A dear friend of ours in Australia, Marian, died last week after a long battle with cancer. Please pray for the repose of her soul and for Gary, her loving husband, founder and editor of the very impressive "Oriens" journal on the traditional Liturgy and its culture. (Selections from the hardcopy at http://www.oriensjournal.com)

Marian's requiem was held at St Christopher's Cathedral in Canberra on Monday. It was a pontifical EF Requiem. Celebrant: His Lordship Geoffrey Jarrett of Lismore (New South Wales). We can't be certain, but it may be the first EF full Pontifical Requiem in Australia since the early 1960's. (Archbishop Mannix of Melbourne died in 1963 & had one.) That's about 46 years.

Music:
The Choir was basically the Canberra Trad. Mass Choir, with additions from Sydney and Melbourne flying in the night before. Some old codgers like me (50's) mixed in with some great younger generation singers. Practice together for an hour and a half before the Mass in a kind of store room/back entry at the rear of the Cathedral presbytery. Deeply quizzical looks from a Cathedral staff member as she came through for work. Well, we were halfway through the Lobo “Versa Est”.

The coffin was carried (carried by six men, not wheeled on a trolley) into the Cathedral. We made sure the Cathedral bell was tolling for about 10 minutes around this time. (Protracted negotiations to get that going. Great result.) The cantor intoned the "Subvenite" with the choir (dressed in black & academic gowns), taking it up, followed the coffin down the main aisle. (Men on the right, women on the left). Rich accoustic (since wall to wall carpet was entirely removed a couple of years ago and replaced with smooth stone tile: thanks to Archbishop Mark Coleridge) so only one cantor for the versicle was necessary. Difficult not to be overcome with emotion while singing this. Once the coffin was in place, the choir filed past - men to the right, women to the left, walked down their respective side aisles back up to the loft at the rear of the Cathedral.

Bishop Jarrett preached -very movingly- (hopefully the text will be available online soon) before the start of Mass. The procession to the sanctuary before his homily was therefore extra-liturgical, so we could sing "May Flights of Angels" - Tune, Gibbons.

Propers:

Chant.


Dies Irae: Alternating Men & Full Choir on the verses. At the Offertory - Domine Iesu Christe, we added all the stirring extra verses from the Offertoriale Triplex. Men on v1 (Hostias), Tenor on v2, 3 Men on v3, the spectacular "Abrahae" verse, then the women rounding out with the last verse. At Communion (Lux Aeterna) we sang the full psalm, alternating verses men and women & coming back to the antiphon after every few verses.

Ordinary: Victoria's Requiem for 6vv

Music at Communion (apart from the chant): Versa Est (Lobo), Anima Christi (hymn - in the service book, so anyone in the congregation could join in, as many did), and Sicut Cervus (Palestrina)

The Epistle was sung by Fr Glen Tattersall (the subdeacon), chaplain of the Latin Mass Community in Melbourne, Victoria.
The Gospel was sung by Fr John Parsons (deacon), inaugural chaplain of the Latin Mass Community in Canberra, and who gifted us with that immortal English translation of Romano Amerio's 'Iota Unum'.
Master of Ceremonies was Fr Dominic Popplewell FSSP, the current chaplain of the Canberra Latin Mass Community.

At the end of Mass, the Choir filed down to be around the coffin at the front of the Church for the Absolutions. This we've found over the years creates a much more intimate effect, adding urgency to the prayers at this stage: you literally stand beside and with the deceased, pleading in the Libera Me and other prayers on his/her behalf. (Of course, one must leave room for the liturgy of the absolutions to proceed in comfort, so about 5 yards from the coffin.) Worked very well. By the end of the Libera Me, and during the Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie and prayers that followed, a noticeable part of the congregation and ministers had joined in. Again, hard to sing and hold back the tears.

While the pall (black, with a white ribbon with black crosses embroidered) was being removed, something quite unplanned happened. The Requiem had begun at 10.00 am. It was now 12.00 midday precisely. In the entire time the pall was being unfastened and removed, the bells of the Angelus rang... to completion!! Another almost unbearably beautiful & consoling touch of grace.

Then the coffin was hoisted – the “In Paradisum” intoned at this point - and borne (not wheeled on a trolley) by six men out of the Cathedral. Crossbearer and servers first, then coffin, then ministers. The choir followed, but bringing in members of the congregation before it – especially the chief mourners. This meant that a goodly part of the congregation was in the recession with the coffin, and singing the In Paradisum as it was repeated over a few times. Then the choir sang “May Flights of Angels” – again, quite a few congregants joined in as they had heard it earlier, and the night before at the Rosary.

It was a perfect day for a funeral. Steely grey clouds, cold, and a steady drizzle. The cemetery was soggy, and mud was oozing around the freshly dug grave. Once everyone had assembled around the hearse, we accompanied Marian’s coffin the 50 or so yards to the graveside, singing the In Paradisum several times over (Solo/All, if my memory serves me). Then Bishop Jarrett intoned the Ego Sum, and the rest of the antiphon, with the Benedictus, was taken up by the choir with a surprising number of the congregation joining in very soon, once they got the pattern. The grave and coffin was asperged and incensed, more prayers were said, we sang the Crimond, and Marian was lowered (with thick straps, not some mechanical device operated by a kick). Everyone helped to bury her with a handful from a pile soggy soil which had been excavated from the grave (not some sand imported from Upper Kalithumpia); we wept and consoled, and repaired to the home of a family friend nearby where a great nosh up was had.

As a choir colleague remarked, “There’s nothing like a good funeral”.

Marian Scarrabelotti RIP