I have been saying this for years, but Catholic musicians and priests need to pay more attention to funerals, for by them (not exclusively, for sure) prayers are offered for the deceased. Unfortunately, many Catholics think of funeral Masses and memorial services in the same way as Protestants think of their funerals-nice for the purpose of giving thanks ("we thank You that so-and-so is in heaven tonight") or for praying for the families (emphasis)---but spiritually worthless for the deceased her-/himself. Even in the case of infants, the Church asks God to bless the body in preparation for the resurrection at the end of the age.

(Disclaimer: I say this from the point of a mere layman, a young person-30 years old, and not a DoM or an organist, so take it for what it is worth.)

I have been to a Catholic funeral Mass where the recessional was "Our God is an Awesome God"--a praise and worship song. Even if the purpose of the song was to "lift up" the bereaved (whatever the catch phrase is these days), I do not see how this song accomplishes the purpose.

There is no real way in the English language to identify the state after someone's body has stopped functioning physiologically other than to say "he/she is dead". Philosophically and theologically I believe very firmly in life after death, which occurs when the soul leaves the body. But a physician who is a believer will, in declaring the death of person, will have to use the limitations of the English language without denial of the afterlife. And other believers will likewise have to use such terminology when discussing the deceased.

This leads me to this: it is common in the Byzantine Catholic or Eastern Orthodox traditions to hear someone say "Memory eternal!" This actually comes from the ancient Jewish religion, in which it was often believed that a person who has died remains only as long as the person was remembered by their loved ones.

Dead is an adverb (predicate) adjective. "He is dead."

Fixed, as in "Dead Man Walking," or "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise." But also:

Dead is also noun: We believe in the resurrection of the dead.

Most succinctly for us: For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

And so it is, at least for some of us, that the use of "dead" or "death" or "died" - in the English language - actually does connote the passage from life to afterlife without the need to grasp for another word or phrase to signify what we are talking about.

On many of the old Polish stones in our parish cemetery there is inscribed (in Polish, obvioiusly):

"I beg of you an Ave", or, less usually, "I beg of you a Pater". One boldly says: "I beg of you the Angelus".