When you were baptized, you are given a name  – by your parents, if you were an infant, or by yourself, if you came to Christ through RCIA. In death, your name is called out in the Church, as you are honored with a Christian burial through the Funeral Liturgy. At St. Monica, we honor you additionally, by proclaiming your name, one last time in the Church, during November: The Month of Remembrance.

Starting the weekend of Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, we will honor those who have died this past year from our parish community during our liturgies; those able to celebrate funerals early in the year, as well as the many who died during the Pandemic. We will call out their names, and we will let our prayers rise up like incense to our God, for our loved ones, whose names we reverence and hear in the Church one last time.

All Month Long, we will be accepting the names of your loved ones, whom you would like for us to offer up during our All Souls Novena. There is also an optional offering. We will continue to pray and hold you loved ones close to our hearts.

We will begin a Novena for Unity and Peace for Our Country on Wednesday, Nov. 4, which will include Benediction and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This service will be available via Livestream as well  as those wishing to attend in-person, Outdoors, for pre-registration.

The Homeless Memorial Service will be celebrated on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 10:00 a.m. via Livestream, sponsored by The Westside Coalition and St. Monica Catholic Community, to remember those individuals that have passed away on the streets, in shelters, and in our communities, who experienced the pain of homelessness, as well as re-committing ourselves to the fight to end poverty and homelessness. 

On Nov. 7, at the Saturday Vigil Mass at 4:30 pm, we will celebrate a special COVID Memorial Mass with the families from our community who were unable to celebrate funerals this year. For our celebration, we invite all of those families to come, worship our God, and give thanks for their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, children, neighbors, and friends who have passed. This is a new addition to our collection of remembrance liturgies this month, called forth by the uncertain and unprecedented times we currently find ourselves.

Sunday, Nov. 15, during our Livestream Masses, we will celebrate our Mass of Remembrance: in a special way, we will honor all our loved ones with a special presentation. Parishioners are invited to submit digital photographs of their loved onse who has passed away, for us to remember. In addition, after the 5:30 p.m. Livestream Mass, the Bereavement ministers will host a virtual Remembrance Reception, with time to gather, tell stories, and share memories of the ones to which we have said farwell, the ones we miss, the ones we love, and who have loved us so dearly.

For more information about these and other events during the Month of Remembrance, click the link below.

Click Here for More Information on the Month of Remembrance.