LA Mass seeks to help mourners of suicide loss ‘live again’
Standing single file, a line of people formed halfway through Mass to bring white carnations to the altar at St. Agnes Church near downtown LA.
Moments earlier, they had sung the words of the responsorial psalm, “Out of the depths, I cry to you Lord” (Psalm 130) and listened to the Gospel reading of Christ raising Lazarus from the dead, assuring sisters Martha and Mary that “your brother will rise.”
Now, they waited to place their flowers — each representing a loved one lost to suicide — beneath a reproduction of Michelangelo’s “Pietà,” the famous sculpture depicting Mary holding Jesus after he’d been taken down from the cross.