Mission of Tobit

Sadly, we are no strangers to death… not by a long shot. We are often in the company of the dying and it frequently falls upon us to handle the dead. Unfortunately, many are children. It takes strength to witness these saddening events every day. I have often noticed that you can really tell someone's strength by how they handle the dead.

It is an ancient Jewish belief that charity toward the dead is the ultimate charity. While no reward may exist in the physical sense, I have often felt that our many blessings in our mission come from the deceased we have honored. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people we have tried to "be good to" by honoring their bodies and burying them. They are "the Church in heaven", actively working to help us here.

There are two components to this program; one is preparing the bodies of the 200 children who die at the St. Damien Hospital and two, burying the destitute from the general hospital morgue. Children have the first priority resulting in 15 to 20 children per paper mache coffin. These coffins are constructed as a special project to create jobs for some of the children who leave Nos Petits Freres et Souers, along with many others simply looking to gain a meal. The coffins also include hand-made rosary beads. The prepared bodies are then transported to a cemetery which is located on rented land owned by the government.

Additionally, every Thursday we gather the many unnamed dead from the morgue at the County Hospital, alongside those collected from St. Damien and have religious burial ceremonies for them. This work is not only important for those unnamed souls, but for the families who cannot afford the cost of a funeral and a burial plot.

Overall, we bury approximately 200 children from St. Damien, 30 people from the streets, and 60 people from the County Hospital every year. Estimating the cost at $100 dollars a funeral we budget approximately $29,000 a year to bury the dead. Many of the children from St. Damien are prepared by Fr. Rick Frechette after morning Mass and a special Mass is held every Friday at St. Damien’s chapel for all of the children buried that week.

This project has been made mostly possible with great contribution from WereldOuders, Netherlands.

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Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

Saints of God, come to their aid. Come to meet them, angels of the Lord. May Christ, who called you, take you to himself. May angels lead you to Abraham's side.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

 

 


Sadly, we are no strangers to death… not by a long shot. We are often in the company of the dying and it frequently falls upon us to handle the dead. Unfortunately, many are children. It takes strength to witness these saddening events every day. I have often noticed that you can really tell someone's strength by how they handle the dead.

It is an ancient Jewish belief that charity toward the dead is the ultimate charity. While no reward may exist in the physical sense, I have often felt that our many blessings in our mission come from the deceased we have honored. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of people we have tried to "be good to" by honoring their bodies and burying them. They are "the Church in heaven", actively working to help us here.

There are two components to this program; one is preparing the bodies of the 200 children who die at the St. Damien Hospital and two, burying the destitute from the general hospital morgue. Children have the first priority resulting in 15 to 20 children per paper mache coffin. These coffins are constructed as a special project to create jobs for some of the children who leave Nos Petits Freres et Souers, along with many others simply looking to gain a meal. The coffins also include hand-made rosary beads. The prepared bodies are then transported to a cemetery which is located on rented land owned by the government.

Additionally, every Thursday we gather the many unnamed dead from the morgue at the County Hospital, alongside those collected from St. Damien and have religious burial ceremonies for them. This work is not only important for those unnamed souls, but for the families who cannot afford the cost of a funeral and a burial plot.

Overall, we bury approximately 200 children from St. Damien, 30 people from the streets, and 60 people from the County Hospital every year. Estimating the cost at $100 dollars a funeral we budget approximately $29,000 a year to bury the dead. Many of the children from St. Damien are prepared by Fr. Rick Frechette after morning Mass and a special Mass is held every Friday at St. Damien’s chapel for all of the children buried that week.

This project has been made mostly possible with great contribution from WereldOuders, Netherlands.