Catholic Funeral Liturgy for Francoline Czerner, Presider Donna Rougeux ARCWP

Greeting and Introduction

Opening Song: Amazing Grace

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.

Presider: The grace of Christ, our liberator, and the love of God, our Creator, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier be with you.

ALL: And also with you.

Sprinkling with Holy Water

Presider: In the waters of baptism Francoline died with Christ and rose with him to new life. May she now share with him eternal glory.

Placing of personal objects by Francoline’s great-grandchildren.

Presider: My sisters and brothers, we believe that all the ties of friendship and affection, which knit us as one throughout our lives do not unravel with death.

Confident that God always remembers the good we have done and forgives our sins, let us pray, asking God to gather Francoline to Divine peace and love.

Holy One, in our grief we turn to you to seek refuge. We humbly ask that you hear our prayers for Francoline, whom you have called out of this world: lead her to your kin-dom of light and peace and count her among the saints in glory.  We ask this through Christ our liberator, Amen

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Joy of Hope by Francoline Czerner

Second Reading: Psalms 40: 1-3, 5, 7-8, 10-13, 16-17 Gospel Acclamation: Celtic Alleluia

Gospel Reading: John 5:4-5, 11 followed by Prayer of St. Titus Brandsma

Homily

Intercessions

Presider: Let us pray for Francoline, her family and friends and for all God’s people.

For Francoline, child of God, that she be held securely in God’s loving embrace now and for all eternity. We pray.

All: Loving God hear our prayer.

For Francoline’s family, that they feel the healing power of Christ in the midst of their pain and grief. We pray.

All: Loving God hear our prayer

For all people who are grieving the loss of a loved one, that they be comforted in the knowledge that their loved one dwells with God.

For those who have died of hunger and disease, that they will be nourished and healed at the heavenly table. We pray.

All: Loving God hear our prayer.

For all people that we prepare worthily for the hour of our death, when God will call us by name to pass from this world to the next. We pray.

All: Loving God hear our prayer.

For the unspoken prayers on our hearts today. We pray.

All: Loving God hear our prayer.

Presider: Healing God, you are the one who faithfully listens to our prayers. Grant us peace and comfort so that we may continue growing in love and service. We pray through Jesus, the Christ.

All: Amen

Offertory and Presentation of the Gifts

Music: Molly Malone, Instrumental

Presider: Blessed are you, O God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become, for us the bread of life.

All: Blessed be God forever.

Presider: Blessed are you, O God of all creation. Through your goodness, we have this wine to offer. Fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our spiritual drink.

All: Blessed be God forever.

Presider: Pray, sisters and brothers that our gifts may be humbly and worthily offered to our loving God.

All: May God accept these gifts from our hands for the praise and glory of God’s name, for our good and the good of all the Church.

Prayer Over the Gifts

Presider: O God, who fashioned us from the fruits of the earth, we bless you now with your own gifts, which we have fashioned into bread and wine. In our service to one another, we serve you, and so we dare to ask you to accept this offering at our hands. Grant this through our risen brother Jesus.

All: Amen.

Eucharistic Prayer

Presidere; Sisters and brothers, God is with you.

All: And also with you.

Presider: Lift up your hearts.

All: We lift them up to our God.

Presider: Let us give thanks to our loving God.

All: It is right to give God thanks and praise.

Presider: Loving and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.  In you we live and move and have our being. Each day you show us your love; your spirit dwelling in us gives us the hope of unending joy with you. Your gift of the Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, is the foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven. With thankful praise in the company of angels we glorify the wonders of your love.

All: Holy, Holy, Holy God, God of power and light. Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed are all who come in the name of our God. Hosanna in the highest.

Invocatin of the Holy Spirit

(Please extend your hands in blessing over our gifts.)

Presider: You are holy indeed, O God, the fountain of all holiness. Send forth the power of your Spirit so that these gifts may become, for us, the body and blood our risen brother, Jesus the Christ, in whom we have all become your sons and daughters.

On the night before he died, Jesus came to table with the women and men he loved. He took bread and praised you, God of all creation. He blessed and broke the bread, gave it to his friends, and said:

All: Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

Presider: After supper, Jesus poured a final cup of wine and blessed you, God of all creation. He passed the cup among his friends, and said:

All: This is the cup of the covenant in my blood poured out for you. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

Presider: Let us celebrate and proclaim the mystery of our faith:

All: Chirst has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

Presider: Therefore, loving God, we commemorate Jesus. Death could not bind him, for you raised him up in the spirit of holiness and exalted him as the firstborn of creation. Send your Spirit upon us, upon our celebration, and upon these gifts, that we may be fed with the body and blood of Jesus and filled with your life and goodness.

Presider: Strengthen us to do your work, and to be your body in the world. Unite us in Christ and give us your peace. Through your Holy Spirit, burning as a flame yet gentle as a dove, may we who receive these gifts live justly, love tenderly, walk humbly in your way, and be a voice for those who are not heard.

Presider: Rejoicing in the Holy Spirit, your whole Church offers thanks and praise, together with Francis our pope, Bishops Bridget Mary and John Wester and all who bear leadership responsibilities, holy women and men from all time, and all those whose lives bring hope to this world.

All: Through Christ, With Christ, and In Christ, in the unity of the Spirit, all glory is yours, Almighty God, forever and ever. Amen!

Communal Prayer and Sign of Peace

Presider: Let us pray in confidence as Jesus taught us:

Our Mother, our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed is your name. Your kin-dom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us as we forgive others. May we resist temptations and be delivered from all evil. For yours is the kin-dom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Presider: Jesus bestowed on us the gift of peace. Let us offer that peace to one another now.

Litany for the Breaking of the Bread

All: Lamb of God, You call us to speak truth to power, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, You call us to be Your presence in the world, grant us peace.

Presider: This is the body and the blood of the risen Christ who invites us and calls us worthy to share in this feast. Happy are we to be His guests.

All: Jesus, you make me worthy to receive you and to become you for others.

Communion:

(All are welcome at this table. The wine is non-alcoholic.)

Communion Song: Hail Mary Gentle Woman

HAIL MARY, FULL OF GRACE, THE LORD IS WITH YOU
BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN,
AND BLEST IS THE FRUIT OF YOUR WOMB, JESUS
HOLY MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, PRAY FOR US SINNERS
NOW AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH, AMEN

(REFRAIN:)
GENTLE WOMAN, QUIET LIGHT
MORNING STAR SO STRONG AND BRIGHT
GENTLE MOTHER, PEACEFUL DOVE
TEACH US WISDOM, TEACH US LOVE

YOU WERE CHOSEN BY THE FATHER
YOU WERE CHOSEN FOR THE SON
YOU WERE CHOSEN FROM ALL WOMEN
AND FOR WOMAN, A SHINING ONE

(REPEAT REFRAIN)

BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN
BLESS IN TURN ALL WOMEN TOO
BLESSED THEY WITH PEACEFUL SPIRITS
BLESSED THEY WITH GENTLE HEARTS

(REPEAT REFRAIN)

Period of Silence

Prayer After Communion

Presider: Holy One, we have once again been nourished with the sacrament of our covenant. May this Eucharist accomplish, in the church and in the world, the unity and peace it signifies. We ask this through Christ our liberator.

All Amen.

Invite People to talk about Francoline

Song of Farewell and incense the Urn

Fields of Gold

Prayer of Commendation

Final Blessing

Blessing by John O’Donohue

May you know that absence is full of tender presence

and that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.

May the absences in your life be full of eternal echo.

May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere which holds

the presences that have left your life.

May you be generous in your embrace of loss.

May the sore of your grief turn into a well of seamless presence.

May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear

from and may you have the courage to speak out for the

excluded ones.

May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.

May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.

May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight

are one and may your longing inhabit its deepest dreams

within the shelter of the Great Belonging.