership is so low. Second, Gumbleton has discontinued his civil disobedience, believing instead that "we have to come out with a new strategy" (105). It would have been fascinating to hear some of his ideas for what such a shift would...

Ritual Brobosan Sebagai Penghormatan Terakhir dalam Liturgi Pemakaman Jawa-Kristiani

The Catholic Church provides occasions for funeral rites so as to illuminate the death of the faithful within the paschal mystery of Christ. The Church administers the funeral and offers prayers for its departing members to escort them to the afterlife. Funeral ceremonies are held to comfort the bereaved family, but also to strengthen the faith of the people. Therefore, the funeral ceremony could be seen as a pastoral means to foster the faith of the believers and at the same time to evangelise the gospel. Inculturation could be seen as a process to help the faithful experience God’s saving presence in the liturgy from their respective cultures. In this article, the author views the funeral of the faithful as an entrance for inculturation, bringing Christian liturgy towards the local culture, which in this paper is the Javanese culture, and vice versa. The Javanese culture has its own philosophy in escorting the departing souls through its rituals. This article attempts to integrate what has been a ritual of death in the Javanese culture, i. e. brobosan, which shows a gesture of giving respect to the departed, in the Catholic funeral liturgy, particularly in the last part of the rite.

Toward the Paschal Mystery: The Evolving Roman Catholic Funeral Liturgy

Mourners attending a Roman Catholic funeral in the 1950s would have remarked, if they thought about it at all, on the tone of the celebration: the black vestments, the Latin chants, especially the ...

Grounded: Life, Death, and Funeral Liturgy on the Prairie

Grounded: Life, Death, and Funeral Liturgy on the Prairie

Niechrześcijańskie źródła liturgii pogrzebu i kultu zmarłych wczesnego chrześcijaństwa

The article presents, in an orderly way, the living people’s attitude to the dead body, to the cult which it was surrounded by. Along with appearing of the new religion and in the reaction on the fact of death, Christianity initiated the process of creating its own funeral liturgy. The process of searching and adjusting local rites and non-Christian elements of the funeral ceremony began. Christianity, taking those elements which could have been a part of the doctrinal context, adapted them and purified of the traces which were against the then Church teaching. The paper can be divided into three parts: explaining the basic terms, connected with taking the extraneous elements out of the religions before Christianity; particular activities that were taking place on the body of deceased and activities progressed over the graves of the dead. Due to those deliberations, it can be presumed that Christian funeral rites are not an absolute novelty, as the arisen religion but it is a series of activities, elaborated by the previous generations and adjust up to the teaching of Jesus Christ and the spirit of the Gospel.

El oficio de difuntos en la Edad Media. La liturgia funeraria en dos códices monásticos del Archivo General de Navarra

One aspect of the history and historiography of death that has attracted least attention in this research area is medieval funeral liturgy. This article therefore sets out to study the structure and composition of the canonic model of the Office of the Dead based on two codices originating in Navarre, seeking to cover the ecclesiatical material deployed during and after funerals. We will thus be able to approach the canonical part of the ritual accompanying the dead, in which the Christian community of the living invoked through prayer their most important dogma: the hope of resurrection.

La escultura funeraria gótica en la provincia e Toledo

The study of funerary sculpture in Toledo shows that, although the idea and feeling of death are common to all christians, were killed according to social status that owns the deceased as show the place of burial, funeral liturgy and the posthumous fame managed to reach the most privileged.

Triumphant in God's love: the new manual for funerals in the Archdiocese of Vienna

In October 2008 a new book of funeral services was published by the Archdiocese of Vienna: Manuale für die Begräbnisfeier (Vienna: Wiener-Dom-Verlag, 2008). Developments within Austrian society made it necessary to revise the funeral liturgy and to offer a greater variety of material. The result is a new liturgical book whose theology is based on 1 John 4.7: ‘God is Love’. The following article describes its genesis, points towards the political issues involved and examines its theology.

Music, Tradition, and Cultural Adaptation among the Maronites of Lebanon: The Reform of the Funeral Liturgy

The Maronite Church is a branch of the Syro-Antiochean Church and one of the oldest among the Eastern churches. Modernisation, globalisation, emigration, civil war and other factors have together influenced many aspects of local religious expression, but the Maronite Church has succeeded in adapting to the social changes and the spiritual needs of its followers without losing its identity. This is reflected in the Maronite funeral liturgy, which is here examined. I aim to show how the role of music and poetry is perpetuating a sense of communal identity among the members of this religious group, and is creating boundaries with other ethnic and religious groups.

A Funeral Liturgy: Death Rituals as Symbolic Communication

This performative ethnography pulls together ethnography, autoethnography, and interview accounts to explore and exemplify the liturgical and narrative symbolism inherent in funerals. Funerals are the ultimate in final stories. This article looks at funerals as a communicative event and addresses questions of the performative nature of funerals and the meaning and reality constructed by funerals. The author concludes with an argument for seeing funerals as an opportunity to bridge the liminal space between dead and alive and the sacred and the human, and to bring together the past, present, and future of the deceased and their “surviving” loved ones.

The Absence of a Post-Burial Christian Funeral Liturgy

The Absence of a Post-Burial Christian Funeral Liturgy

Religion et Sepulture: L'Eglise, les vivants et les morts dans l'Antiquite tardive (review)

Reviewed by: Religion et Sépulture: L’Église, les vivants et les morts dans l’Antiquité tardive John S. Kloppenborg Religion et Sépulture: L’Église, les vivants et les morts dans l’Antiquité tardive. By Éric Rebillard. [Civilisations et sociétés, Vol. 15.] (Paris: Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales. 2003. Pp. 243. €22.00.) Since G.-B. de Rossi's La Roma sotterranea cristiana (Rome: Cromolitografia pontificia, 1864), the opinio communis has been that at least by the beginning of the third century, Christians owned and managed cemeteries and that it soon became normative for Christians to be buried in such church-controlled cemeteries. Rebillard's point of departure is the question, if the earliest church already controlled cemeteries reserved for the Christian dead, why do medieval legislators make no reference to this? His thesis comes in several parts: that the evidence of Christian control of cemeteries in the third century is much less convincing than has been supposed; that in the third century burial in a church-controlled cemetery was far from the norm; that it was not the Church that defined tomb violation as a crime, but rather the state; that the Church's principal interest was in the burial of martyrs; and that there was no standardized funeral liturgy (since it was the family rather than the Church that was involved in the burial of most of the Christian dead). The two main texts supporting the traditional view are Hippolytus, Ref. 9.12, according to which Pope Zephyrinus appointed the deacon and future pope Callixtus to be in charge of to koimeterion, identified by most with the famous catacomb of San Callisto. From approximately the same time Tertullian's Ad Scapulam 3 refers to pagans who objected to the existence of burial grounds (areae) for Christians. Rebillard points out that the Greek koimeterion originally referred to individual tombs, not communal cemeteries, and that in Latin coemeterium was probably equivalent to martyrion rather than designating a general place for Christian dead. Valerian's decree of 257, forbidding Christians to visit "their places called koimeteria" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.11.10) makes little sense if koimeteria referred to ordinary graves, since the emperor could [End Page 511] hardly forbid Christians to bury their dead. As far as Ad Scapulam 3 is concerned, Rebillard argues that Carthaginian pagans were not objecting to the existence of areae reserved for Christians, "mais plus vraisemblablement les enclos dont ils savaient que les propriétaires étaient chrétiens" (p. 20). Apostolic Tradition 40 would seem to contradict Rebillard's thesis, since it prescribes that the poor should not be overcharged for burial in the koimeteria (plural!) since "it is the property of every poor person" and that the bishop should support those who care for cemeteries lest they become a burden on those who use them. Rebillard points out, however, that the original Greek of the Apostolic Tradition is not preserved, nor is the Latin for this section. What has been preserved is a Sahidic version dating from about the sixth century. Moreover, he distinguishes two parts of the prescriptions of chapter 40: one which requires burial places to be provided for the poor, which does not necessarily imply that the Church possessed or managed such places; and the other which indicated only that if the Church did own such cemeteries, the bishop should ensure that nothing was demanded of the poor to be buried there (p. 134). Rebillard's interpretations of these texts seem possible but hardly compelling and do not successfully exclude the more usual interpretations, that the Roman Church possessed cemeteries controlled by the bishop. Throughout Rebillard insists that the choice of a place of burial was not imposed by the Church; Christians "had no religious reason to privilege a form of communal burial at the expense of burial by families" (p. 49). Collegia also offered burial for members, which offered another possibility for burial for Christians who were members of such professional or neighborhood groups. But he argues that membership in a collegium would not have necessarily made burial by the collegium more likely; on the contrary the family remained the "communauté naturelle...

Remembrance and Hope in Roman Catholic Funeral Rites: Attitudes of Participants Towards Past and Future of the Deceased

In this article the authors focus on Roman Catholic funeral rites, and investigate how the past and future of the deceased are reflected in the attitudes of participants at these funerals. The main question of the article is: In what sense are past and future of the deceased represented in Roman Catholic funerals today, as reflected in the attitudes of participants? Past and future are aspects of memory. According to Jan Assman, rituals have a unique possibility to enact different types of memory through which a we-identity is shaped. The theoretical framework of Assman is used to describe the anamnetic-epicletic nature of Roman Catholic funeral liturgy. On the background of this theoretical framework the results of a research are described into the attitudes of more than 220 participants of Roman Catholic funerals with regard to past and future of the deceased in the Netherlands.