Prayer for the Faithful Departed. From A Catholic Prayer Book. FREE: Powerful Prayers Booklet America's favorite and most affordable prayer booklet. Perfect for everyday use: includes with dozens of timeless classics. Dozens of timeless classics, Mass prayers, novenas, and more.

These prayers for the deceased include those for ourdeparted parents and the clergy. The first of our selections, while moregeneral, is perhaps the best known:

Eternal rest grantunto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.

Here’s a slightly different version:

Eternal rest grantunto them , O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them .
May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest inpeace.

(You can substitute “him” or “her”, or “he” or “she” for aspecific person, where appropriate, of course.)

As we read in the famous quote from the book of Maccabees inthe Old Testament it is “a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead,that they may be loosed from sins” (2 Maccabees 12:46). This line from scripture is often used insupport of our Catholic faith’s doctrine of Purgatory and praying for soulsthere.

Purgatory is the temporary abode of those souls who havedied who don’t merit hell but aren’t quite ready for heaven. Their sins havebeen forgiven by God, but atonement for them still must be made, and these soulsmust be purged of any remaining attachments to sin or other such imperfectionsbefore entering paradise.

Even if we hopeand pray that the deceased we knew are not among those in Purgatory, and havegone straight to heaven, it never hurts to pray for them in any case!

We start off here with prayers for deceased parents. In eachcase, these can be adjusted for individual intentions, as in praying for thesoul of one parent who has passed away.

O God, Who hastcommanded us to honor our father and mother, look in the tenderness of Thymercy upon the souls of my father and mother and forgive them their sins, andgrant unto me the joy of seeing them again in the glorious light of everlastinglife. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This next one is a variant of the first:

O God, who hastcommanded us to honor our father and our mother; in Thy mercy have pity on thesouls of my father and mother and forgive them their trespasses; and make mesee them again in the joy of everlastingbrightness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The use of the word “trespasses” above brings to mind theLord’s Prayer. Also, the joy of “everlasting life” in the first prayer becomes“everlasting brightness” in the second. This image is suggestive of our Lord, much like the“glorious light” in the first prayer.

Scripture has a few references to Christ as our light. Forexample, Jesus refers to Himself as “the light of the world” in John’s Gospel(John 8:12). When He appeared in radiant glory to Peter, James, and John in theTransfiguration, we read that “His face shone like the sun, and his garmentsbecame as white as the light” (Matt 17:2).

The use of the word “joy” in these two prayers is also enlightening.As Timothy Cardinal Dolan once said, concerning the essential differencebetween joy and pleasure, “Pleasure is fleeting but joy is everlasting.”

ChristHimself told the Apostles in His Last Supper farewell discourse “I will see youagain, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you” (John16:22). These prayers bring to mind the wonderfulhope we all have of seeing our departed loved ones again in the eternal joy of Heaven.

Our prayers for the deceased also include these ones below forGod’s special sacred servants: his priests! We should pray especially for them,as they have been entrusted with so much responsibility to guide us along thepath to salvation. As we read in Luke’s Gospel “to whom much is given much willbe required” (Lk. 12:48).

The following prayers are for a deceased Pope, Bishopand Priest respectively. We pray for their souls here, that each of them mayhave their own special place in the Church Triumphant, among the saints inHeaven!

O God, who by Thineunspeakable providence was please to number Thy servant Pope (Name here) among theSovereign Pontiffs, grant, we beseech Thee, that he who reigned as the vicar ofThy Son on earth, may be joined in fellowship with Thy holy Pontiffsforevermore. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Grant, we beseechThee, O Lord, that the soul of Thy servant Bishop (Name here), which Thou hast takenfrom the toilsome conflict of this world, may have fellowship among Thy saints.Through Christ our Lord. Amen

O Lord, we pray Theethat the soul of Thy priest, Thy servant (Name here), which, while he abode in thisworld, Thou didst adorn with sacred gifts, may ever rejoice in a glorious placein heaven. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

And finally, we have these three more general prayers forthe deceased:

O God, the bestowerof forgiveness and the lover of human salvation, we beseech Thee, of Thy tenderlove, to grant that the brethren of our congregation, with their relatives andbenefactors, who have passed out of this life, may, by the intercession ofBlessed Mary, ever Virgin, and all thy saints, come to the fellowship ofeternal bliss. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Grant, we beseechThee, O Lord our God, that the souls of Thy servants and handmaidens, thememory of whom we keep with special reverence, and for whom we are bidden andare bound to pray, and the souls of all our benefactors, relatives andconnections, and all the faithful, may rest in the bosom of Thy saints; andhereafter, in the resurrection from the dead, may please Thee in the land ofthe living. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

Incline Thine ear, OLord, unto our prayers, wherein we humbly pray Thee to show Thy mercy upon thesoul of Thy servant N., whom Thou hast commanded topass out of this world, that Thou wouldst place him in the region of peace andlight, and bid him be a partaker with Thy Saints. Through Christ our Lord.Amen.

Remember that these prayers for the deceased can always beargood fruit. If those for whom we pray have not reached heaven just yet, theseprayers can help shorten their time in Purgatory. And they will be more thanhappy to pray for us as well. In that sense, we are trulyall in this together! Can you feel the love tonight pdf string quartet wedding processional music.