Friday, April 08, 2005

Pope Sealed in Coffin; Funeral Underway

At 7:30 a.m. CET (1:30 a.m. EDT), a private liturgy was celebrated in Saint Peter's Basilica, wherein a white silk cloth was placed over the face of Pope John Paul II and his remains were sealed in a cypress wood coffin. After this, the Camerlengo led those senior clerics and friends present in reciting Psalm 42:
1 For the leader. A maskil of the Korahites.
2 As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God.
3 My being thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and see the face of God?
4 My tears have been my food day and night, as they ask daily,"Where is your God?"
5 Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I went in procession with the crowd, I went with them to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival.
6 Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.
7 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you From the land of the Jordan and Hermon, from the land of Mount Mizar.
8 Here deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents. All your waves and breakers sweep over me.
9 At dawn may the LORD bestow faithful love that I may sing praise through the night, praise to the God of my life.
10 I say to God, "My rock, why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?"
11 It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me. They say to me daily: "Where is your God?"
12 Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, whom I shall praise again, my savior and my God.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know who the friends were who witnessed the closing of the coffin and the burial of John Paul II? Were they all Polish and were there any lay people?