Praying for the Dead

[POTHER]

How long should we continue to pray for the dead?

It’s my understanding that we pray for the dead to hasten their journey to heaven, if that is, indeed, going to be their destination. (If it’s not, our prayers won’t help them anyway.) But how long do we keep praying for them?

My list of people who have died and for whom I pray keeps getting longer and longer. Unlike when I pray for somebody who is sick, but who gets better, or who needs a job and then gets one, and then I can cross that person off my list, I don’t have a natural end point after which I feel that I can remove the deceased from my list, so the list just keeps growing.

I’ve thought about praying simply “for the dead” in order to encompass everybody on my list, but that doesn’t feel like it’s going to serve the same purpose as praying for the individual people by name.

Is there an answer as to how long we continue to pray, by name, for the dead?

pOTHER

 

[midori]

For what it’s worth—

When I was in school, I went to a certain church. There was a retired priest there who did the daily Masses. He eventually passed away. Everyone prayed for him for a while, especially in the first few years after death, and then life moved on.

Last year, I was having a conversation with someone who still attended that church. They said the current priest had mentioned that because of x, y, and z factors, they thought it indicated that so-and-so was still serving his purgatory. So, we went ahead and put together some Gregorian Masses for him, and I started praying for him by name with my kids in our nighttime prayers.

I still don’t know his current status— perhaps we never will find out in this lifetime whether the Gregorian Masses gave him any extra oomph— but this past December was perhaps the 20th anniversary of his death.

 

[hazcompat]

Trust Jesus. Your prayers will never be without merit. If they are already with the saints, then your prayers will be like the rain that falls and does not return until it accomplishes the will of Our Father.

Peace

 

[Todd977]

I’ve thought about praying simply “for the dead” in order to encompass everybody on my list, but that doesn’t feel like it’s going to serve the same purpose as praying for the individual people by name.

When I pray the Rosary, I rarely pray a whole 15-decade Rosary at one time. Instead, I typically stretch it out over a few days, praying only 5-decades a day: Joyful mysteries on Monday, Sorrowful mysteries on Tuesday, Glorious mysteries on Wednesday. Perhaps you could do something similar with your long list of names, i.e., divide your long list into a few smaller parts, and whenever you pray, remember all your dead in a general way and then remember a part of your long list by name each day, a different part each day, until you’ve gone through your long list over the course of a few days and then repeat.

For instance, on Monday, pray for all your dead, especially for Tom, Dick and Harry. On Tuesday, pray for all your dead, especially for John, George and Ringo. On Wednesday, pray for all your dead, especially for Peter, Paul and Mary.

When asked how long we ought to pray for the dead, Fr. Bob Levis replied, “Never cease praying for the souls in Purgatory, especially those of our own families.” (source)

 

[littlestsouls2]

Until death.

I generally pray “for my friends and family who have passed away.” It is also good to offer little sacrifices for the Holy Souls. This can be more effective than prayers, from what I’ve read. (Of course, such an offering is technically a prayer)

 

[Wildgraywolf]

I like St. Gertrude’s prayer; it’s an efficient little prayer that covers everybody.

“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 Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”

At the end (before the Amen) I’ll tack on a special intention like: for persecuted Christians throughout the world, for the forgotten souls in purgatory or for deceased family members, friends and other folks who have made a special impact on my life.

 

[peter26]

Don’t forget to pray for the dead when you attend Mass.There is usually a place in the Bidding Prayers to think for a moment about your deceased friends and family, and this is the best time for it.

 

[POTHER]

When I pray the Rosary, I rarely pray a whole 15-decade Rosary at one time. Instead, I typically stretch it out over a few days, praying only 5-decades a day: Joyful mysteries on Monday, Sorrowful mysteries on Tuesday, Glorious mysteries on Wednesday.

I’ve not heard of a 15 decade rosary. I’ve heard of a five decade rosary, with the focus on the glorious mysteries on Sundays, joyful on Mondays, sorrowful on Tuesdays, and repeat the rest of the week. Do some traditions call for doing all 15 decades in a day?

Perhaps you could do something similar with your long list of names, i.e., divide your long list into a few smaller parts, and whenever you pray, remember all your dead in a general way and then remember a part of your long list by name each day, a different part each day, until you’ve gone through your long list over the course of a few days and then repeat.

I like this idea, and have thought about this before. But then I wonder if I’m slighting those people whom I’m skipping on any given day. Like what if they needed just one more prayer to get to heaven, and I put them off for a couple of (earthly) days?

When asked how long we ought to pray for the dead, Fr. Bob Levis replied, “Never cease praying for the souls in Purgatory, especially those of our own families.” (source)

Well that’s pretty clear!

 

[POTHER]

Until death.

I generally pray “for my friends and family who have passed away.” It is also good to offer little sacrifices for the Holy Souls. This can be more effective than prayers, from what I’ve read. (Of course, such an offering is technically a prayer)

Is it sufficient, though, to pray for them all in a clump like that?

For that matter, if you pray for them all in a clump, why stop with only “my friends and family who have passed away?” What about those who don’t have somebody praying for them? Should we also be praying for them, like, “for *all *the dead, *especially *my friends and family.”

BUT if you’ll allow me to take it one step further, is it uncharitable to those without somebody else praying for them for me to pray “*especially *for *my *friends and family”?

 

[Todd977]

I’ve not heard of a 15 decade rosary. I’ve heard of a five decade rosary, with the focus on the glorious mysteries on Sundays, joyful on Mondays, sorrowful on Tuesdays, and repeat the rest of the week. Do some traditions call for doing all 15 decades in a day?

At my parish sometimes a 15-decade rosary is prayed at church on Sunday afternoon.

Pope John Paul II in his 2002 Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (On the Holy Rosary), said in part:
38. The Rosary * can be recited in full every day, and there are those who most laudably do so. In this way it fills with prayer the days of many a contemplative, or keeps company with the sick and the elderly who have abundant time at their disposal. Yet it is clear … that many people will not be able to recite more than a part of the Rosary, according to a certain weekly pattern. … According to current practice, Monday and Thursday are dedicated to the “joyful mysteries”, Tuesday and Friday to the “sorrowful mysteries”, and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday to the “glorious mysteries”. (source)

In his Apostolic Letter, Pope John Paul II actually encouraged people to include five new luminous mysteries, touching on various events in the public ministry of Jesus Christ: Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, Jesus’ first public miracle at the wedding feast at Cana where he changed water into wine, Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God and call to conversion, Jesus’ Transfiguration, and Jesus’ institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper, increasing to twenty the number of mysteries in this new, fuller Rosary. He proposed that those who could not say all twenty mysteries of this fuller Rosary in one day to dedicate Mondays and Saturdays to the “joyful mysteries”, Tuesdays and Fridays to the “sorrowful mysteries”, Wednesdays and Sundays to the “glorious mysteries”, and Thursdays to the new “luminous mysteries.”*