All Souls' Day Requiem Mass

This evening St. Josaphat Catholic Church in Detroit celebrated a Solemn High Requiem Mass for All Soul's Day. This is evidently de rigeur for All Soul's Day in the extraordinary Gregorian liturgy of the Roman Rite. It's not hard to see why. It is absolutely awesome -- not in that pedestrian sense of the expression, but in the sense that its whole tenor (the terrible austerity and majesty of the De Profundis, Dies Irae, etc.) inspires a proper fear of God and evokes awe. One actually feels it important to pray for his departed loved ones, not just amply-domesticated Hallmark postcard sentiments. How far from the comfortable pew of Haugen and Haas.