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Daniel27
Guest
This has probably been asked before but I was thinking about Saint Joseph as the patron saint of departing souls and the spiritual works of mercy, one of which is to pray for the dead. This a pair of questions which are inevitably linked to one another.
- When we pray through/with Saint Joseph for a departing soul, how does this work? I understand how it works for if the soul is destined to go to purgatory because we can help that soul get through faster/easier (I think, but it may be of some other help). But what happens when that soul is destined to go straight to Heaven or to Hell? Does Saint Joseph have some capacity to influence a soul just before they die to confess to God if they would otherwise go to Hell; and what can he do if the soul is already destined for Heaven?
- Very similar to above, but when we pray for a soul that has “departed” rather than in the process of “departing”, how does that work for a soul at the moment of the prayer? If they are in Hell, what effect (if any) does the prayer have since my understanding was that Hell was complete separation from God? And if they are in Heaven, I’m not quite sure what more a prayer could do for them that Heaven doesn’t already provide?