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Summary
- To pray for someone who is dying, ask God for their peace, for freedom from fear and pain and for his mercy, and ask strength for everyone who loves them. Short, plain words are enough.
- Paul wrote in Romans 8:26 that “we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.”
- The twelve prayers can be prayed at different moments: when the dying person is afraid, through a long or terminal illness, with the family, beside the bed and in the last hours.
- Three of them fit the agony, the struggle that can come before death, and the moment of passing.
- Two can be prayed by the dying person together with the family.
- If the dying person belongs to a church, call its priest or pastor early; for a Catholic, the priest can bring what are often called the last rites: confession, the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion as viaticum.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the King James Version: Romans 8:26. Romans 8:26 (KJV), BibleGateway
- The Book of Common Prayer (1928), The Order for the Visitation of the Sick, “A Commendation” (“Depart, O Christian soul”). justus.anglican.org
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed., paragraphs 1524–1525, “Viaticum, the Last Sacrament of the Christian.” Libreria Editrice Vaticana. vatican.va
- “Agony,” Dictionary.com (Random House Unabridged Dictionary): “the struggle preceding natural death.” dictionary.com/browse/agony
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