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Prior to the Mass:

Make notes on the following:

Name and location of funeral home
Time of Mass and Celebrant
Name of Organist or Cantor (Is St. Charles making arrangements, or the family?  Will funeral home pay, or will family?)
Music selected (Help family with selections)
Readings selected (Help family with selections); Names of Readers (incl. Prayers of the Faithful)
Does family want Communion under both species?
Does family have a crucifix to bring to place on the coffin or with the ashes?

Set-up for Funeral Masses:

Chalice; placed on table to the left of the altar (just behind the Ambo), with a Purificator (small white cloth with a red cross on it; kept in a drawer just to the right of the cabinet where the priest’s vestments are kept).

Ciborium/dish for the hosts; put about 20-40 small hosts and one large host in the dish (hosts are kept in cabinet caddy corner to where the Purificators are kept.  Put Ciborium/dish on small table in back of the church with the wine cruet.

Cruets; put a little wine in one (wine is kept in the cabinet directly above the sink) and water in the second.  The wine is put on the table in the back of the church with the unconsecrated hosts.  The water, with a finger towel (kept in a drawer right next to the Purificators) and a shallow dish (kept above and to the right of the sink) are placed on the small table to the left of the altar (next to the Chalice).

Sacramentary (big book with prayers priest says during Mass, kept in same cabinet as Lectionary); placed on altar, just to the left of the corporal.

Lectionary (big book of readings, kept in cabinet in corner of the sacristy; placed on the Ambo); one copy of each of the readings and the prayers of the faithful also placed on Ambo.

Funeral Pall (located in a drawer toward the right of the counter, just under the clock in the sacristy) put on last seat in the church just inside the main doorway.  (Only for funerals with a coffin.)

Holy water pitcher and sprinkler (located in the closet where the candle lighters are) put in back of the church near the Pall (or carried by an Altar boy).

Set up table in the back of the church if family wants to display photos or other mementos of the deceased.

Just before Mass, turn on the PA system.  This is a single switch just on the left side of the cabinet where the priest’s vestments are kept.

If no Altar boy, light the candles just before Mass begins: one or two candles on both sides of the altar; one candle on both sides of the Ambo; and the Pascal candle.

The Eucharistic Minister (if any) should check to see that there are enough consecrated hosts in a ciborium in the Tabernacle and should keep the Tabernacle key during the Mass.

After the Mass:

Check that the musicians have been paid.
Be sure crucifix is returned to the family if they brought one.
Return things to their proper places in the church; pick up programs left in the pews, turn lights out, lock the sacristy.