‘You Are Not Alone’: Mount Olivet’s Annual Children’s Mass Brings Comfort and Community

(Photo provided)

By Erin Scherer

Families gathered to celebrate the Annual Children’s Mass on Saturday at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery, a tradition upheld for nearly 30 years. The Mass provides attendees the opportunity to gather with family and loved ones, visit the cemetery and celebrate the lives of their little ones. Many return year after year.

“People need to celebrate the life of their child,” said Paulette Kaufman, mission and family care manager at Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services of Colorado (CFCS). “We have people who come back every year. It may be the only time each year they come if they lost a baby 20 years ago.”

Coming together with others who have lost children, attendees find community and comfort in God, who offers a powerful response to such suffering: Jesus Christ.

“Words fall short,” recognized Father Adam Bradshaw in his homily, “but we have the Word.” 

Knowing how much Jesus loves us, we can take hope in his promise to be with us always, Father Bradshaw reminded the congregation. We can rest in the blessed assurance that death will not overcome us.

“There is never a Good Friday without a Resurrection Sunday!” he said.

While families attending this Mass may not know each other, they form an intimate connection, innately understanding what each other is going through without needing to say a word.

“You recenter once a year and you come together with others,” explained CFCS funeral director Jessica Galán. “You don’t know them. You’ve probably never seen them, but you’re walking together — that walk of grief and love.”

Through the Annual Children’s Mass, families realize “they are never ever truly alone on this journey,” Galán explained.

The annual event is just the tip of the iceberg of CFCS’ mission programs, serving the Northern Colorado community. From their Crypt of All Souls program to their veterans programs, grief support groups and Precious Lives ministry, CFCS is leading the way in providing compassionate, dignified care to fill the void of loss with faith.

In a particular way, the monthly Precious Lives funeral services and burials, offered free of charge to families who have lost children during pregnancy or at birth, extend the peaceful and supportive community found at the Annual Children’s Mass throughout the year. Currently offered only at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge, CFCS is seeking to expand the vital ministry to St. Simeon Catholic Cemetery in Aurora.

To learn more about this ministry and others, please visit CFCS’ website, www.cfcscolorado.org.