Guide
How to Pray for the Dead
Guide · 7 steps
Praying for the holy souls in purgatory: why the Church does it, the Eternal Rest and the psalms, having a Mass offered, All Souls' Day and the month of November, the cemetery indulgence, and enrolling the dead in a society of prayer.
7 steps · About 10 minutes
From the earliest centuries the Church has prayed for her dead, following the example the Book of Maccabees praises when Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the fallen 'that they might be freed from this sin' (2 Maccabees 12:46). The Catechism teaches that those who die in God's grace but still imperfectly purified are assured of salvation yet undergo a purification, and that the Church commends them to God's mercy above all in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and also by almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance. This guide gathers the ordinary ways a Catholic prays for the dead, from a single Eternal Rest to the practices of November.
What you need
- A list of the dead you want to pray for by name: family, friends, and the forgotten souls no one else remembers
- The Eternal Rest, the De Profundis (Psalm 130) and the prayer of Saint Gertrude, all on this site
- Your parish's Mass intention book or office, to have Masses offered
- A calendar note for 2 November and for the first eight days of November
When to pray it
Daily, briefly, at night prayer or grace after meals; at every Mass, when the priest prays for the dead in the Eucharistic Prayer; on the anniversary of a death; and especially on All Souls' Day and throughout November.
Steps
Step 1: Understand why we pray for the dead
The Church teaches that those who die in friendship with God but still bear the remains of sin undergo a purification, which she calls purgatory, before entering the joy of heaven, and that our prayers can help them. Prayer for the dead rests on the communion of saints: the faithful on earth, the souls being purified, and the saints in heaven are one Body in Christ, and the love that binds them can be exchanged as prayer. The Second Book of Maccabees calls it a holy and pious thought to pray for the dead. It is also a comfort: the one you have lost is not beyond your reach.
Tips
- Add one line to your night prayers: 'Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord...' Small and daily outlasts grand and occasional.
- Pray for the forgotten: the souls with no one left to remember them. This is a work of mercy that costs nothing and reaches far.
- Do not treat an indulgence as a transaction. It is the Church applying the merits of Christ and the saints to a soul, at your prayer; the conditions exist to make sure your heart is in it.
- Grief and prayer belong together. Praying for someone you have lost is also how you stay close to them.