Catholics assemble Memorial Day at Mount Calvary cemetery to 'deepen relationships'

Intermountain Catholic

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Trumpeter Alan Boyer of St. Peter Parish in Orem plays taps May 26 at the entrance of the Risen Savior Mausoleum at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Salt Lake City.

SALT LAKE CITY — Spilling out from the Risen Savior Mausoleum, Catholics gathered for Mass amid a steady rain May 26, Memorial Day, at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery to honor their deceased family and friends and pay tribute to the heroes who gave their lives defending their beliefs.

In his homily, Bishop John C. Wester of the Diocese of Salt Lake City paraphrased a story from former Mormon Tabernacle Choir leader Craig Jessop who had spent several weeks touring with a choir from Utah State University during the Vietnam War. "While they were in the Philippines visiting a hospital, they came across a soldier who had been severely injured and had not spoken since his treatment began. As the choir began to sing hymns to the soldier, he cried and opened up to begin his healing.

"We are here today to pray, to remember, to deepen the relationships that help us to live, to cry, to sing. We are here to remember Jesus is the life, who comes to us to be our life. All the themes of goodness that draw us here today find their source in the one theme which is Jesus.

"Jesus conquered sin and death through the resurrection. He wants us to be one with him. We must always remember that not even death can separate us from

Jesus Christ.

"Jesus rises from the dead, and all of us will rise with him. This is what we celebrate," Bishop

Wester said.

He continued, "We know Christ in our hope. We are one with our beloved through our own action of this Eucharist. We remember we are on sacred ground, a waiting place where we capture all our memories and where Christ will come, and the trumpet will sound. In this time of waiting, we do our best to deepen our relationship with our loved ones.

"We are all called to relationship with each other and with Christ," he said.

Although the annual Memorial Day Mass at Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery is usually celebrated at the altar centrally located among the graves of bishops, priests, deacons, and religious brothers and sisters, and the faithful departed of the Diocese of Salt Lake City buried at the cemetery, due to rain the Mass was moved to the Risen Savior Mausoleum for the second time since its construction, said Deacon Silvio Mayo, Chancellor of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. The collection at Mass went toward the work of Mount Calvary

Catholic Cemetery.

In a Mount Calvary first, Jason and George Starks of Starks

Funeral Parlor provided refreshments and umbrellas to those gathered at the cemetery.