Why “six to carry the casket and one to say the mass” Is the Book You Didn’t Know You Needed This Year
Bill Hulseman’s Debut Delivers Soulful Reflection for Anyone Reconsidering Faith, Identity, or Family
If you’ve ever found yourself questioning the beliefs you were raised with—or wrestling with what it means to belong—Bill Hulseman’s debut, six to carry the casket and one to say the mass, might just be the most important book you read this year.
Released on July 8, 2025, Hulseman’s soulful essay collection offers a rare blend of spiritual depth, cultural critique, and emotional honesty. This is not your typical memoir. It’s a meditation for the modern seeker—especially those who feel stuck between the comfort of tradition and the urgency of living authentically.
What sets this book apart is its voice: Hulseman writes like someone you want to sit beside at a dinner party or during a long, contemplative walk. He’s witty, self-aware, and unafraid to dig deep. A gay man raised in a large Catholic family, Hulseman brings a lived wisdom to his reflections on faith, queerness, grief, and identity. The book’s title—six to carry the casket and one to say the mass—draws from Catholic funeral imagery, setting the tone for a collection that’s both reverent and rebellious.
Each essay offers a snapshot of a life shaped by tension and transformation. Hulseman recalls growing up feeling invisible in his own home, teaching religion while hiding his full self, and eventually redefining what faith means on his own terms. The result is a book that doesn’t just tell a story—it invites you to examine your own.
And it’s not all heavy. One of the great joys of reading this book is discovering Hulseman’s dry humor and keen sense of pop culture. In one essay, he turns to Madonna’s “Ray of Light” for spiritual guidance, unpacking how music can serve as both refuge and revelation. Elsewhere, he explores the power of ritual, not just in churches but in everyday acts—lighting a candle, showing up for a friend, saying a name out loud.
So who is this book for?
It’s for the spiritually curious, the quietly questioning, the ones who stay silent during certain parts of family dinner conversations. It’s for readers who grew up in religious spaces and are trying to make peace with them—or trying to leave them behind. It’s also for those who’ve never stepped foot in a church but have known the weight of inherited expectations.
What makes six to carry the casket and one to say the mass especially relevant today is its intersectional approach. Hulseman doesn’t treat faith and queerness as mutually exclusive. He lives—and writes—in the tension between them, offering a model of integration that’s both courageous and compassionate. He doesn’t preach; he practices reflection. And he encourages readers to do the same.
If you’ve been craving a book that sits with complexity rather than solving it, that honors both tradition and transformation, this is the one. Hulseman reminds us that it’s okay to love something while also critiquing it, to find sacredness in the places we were once told were off-limits.
The final essays in the book turn toward Pride, not as an event, but as a form of daily resistance and self-reclamation. It’s a fitting close for a collection that never stops asking: Who told you who you are—and who do you want to become?
Whether you read it slowly with a highlighter or devour it in one emotional sitting, this is the kind of book that stays with you. It lingers. It whispers back to you days later. It’s a blessing for those in between—between identities, between beliefs, between chapters.
You can find six to carry the casket and one to say the mass wherever books are sold, including Amazon, Pathway, Barnes & Noble, and Allstora. For more about Bill Hulseman, including meditations and upcoming speaking events, visit www.billhulseman.com.
