You're Invited to Bring Them Home: A Final Act of Love
The annual All Souls' Day commemoration offers local Catholics the chance to inter loved ones' remains at no cost.
Sometimes the person we love dies, the funeral takes place, the family gathers and life begins moving forward — but something remains unfinished.
Perhaps an urn containing the cremated remains of a parent has been sitting on a mantel for years. Maybe the remains of a spouse are tucked safely away in a closet because deciding between burial options felt overwhelming at the time. Perhaps finances were difficult, family members could not agree on what to do or no one ever explained what the Catholic Church teaches about the respectful interment of cremated remains.
Sometimes, we were not ready.
Whatever the reason, Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services of Colorado wants families to know something very important: We are here to help.
On November 2 at 11:00 a.m., during the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), we will celebrate our fifth annual Bring Them Home Mass at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. This special Mass provides families with an opportunity to entrust the cremated remains of their loved ones to the Church for respectful interment in consecrated ground — at no cost to the family.
For some families, this may be the answer to a prayer they have carried quietly for years.
A Sacred Place to Rest
The Catholic Church permits cremation, provided that it is not chosen for reasons contrary to the Christian faith. When cremation is chosen, however, the Church teaches that the cremated remains should be laid to rest in a sacred place such as a cemetery.
Why?
Because what remains of someone we love is not simply an object or a possession. The body was an integral part of the person we knew and loved — a person created in the image and likeness of God and destined for resurrection.
A Catholic cemetery, therefore, offers something more than a location for burial. It is sacred ground, where the dead are remembered, where families and the Christian community can return to pray for those who have gone before us.
The Church reminds us that placing cremated remains in a sacred place helps ensure that the deceased are not forgotten and remain part of the prayers and remembrance of both their family and the wider Christian community.
There can also be a very human dimension to making this final committal. Grief asks us to do something extraordinarily difficult: to continue loving someone while gradually accepting that our relationship with that person has changed through death. Keeping cremated remains in the home can sometimes make that transition more difficult. The Church has even acknowledged the possibility that keeping remains at home may, in some circumstances, contribute to unhealthy forms of mourning.
Interment does not mean leaving our loved one behind. Quite the opposite! It can be a final, tangible act of love: entrusting someone we love into God's hands and the care of the Church.
You Are Not Too Late
One of the most moving things I have discovered through the Bring Them Home Mass is how long some people have been waiting for an opportunity like this.
Often, an urn has a story behind it. There may be grief, uncertainty, financial hardship, family circumstances or simply not knowing what the Church asks of us.
Our response is not judgment but accompaniment.
Let us help you Bring Them Home.
And families do not have to wait for the annual Mass. Throughout the year, Catholic Funeral & Cemetery Services receives cremated remains from families and holds regular committal services so that loved ones may be reverently interred in consecrated ground. This is an ongoing ministry, not simply a once-a-year event.
We also understand that family circumstances can be complicated. Sometimes a family possesses all of a loved one’s cremated remains; in other circumstances, they may possess only a portion. We encourage families in either situation to contact us so we can help determine the appropriate next step.
This ministry is ultimately about something much larger than a cemetery.
It is about mercy, dignity and accompanying people in grief. And most importantly, it is about our Catholic hope that death does not have the final word.
For five years, the Bring Them Home Mass has allowed families to complete something that sometimes felt unfinished, even for decades.
If the cremated remains of someone you love are still at home, perhaps this invitation is meant for you.
There is no embarrassment. There is no judgment. And there is no cost.
On November 2, let us help you Bring Them Home.
For more information, click here.
Bring Them Home Mass
DATE: Monday, November 2, 2026
TIME: 11:00 a.m.
LOCATION: Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery
12801 W. 44th Ave, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033
