Archbishop prays for deceased during year of COVID

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, offered prayers March 26 for the millions of people who have died from COVID-19 worldwide, including nearly 1,500 British Columbians.

At a private Memorial Mass in Vancouver offered for those who have died in a “long and tragic year,” the archbishop said the pandemic has “like nothing else in living memory … highlighted how interconnected we all are at a human level, but even more at a supernatural level.”

He said prayer is the “best and most effective way” to honor those who have passed. “We mourn the loss of each one of them.”

The Memorial Mass was held with a handful of participants at the Chapel of the Annunciation at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre and joined by another 40 via livestream.

“We are reaffirming our bonds of communion with the deceased, bonds that even death cannot break. With them we are part of a spiritual fellowship. We call this the Communion of Saints, where profound solidarity reins,” he said.

“Let us together pray in the solidarity of the Communion of Saints that the Lord will draw to himself all our beloved brothers and sisters who have died since the beginning of the pandemic, a pandemic that has so unsettled us.”

Prayers were offered for all people suffering from COVID and for those who are caring for the sick, searching for a cure, separated from family in times of grief, or waiting for treatment.

“In prayer, let us commend to the Lord’s mercy all of the departed, and as we mourn the loss of life, as we should, as we mourn the grief and the hardship that this pitiless pandemic has inflicted upon the world, let us here in Vancouver place ourselves under the mantle of our patroness, Our Blessed Virgin Mother, Our Lady of the Rosary, and now during this year of St. Joseph, also under his protection, he who is the guardian of the universal Church,” the archbishop said.

“May they, this wonderful and magnificent husband and wife, Joseph and Mary, help wipe away every tear from our eyes and also help us to comfort those who mourn the death of a loved one.”

View the Mass below.