Retroactive prayers.

[The_Reginator]

G'day.
When I first began to take my Christian life seriously (at age 12) I asked for a bible. When I read about the stoning of St. Stephen I immediately began to pray that he have/had strength to endure his martyrdom. Even then I was wondering if it was an OK thing to do.
I just tried looking up "retroactive prayers" on the Internet. The sites I noticed all seemed to be assuming that to pray for something is to ask for something, as in a change of events.
I'm only interested in knowing if it is orthodox to pray, say, that a loved one receive comfort at the time of death.
Any thoughts or Church teachings about praying retroactively?

 

[HomeschoolDad]

G'day.
When I first began to take my Christian life seriously (at age 12) I asked for a bible. When I read about the stoning of St. Stephen I immediately began to pray that he have/had strength to endure his martyrdom. Even then I was wondering if it was an OK thing to do.
I just tried looking up "retroactive prayers" on the Internet. The sites I noticed all seemed to be assuming that to pray for something is to ask for something, as in a change of events.
I'm only interested in knowing if it is orthodox to pray, say, that a loved one receive comfort at the time of death.
Any thoughts or Church teachings about praying retroactively?

I don't know if there is any official magisterial teaching on the matter (I tend to doubt it), but I have no hesitation about praying that the dead "will have been saved". More to the point, if their salvation was in jeopardy at the time of death, I pray that something happened in those moments when the soul is about to leave the body, that brought about their conversion, and gave them the graces necessary to repent.

 

[po18guy]

God is outside of time. Everyone who has ever lived and died stands before Him "right now." If we knew that our loved one stood in the presence of God as we speak, would we not offer prayer? Should we not offer prayer? In this life, we are captives of time. God, and those in His Presence are not. They have been freed from both the constraints and ravages of time. They are in God's hands while we on earth are being tested as to our virtue. Perhaps Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote on this.