With these direct, inescapable words, Catholic priests in Chicago are inviting the faithful to pause and confront a true reality that modern culture goes to great lengths to ignore.
“For millennia, the Church has reminded us of this inescapable reality. This world is not our final home. We are made for something greater, and what we do in this life has consequences for the next.”
Faithful kneel in front of the altar after the Requiem Mass in front of relics on display at St. John Cantius Catholic Church. (Credit: Canons Regular of St. John Cantius)But with our Catholic understanding of memento mori, a call to remember our own death, we are invited to navigate this universal mystery with spiritual courage rather than dread.
This Chicago-based religious community, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, have launched a special All Souls Novena — a much-needed 9-day program of prayer and guided reflections on the Catholic understanding of death, leading up to their annual celebration of Mozart’s Requiem Mass.
Beauty in the Shadow of Mortality
Throughout the ages, the Church has never treated death with despair, but rather through the lens of divine hope and revelation. Although we
