Tuesday 11 November 2014

How do Catholics pray for the dead?

We can pray the Rosary for our departed loved ones.

Psalm 129/130, De profundis, is often used in our prayers for the dead:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord,
Lord, hear my voice!
O let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleading.
If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
Lord, who would survive?
But with you is found forgiveness:
for this we revere you.
My soul is waiting for the Lord.
I count on his word.
My soul is longing for the Lord
more than watchman for daybreak.
Let the watchman count on daybreak
and Israel on the Lord.
Because with the Lord there is mercy
and fullness of redemption,
Israel indeed he will redeem
from all its iniquity.
We often use this very short, simple prayer:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.
Our best prayer of all is the offering of Holy Mass for those who have died. When St Monica, mother of St Augustine of Hippo, was dying, her last request was: "One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be."