Funerals Overview

At Saint Benedict Parish, we experience every part of our spiritual walk as the community of God — none of us are alone. We would be honoured to walk with you and your family during the loss of your loved one. There are three different ways we can gather together to grieve as a community:

Funeral Mass 

As a community, we gather for a Mass with you and your family to pray for your loved one. You will meet with our Funeral Team beforehand to choose the readings and music for the Mass and to share some details about the life of your loved one for the priest to share in his homily.  This is an expression of grief that is best when the deceased was a member of our parish and many of the mourners are active church-goers and will be receiving the Eucharist.

Committal

An important part of grieving and of honouring the life of a person is the returning of their remains to the earth.  A committal is the gathering of a small community, often just close family & friends, and the presider, at the graveside or mausoleum. Brief prayers of blessing of the grave or mausoleum are offered as the remains of your loved one are laid to rest.


Grief Support

The weight of the loss of a loved one is carried far beyond the day of the funeral and our community is here to walk beside you in this loss. Please reach out to [email protected] to make a connection to other people who know this part of our journey.


If your loved one has experienced medical assistance in dying, our community desires to walk with you and your family through this loss in praying together at a Mass, or in a prayer of committal at the graveside, or in carrying the burden of loss together in Grief Support. For a more in depth understanding of why the Catholic faith does not see a Funeral Mass or Liturgy of the Word as the right community response in this circumstance, please visit: Guidelines for the Celebration of Sacraments and MAiD



We have some other resources you can look at for more understanding of funerals in the Catholic faith:

Click here to read a Bene Dictus article on funerals

Click here to read a letter on funerals written by Archbishop Mancini, former archbishop of Halifax-Yarmouth

Click here to listen to a talk from Fr. Simon at a workshop on funerals. The audio recording begins a few minutes into the presentation, when Fr. Simon is in the middle of telling a story from his first year of priesthood when he was celebrating a graduation Mass for high school students.

• In June 2021, our priests preached about end-of-life issues as part of our Author of Life preaching series. Click here or here to watch the homilies.

Please reach out to [email protected] for any help.