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Summary
- The best-known prayer for someone who has died is the Catholic “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.”
- The Orthodox prayer for the departed, “O God of spirits, and of all flesh,” is said at funerals and memorial services, which the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America holds about forty days and one year after a death.
- The 1928 Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church includes prayers for the departed in its burial service.
- Christians have prayed for the dead since at least the early third century, when Tertullian described a widow praying for her husband on the anniversaries of his death.
- Churches differ: the Lutheran Apology of the Augsburg Confession does not prohibit prayer for the dead, while the Westminster Larger Catechism says Christians are not to pray for the dead.
- Short prayers of thanks and remembrance suit Christians of any church; prayers asking God’s mercy for the dead follow Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican practice.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Psalm 90:12; Luke 23:42; John 11:25; Romans 14:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14; 2 Timothy 1:18). 2 Maccabees 12:46 is quoted as it appears in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1032. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005. Appendix A, “Common Prayers”: Eternal Rest / Requiem Aeternam. https://www.vatican.va/archive/compendium_ccc/documents/archive_2005_compendium-ccc_en.html
- A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, No. 1 (Baltimore Catechism), prepared and enjoined by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1885: “For the Faithful Departed” and evening prayers. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 14551. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14551
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1030–1032. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. Order for the Burial of the Dead (Laymen), page 370; General Panikhida, pages 565–569. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “Memorial Service.” https://www.goarch.org/-/the-memorial-service
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. “The Funeral Service of the Orthodox Church,” section “Memorial Services.” https://www.goarch.org/-/the-funeral-service-of-the-orthodox-church
- The Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal Church, 1928). “The Order for the Burial of the Dead.” https://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1928/Burial.htm
- Tertullian. On Monogamy, chapter 10. Translated by S. Thelwall. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing, 1885. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0406.htm
- Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531), Article XXIV (XII), “Of the Mass,” paragraph 94. https://thebookofconcord.org/apology-of-the-augsburg-confession/article-xxiv/
- Westminster Larger Catechism, question 183. Orthodox Presbyterian Church. https://opc.org/lc.html
- Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, section 3. Orthodox Presbyterian Church. https://opc.org/wcf.html
- Toner, Patrick. “Prayers for the Dead.” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton, 1908 (on Onesiphorus, 2 Timothy 1:16–18). https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04653a.htm
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. https://988lifeline.org/
- Samaritans. “Contact Samaritans.” https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
