The Night a Parish Said Goodbye

I expected tomorrow to be the great farewell.

The Archbishop will preside. An overwhelming number of clergy and dignitaries will attend. The church will be overflowing. It will be solemn, magnificent and entirely fitting for the man we are laying to rest.

Yet I have a feeling that the true farewell happened tonight.

This evening, our parish gathered to receive Father Alan’s body into the church. Every seat was taken, with many standing at the back. Parishioners, friends and family had gathered not because protocol demanded it, but because they had come to bid farewell to a priest and friend who had quietly touched their lives over the years.

Many people started to gather in silence over an hour prior to the beginning of Mass. The choir led a solemn moment of musical reflection waiting for the procession to begin. Then came the moment I shall never forget.

Father Alan’s coffin arrived. The bearers, impeccably dressed in traditional morning dress, gently lifted him onto their shoulders. With their hands folded across their chests as if in prayer, they carried him from the churchyard, through the great doors, the entire length of the nave, to the place prepared for him before the altar—negotiating every corner, every inch and every step without wavering.

The entire evening was woven together by music, just as Father Alan’s ministry had always been. For more than three decades, he and our choir director, Mag, shaped the musical life of our parish—sometimes in perfect agreement, sometimes through spirited debate, but always with the same purpose: to serve the liturgy. Their shared dedication made music one of the defining elements of our community. Tonight, that shared vision gave voice to a farewell that words alone never could.

Throughout the service, there were countless moments in the liturgy that spoke to the heart, but together they told a single story—not of death, but of a life that had left its mark on an entire community.

Tomorrow, the Church will bid farewell to one of its Saints.

Tonight, a parish said goodbye to its shepherd.