As we enter into November, the month of remembrance, and continue journeying through this Year of Prayer, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli offers some thoughts on the profound consolation and experience of communion to be found in the practice of praying for the faithful departed.
Reminding us that our ultimate destiny or goal in life is ‘to live eternally with the Lord’, Archbishop Comensoli describes the Church’s practice of praying for the deceased as ‘an act of hope’.
We pray for the deceased because of our love of them and our hope for them,’ he says. ‘We pray for the deceased because our pilgrimage to God has not ended, and they need strengthening for their journey ahead. We pray for the deceased because their communion with us brings hope and healing to us.’
Acknowledging that there is ‘no right or wrong way of holding our deceased family, friends and the needy in prayer’, Archbishop Comensoli suggests some ways for us to enter into this ancient practice, including offering a Mass, praying the Rosary with our loved one in mind, or praying a ‘very simple prayer for the faithful departed’ that has a long history in the Catholic tradition:
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.
‘Remembering our sisters and brothers in faith’, he concludes, ‘is remembering in hope our destiny in God.’