- How do I pray for the souls there? Are there specific prayers I could say to help me?
It runs the gamut. You could have a Mass said for them (or for a specific person). You could offer a specifically-worded prayer. Or you could just pray “for the souls in purgatory.”
One specific prayer is:
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.
Can I pray for protestant souls? The majority of the people I know are protestant.
They might not have believed in purgatory while they lived, but they do now. And you may certainly pray for them. I’m sure they would be very happy for your prayers, as they would have not had many prayers offered by their protestant friends and family.
Do I assume everyone I know is in purgatory?
We cannot say. But the Scriptures tell us that nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and I know few people (myself included) who I would think to be without any fault whatsoever. I think few people bypass purgatory.
Would it be praying in vain if the person didn’t make it to purgatory?
No prayer is in vain. All prayer results in Grace. If the Grace cannot be applied to the subject of the prayer (because this person is actually consigned to hell) then it is added to the “spiritual treasury” of the Church.
When do I stop praying for a specific person? For instance, I had a grandmother to pass away 8 years ago. She was a very nice, Christian lady. I would like to think she made it to purgatory and not hell. She has been dead for years now, so could she, in fact, be in Heaven now?
The stock answer is that you should never stop praying for her. Even if she were in heaven, the Grace of the prayer would not be wasted any more than if she were in hell.
But the idea of “now” does not really apply to those in the afterlife. They do have their existence dolled out to them moment-by-moment, as we do.
Consider this example: A man comes home to see his house completely consumed by fire - flames shoot from every window and door, rising 40 feet into the sky, and the house is collapsing upon itself. He prays that his family survives. But surely the family is already alive and safe, or has already died in the fire. So one might claim that his prayers are “wasted” because the outcome has already been determined. But this does not account for the fact that God lives in the eternal “now” and He has heard this man’s prayers from the beginning of time, and the Grace of those prayers could affect the outcome of the disaster, even before the prayer was offered, and even before the fire started.
So your grandmother could be in heaven “now” due, in part, to the Grace of your prayers tomorrow.
Thanks for your question. It reminds me to pray for my own dear (protestant) grandmother (and grandfather) - a duty which I have neglected of late.
