November – a time to remember
November is our traditional time for praying for the dead and this year we will have a number of memorial Masses to remember all those who died over the last 18 months. We are conscious that many people will not have been able to mourn the passing of loved ones and friends with the usual funeral rites – November offers us an opportunity to come together to pray for and remember them.
Following the Feast of All Saints on the first weekend of November we will have a number of Masses on the Feast of all Souls. The evening Mass on 2nd November at 5pm will be celebrated at the High Altar with the Cathedral Choir singing music from Faure’s Requiem. Those attending are welcome to bring photos of loved ones who they wish to pray for which can be placed on the sanctuary during Mass.
Archbishop Malcolm will offer Mass at 11am in the Cathedral the following Sunday for all who died throughout the Covid Pandemic. On Friday 12th November we will also have a special Mass in remembrance of Bishop Malone and the other diocesan and religious priests who have died over this period without having the normal funeral rites nor the opportunity for priests and people to come together to pray for them. This Remembrance Mass will be on Friday 12th November at 7pm. If you wish to have people remembered at Masses and included in the Pious List for November please write the names and put them in an envelope marked Pious List and either pass them in to Cathedral House or place them in the basket on the altar at the beginning of the month.
Over the last few years our parishes have had increasing difficulty finding a bank branch that is open and able to count or accept cash and notes to be banked. Even the banks don’t seem to want cash and with our local Cathedral branch now closed we have had to resort to using a well known security company for banking the collections. On the first week of the new arrangement the security van got lost not having location instructions from central office for the pick-up. It took them almost 3 hours to find us! It was more bizarre this last week as the two guards managed to lock themselves out of the van and had to wait here for help to arrive to reopen the vehicle. I could only assure our anxious Finance Officer that once the money was in the van it showed that even the security guards had no way of accessing it!
Rather than it once being a parish priest slogan that ‘notes are preferable to coins’ it is the banks who now seem to be pushing to eradicate the counting of coinage. They are now encouraging us to use notes, standing orders or tap and go for our offertory giving and donations!
Canon Anthony O’Brien
Cathedral Dean
