How long after one's death is a prayer for their salvation still considered to be efficacious?

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God and the prayers you offer to Him for someone’s salvation are outside of time. I know of a priest who still prays for his parents’ happy death, and they died many years ago.
 
How about till the end of the world? Some souls are sentenced to Purgatory till the end of the world. We can and should pray for all those who have died before us. Prayers are efficacious.

Plus, as Baltobetsy mentioned, God is outside of time. He does not “foresee” the future, but “sees” the future as you and I see the present moment. He is simultaneously IN the past, present, and future. 🙂
 
Unless I’ve misunderstood the question I don’t think you can pray for a person’s salvation after they’ve died. Their lot has been cast and they’re either in purgatory awaiting their entrance to heaven or not. Now, if this person is in purgatory then continually praying for them is indeed efficacious and helpful, it will shorten their time in purgatory. If the person is already out of purgatory then the prayers won’t go to waste and will help other souls in purgatory. If they died and aren’t in either purgatory or heaven then prayers for them won’t be of any effect - they had their chance and missed it. I don’t believe there are any second chances after one has died so if they weren’t saved when they died praying for their salvation won’t be of any effect after their death.

ChadS
 
ChadS said:
Unless I’ve misunderstood the question I don’t think you can pray for a person’s salvation after they’ve died. Their lot has been cast and they’re either in purgatory awaiting their entrance to heaven or not. Now, if this person is in purgatory then continually praying for them is indeed efficacious and helpful, it will shorten their time in purgatory. If the person is already out of purgatory then the prayers won’t go to waste and will help other souls in purgatory. If they died and aren’t in either purgatory or heaven then prayers for them won’t be of any effect - they had their chance and missed it. I don’t believe there are any second chances after one has died so if they weren’t saved when they died praying for their salvation won’t be of any effect after their death.

ChadS
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Technically I think you are correct. If a person is in Hell, there’s no way out. But we don’t know who is in Heaven, Purgatory or Hell, because we are not the judge of other people. God is the judge. Somehow I think he is more merciful than the Catholic church’s dogma on the afterlife. I know he always hears the prayers of the humble hearted. So yes, pray for your dead and for the whole world. God loves to hear our prayers.
 
Even if the deceased for whom you were to pray is already in heaven, your prayers would not be in vain. Here is a beautiful prayer to be said for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. It is especially efficacious because it includes not only those close to us, but those who may have no one left on earth to pray for them.

Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is prayed.
Code: 
                      Prayer of St. Gertrude The Great  (Died 1334)


                  "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood
                   of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses
                   said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls
                   in Purgaroty, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the
                   Universal Church, for those in my own home and within
                   my family. Amen"
 
ChadS said:
Unless I’ve misunderstood the question I don’t think you can pray for a person’s salvation after they’ve died. Their lot has been cast and they’re either in purgatory awaiting their entrance to heaven or not. Now, if this person is in purgatory then continually praying for them is indeed efficacious and helpful, it will shorten their time in purgatory. If the person is already out of purgatory then the prayers won’t go to waste and will help other souls in purgatory. If they died and aren’t in either purgatory or heaven then prayers for them won’t be of any effect - they had their chance and missed it. I don’t believe there are any second chances after one has died so if they weren’t saved when they died praying for their salvation won’t be of any effect after their death.

ChadS
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Ok. Thanks. So I take it I should pray for people’s salvation whilst they are alive?

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
 
PattiDay said:
Even if the deceased for whom you were to pray is already in heaven, your prayers would not be in vain. Here is a beautiful prayer to be said for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. It is especially efficacious because it includes not only those close to us, but those who may have no one left on earth to pray for them.

Our Lord told St. Gertrude that the following prayer would release 1,000 souls from Purgatory each time it is prayed.
Code: 
                      Prayer of St. Gertrude The Great  (Died 1334)


                  "Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood
                   of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses
                   said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls
                   in Purgaroty, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the
                   Universal Church, for those in my own home and within
                   my family. Amen"
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing this wonderful prayer. Is it really true about what is said regarding 1000 souls being released from Purgatory each time this prayer is said? If the Lord gave this prayer in what would be deemed as a “private revelation”, then is it not possible that the natural trait to err in interpretation may have been on the part of St. Gertrude? The devotions’ promise sounds too good to be true, but forgive my skepticism.

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
 
My :twocents:

I pray for my parents often and also meet conditions and do the work for plenary indulgences. I was praying that if they didn’t need my prayers anymore, perhaps other members of my departed family could have the benefit.
Then I was told by our RCIA person that, if they don’t need it anymore, Our Lord directs our prayers to others who need them; and that it is a mystery as to who and why.
I have to be reminded from time to time that we can’t know it all and there are mysteries.
 
baltobetsy said:
God and the prayers you offer to Him for someone’s salvation are outside of time. I know of a priest who still prays for his parents’ happy death, and they died many years ago.
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This is interesting, since he is praying for a result that one would think already past, and therefore immutable. It suggests (and I have seen this suggested elsewhere) that praying for the salvation of someone who might otherwise be in hell could save him from hell retrospectively, inasmuch as there is no “time” for God, and prayers said today might alter past circumstances, leading to a different result from what we might perceive in time.

And, indeed, if this priest is praying for a happy death for his long-deceased parents, that’s exactly what he’s doing. He is praying for the possible alteration of the past.
 
I have a small notebook containing over 270 names - people I have known who are now in the hands of God, who knows how. I add to it often (I’m getting old!). I take it to Mass and try to remember them all before we begin. There is no way I would delete anyone this side of the Judgement!

:crossrc:
 
RosalieM said:
My :twocents:

I pray for my parents often and also meet conditions and do the work for plenary indulgences. I was praying that if they didn’t need my prayers anymore, perhaps other members of my departed family could have the benefit.
Then I was told by our RCIA person that, if they don’t need it anymore, Our Lord directs our prayers to others who need them; and that it is a mystery as to who and why.
I have to be reminded from time to time that we can’t know it all and there are mysteries.
Click to expand...
I don’t see anything wrong with this. You are praying for your parents and then saying if they don’t need it anymore let the prayer be for another of my deceased relatives. I think that is a wonderful thing.

Coming from a Protestant background and purgatory and prayers for the dead having no place I know there are family members going back 500 years that haven’t been prayed for once since they died so I’ll either pray for them or for the souls in purgatory that have nobody to pray for them at all.

ChadS
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Ok. Thanks. So I take it I should pray for people’s salvation whilst they are alive?

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
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Yes definitely pray for their salvation while they are alive and pray that they come to know the true peace and love that only Christ can give. If they are lapsed Catholics pray they come back into the Church. When they die, don’t stop praying for them, but maybe you could pray that God has mercy on them or that your prayers help them get out of purgatory quicker.

ChadS
 
I remember a story about St Padre Pio still praying for a happy death for his father some years after the father had died.

Truth is, God is outside of time, so He surely has the power to take our prayers that we say now and apply them to those for whom we pray during their lifetime, even if they are already deceased.

Just as He applied Christ’s future saving act of redemption to Mary at the moment of her conception to save her from the stain of original sin. And to save all the righteous who lived before His incarnation and passion.
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
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Our destination is sealed at the moment of our death.
If we die in a state of unrepented mortal sin we immediately go to Hell for eternity.
If we die in a state of grace we are saved (directly to Heaven but more likely Puragtory first but in either case we are saved).
After a person’s death our prayers cannot change their destination. We all want to think our family have been saved but we cannot know. Only God knows who is saved and who is not. However, that does not mean we should not pray for the departed as they may be in Purgatory and our prayers may help speed up their move to Heaven.
 
Okay. Thank you to everyone. But suppose that someone is living a life of sin whilst they are alive. I pray constantly for their salvation (e.g. for God to have mercy on their souls). Will this change anything?

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Okay. Thank you to everyone. But suppose that someone is living a life of sin whilst they are alive. I pray constantly for their salvation (e.g. for God to have mercy on their souls). Will this change anything?

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
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Of course. Not from God’s point of view, but from yours and the other person’s. It may obtain for them the grace of a sudden and miraculous last-millisecond deathbed conversion (unbeknownst and not perceptible to any observer, but nonetheless real) that saves them.
 
I don’t think there is a time limit. Like one poster said, God is out side the limits of time.
And by the way. Am i the only one here who had to google the word efficacious?
 
latin_rite said:
I don’t think there is a time limit. Like one poster said, God is out side the limits of time.
And by the way. Am i the only one here who had to google the word efficacious?
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Haha :). Thanks for the laugh. I actually started using the word “efficacious” because of another CAF user, and I have used it since to describe a prayer(s) that are successful. I hope Google cleared things up sufficiently ;).

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
 
Bohm_Bawerk said:
Okay. Thank you to everyone. But suppose that someone is living a life of sin whilst they are alive. I pray constantly for their salvation (e.g. for God to have mercy on their souls). Will this change anything?

Thank you,
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
Click to expand...
I was a Methodist (born and brought up) when I married my Catholic wife. She prayed daily for 10 years for my conversion in order that I had the opportunity for salvation. Her prayers worked. I became a Catholic.
 
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