Funeral

So on Friday, my cousin's body is going to arrive at the Carondelet Center in LA at 1:00-something. Then there's a "vigil" with prolly rosaries and eulogizing at 4:00. The choir practices after that. Then I get to practice my part. Then food. Then the funeral mass is at 7:00 pm or so. Then, she's being buried the next morning around 10:00.

Apparently, Catherine's will says that she wants me to do the first reading which is Ephesians 3:16 -21. I dunno why she picked that, but first readings are, I think, always stuff from Saint Paul. So the first reading can't be by the Dali Lama or something, which maybe she would have prefered.

I used to read in church quite often when I was still a Catholic. I also played trumpet in mass every Saturday evening for years. The trick to reading in church is go really really slow, cuz they're echo-y as hell. Go so slow you sound like a parody to yerself and then slow down 5% more. Even if yer clear to the people in the front, the people in the back can't hear you unless you slow down. And enunciate. Oh, and don't cry. Yeah, reading at funerals sucks. Don't sniffle. Keep it together.

Sister Mary Elizabeth wanted me to know that Catherine (She calls her Mary tho, Everybody calls her Mary. Walk into a convent cafeteria and yell "hey sister mary!" and they'll all turn to look at you. They all had different names before they joined up, but now they're all Mary except to their families... Sistery Mary Elizabeth. Sister Mary Magdelena. Sister Mary Leahy. anyway.) always spoke highly of me. ok.

She was so frail for so long. I remember being a child and my mom warning me to not get to close to Catherine if I had a cold, cuz she was old and frail and might get it and then get pnemonia and die and it would all be my fault. (guilt much? geez.) But Catherine went and outlived everyone of her generation and my mom too.

So back in my youth, the comic strip For Better or For Worse had a sequence where Micheal's friend Lawrence came out. Micheal is the same age as me. and he has a kid! geez. Anyway, When Lawrence came out, I clipped all of the strips related to that and put them on my wall. Catherine was visiting and was in my room and looked at the comic strips and then looked at me with an expression that just said, "oh." And then started sending me stuff. She sent me a newsletter for gay monks. She sent me two books written about why gay catholics should come out and why they should stay in the church. She clipped articles from religious publications. Obviously, she wa sinvested in Catholicism and wanted me to stay in the church. She had disagreed with poltical stances of the church before. I remember once I saw her she was all annoyed because a letter had been published in the LA Times or the New York Times saying the church should be pro-choice and hundreds of nuns had signed it. But nobody had thought to send it to her! There it was in the paper, missing her signature!

MY mom, however, was not pro-choice and was not ok with me baing gay and wanted to tell me that frequently and was on my case about it and thought i was going to hell and wanted to prevent that. But then Catherine and Brother Bob both started talking to her and sending her books and articles and reassuring her and eventually their campaign (plus how much my mom liked Christi) paid off. Catherine was massively helpful to my mom and thus to me.

bah. must talk to dad about plane tickets and hotel and car rental.