All Souls Day: Pope urges prayers, Masses for the dead
November 03, 2014
During his Sunday Angelus address on All Souls Day, Pope Francis called for prayers for the departed, including “those no one remembers.”
“We remember the victims of war and violence, the many ‘little ones’ of the world crushed by hunger and poverty,” he said to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square. “We remember the anonymous who rest in common graves. We remember our brothers and sisters killed because they are Christians, and those who sacrificed their lives to serve others. We especially entrust to the Lord those who have left over the last year.”
“Church tradition has always urged prayer for the dead, in particular by offering the celebration of the Eucharist for them: it is the best spiritual help that we can give to their souls, particularly to the most abandoned ones,” he continued. “The foundation of prayers in suffrage of souls is in the communion of the Mystical Body.”
The Pope also offered a prayer for the dead:
God of infinite mercy, we entrust to Your immense goodness all those who have left this world for eternity, where you await all humanity, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ Your Son, who died to save us from our sins.
Look not, Lord, at our poverty, misery, and human weaknesses when we present ourselves before You to be judged in happiness or condemned. Gaze upon us with pity, born of Your tender heart and help us to walk the path of purification.
May none of your children be lost to the eternal fires of hell, where repentance is no more.
We entrust to You, Lord, the souls of our beloved departed, of those who died without the comfort of the sacraments or who did not have the opportunity to repent, not even at the end of their life.
May no one fear the encounter with You at the end of their earthly pilgrimage, in the hope of being welcomed within the embrace of your infinite mercy. May sister death find us in prayerful vigilance, and full of all the good we have done during our existence, be it long or short.
Lord, may nothing distance us from you on this earth, may everything and everyone support us in our ardent hope to serenely and eternally rest in You. Amen.
Later, on the evening of All Souls Day, the Pope went to the Vatican Grottoes to pray privately for his deceased predecessors and for all the dead.
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Further information:
- Pope at Angelus: Pray for the world’s forgotten souls (Vatican Radio)
- Momento di preghiera del Santo Padre nelle Grotte Vaticane (Holy See Press Office)
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