Can you pray for a specific person in purgatory?

[Dannel11]

I have heard that praying for people in purgatory helps release them faster. My grandmother recently passed and she was a devout Protestant. Since she didn’t receive the sacrament of Reconciliation, I assume she will have to atone for all sins since Baptism while in purgatory.

Do you think praying for her will help her?

 

[dje101]

I’ve always heard that since we cannot know what happens after someone dies, then there is no harm in praying for that person. If those prayers can’t be applied for the particular person (because they’re either already in Heaven and don’t need the prayers, or their in Hell, in which case they won’t do a bit of difference), then these prayers can be routes to help other souls in Purgatory.

So simply, since we don’t know exactly where anyone is, go ahead and pray for them.

 

[underacloud]

I have heard that praying for people in purgatory helps release them faster. My grandmother recently passed and she was a devout Protestant. Since she didn’t receive the sacrament of Reconciliation, I assume she will have to atone for all sins since Baptism while in purgatory.

Do you think praying for her will help her?

Dannell, firstly, sorry for your recent loss.

Non-Catholics are not held to the specific practices of the Catholic faith (eg confession), so we don’t assume anything regarding where her soul is now. God will have judged her according to how she has responded to His grace revealed to her, and we do not presume that she is in purgatory now; nor do we presume that she is in heaven or hell either. But it is very appropriate for you to pray for her. If she is in purgatory, your prayers may well be of help to her.

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

I have heard that praying for people in purgatory helps release them faster. My grandmother recently passed and she was a devout Protestant. Since she didn’t receive the sacrament of Reconciliation, I assume she will have to atone for all sins since Baptism while in purgatory.

Do you think praying for her will help her?

Yes that would be good, even better have a requiem mass held (the more the better!) for her. These are traditionally held 3, 7 and/or 30 days after death and on anniverseries of their death.

 

[Abu]

Praying for anyone, to decrease the punishment due to sin is very salutary and described in the Sacred Scriptures and taught by the Church.

The doctrine of Purgatory is found in 2 Maccabees 12:46: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins.”