MADISON — Two prayerful events occurred on All Souls’ Day at Resurrection Cemetery in Madison.

Lay Them to Rest is an event where the Diocese of Madison invites those who are in possession of unburied cremated remains to lay them to rest in a Catholic cemetery. 

The committal service is free and includes perpetual record keeping, hopefully removing any barrier to completing the process of burial in the way the Church prescribes.

The simple but prayerful ceremony included words from the bishop, intercessions and the “Our Father,” the sprinkling of the urns with Holy Water, and placement of them in the Sacred Heart Crypt at Resurrection Cemetery.

“When someone that is close to us dies, there’s a profound sorrow, a deep grief in that loss, and it’s a proper thing, because it means that we instinctively know that death is not natural,” said Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison. 

“It’s not what God wanted for us. So we know that death is the result of sin. . . Yet, the Lord in His mercy does not leave us in that predicament of misery and despair. And so He sent us Christ Jesus . . . Because of the Lord Jesus, we can gather here tonight in hope, honest with our grief and our tears, but also looking beyond our sorrow to the power of Jesus’s light. . . We come here in hope that there’s a light that shines beyond the stars, the light of the glory of Heaven. That there’s a warmth beyond anything this world can give us.”

After Lay Them to Rest, there was a Candlelight All Souls’ Day Mass at the Resurrection Cemetery chapel, to which both those who attended Lay Them to Rest and the general public were invited.

“Many of you are here mourning a loved one, perhaps recently passed, perhaps not. But all of us have lost loved ones along the way, and today is a profound day to remember them, to pray for them, and to trust that in death they are not lost to us, nor we to them,” said Bishop Hying. 

“May the Lord continue to console you and give you strength.”

The rainy and dark weather did not stop those prayerfully participating in these two events, which were fitting ways to observe All Souls’ Day and intercede for our beloved dead.

For more information on diocesan cemeteries or end-of-life questions, go to madisondiocese.org/cemeteries