How to pray for the deceased: essential prayers, timing, reading rules and texts

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

As to whether it is possible to pray for the deceased, opinions differ. In traditional Catholicism, such prayers are encouraged, and earlier there were even indulgences especially for those who felt that only offered prayers were not enough for their deceased loved ones. Protestants strictly reject the practice of praying for someone who has already passed away. In Orthodoxy, such prayers are approved and considered important both for the one who offers them and for the one for whom they sound. Let's take a closer look.

General information

In the case when a person has died, an experienced priest can tell how to pray. The offering of prayer makes the person an active participant in the salvation of the soul that has departed from the mortal body. A person, calling on higher beings, creates a reason to treat the deceased better, more mercifully. The necessity of this prayer is explained by the fact that the soul, torn off from the mortal body, is deprived of the opportunityto independently do something that could propitiate the highest divine essence. And then those who are still alive come to the rescue. Their petitions change the further fate in the other world.

It is equally important to know how to pray correctly for the dead, and from the point of view of the future salvation of the soul of one who still lives in our mortal world. Any prayer is an attempt by a person living on our planet to be saved after death. Sacred texts, invocations and prayers that a person offers, tune his spiritual essence in time with the sky.

A person leaves the mortal and vain, leaves everything short-term beyond the threshold of his attention. When praying, a person is immersed in the sensation and memory of death, which means that he is saved from any evil. By regularly offering prayers, a person receives enough strength to exclude arbitrary sins from his reality. In addition, they help the mourner to acquire patience, to become more generous, to know joy. Prayer is what makes the tribulation period easier to endure, as it gives hope for a brighter future outside of our mortal world.

Liturgy

Any prayer for someone who has reposed gives a living person the opportunity to fulfill the commandment voiced by Christ, namely, to begin preparing for departure to another world at any moment of life. Lifting up her words, a person at the same time remembers that those who died from that side of life also pray, but for the future of those who still remain in a mortal body. Special help comes from the prayers of the deceased, if they are blessed in eternity. A popular option ischurch note. You can ask for he alth if a person is given a Christian name. It is possible to offer petitions for repose only if a person has been baptized in a church.

So, how should one pray for the dead? During the liturgy, you can submit a note. You can do this during the first part of the event. Notes with names are served on the proskomedia. For every name mentioned in such a paper, a piece of prosphora is laid, designed specifically for this. Then these particles are dipped in the blood of Christ, while at the same time offering prayer speeches in which they plead for the remission of sins, ask the divine essence to forgive the person.

What to expect?

In general, the priest, explaining whether it is possible to pray for the unbaptized deceased, restricts grieving relatives: in the church it is allowed to pray only for those who have been baptized in its bosom. If a person was dissolute in life, this excommunicates him from the church even if the person was baptized and no one officially excommunicated him. It is not easy to count on salvation in such a situation.

Church prayers will not give salvation to those who, being alive, did not make any efforts. In order to count on a bright afterlife, you need to do everything on your own during the period of mortal existence that you would like to receive from loved ones after death. Saint Gregory once spoke on this subject. He said that the outcome is much better for the one who is free, especially compared to those who are chained and trying to find freedom.

Asking the holy father how to pray for the soul of the deceased,you can find out that the best and most effective prayers will be offered up for someone who in frailty was a good Christian. Such a person rested in peace with holy forces, despite sin (after all, only God does not have it). Church prayer, committed in memory of the deceased, good deeds - all this allows you to incline the divine essences in favor of the deceased, so that the soul is cleansed of sins.

Appeal to the Creator, ascension by ordinary people is the result of a person's life. For example, if a person behaved badly during his lifetime, his relatives read prayers only on strictly specified days, following the customs and nothing more, and after the 40th day, practically no one remembers the deceased in their prayers anymore. A person who has done a lot of good in a mortal body is still mentioned in prayers for a long time. Accordingly, such a soul is more likely to be saved.

The Indestructible Ps alter

Based on the above idea of why they pray for the dead, you can understand how important it is to do it not only on time, but also correctly. One of the options is the Indestructible Ps alter. This prayer is offered so that the person is he althy, and if he dies, so that the soul rests. For a long time, ordering just such a prayer is one of the best ways to achieve true mercy for the deceased.

You can order such a prayer for yourself. As the holy fathers assure, a person will surely feel that he is supported, his good intentions are approved by higher beings. Churches practice eternal commemoration. This is enoughan expensive service, but many are firmly convinced that the results of such an offering of prayers are much more significant than ordinary ones. If it is not possible to order an eternal commemoration, a prayer is requested for a short time or offered on their own.

Sometimes the townsfolk come to the priest to learn how to pray for dead relatives who were not buried in accordance with the rites of Orthodoxy. The Holy Father will explain the importance of ordering a funeral service. It does not matter when exactly the person died, it is better to order this ceremony later than not to do it at all. True, you first need to make sure that there are no stumbling blocks. A priest will not be able to conduct a full-fledged and effective ceremony if a person died of his own free will (suicide) or was not baptized in the bosom of the church.

There are many cases when relatives, wishing to offer prayers for the deceased, applied for a funeral service a few months after the death of a person or even a year later. If you need to request a funeral in a few years, it is better to use the help of the monastery. There is a huge variety of evidence that confirms how important this rite is.

Dedicated to the spouses

The holy fathers know how to pray for deceased relatives. When you come to church for the first time, you should turn to the priest for help. The texts of the prayers are given below. They ascend to the Almighty.

When praying, a person turns to Christ. The person asks to repose the soul of the deceased spouse, to allow the deceased to unite with other faithful servants of the Lord. Be sure to mention the name of the deceased. You should ask for repose for the deceased if the marriage union was consecrated by the church. This fact is also necessarily mentioned in the text of the prayer.

It is equally important to point out how good the deceased was in mortal life. The one who offers prayers assures that he completely submits to the will of the Almighty and bows before him. In prayer texts, one who appeals to higher powers asks to forgive the deceased (deceased) for the fact that a person during his life used the mortal and earthly, and even loved it, since the one who departed for another world was philanthropic, behaved for the good of everyone. The task of the prayer is to beg the divine forces to have mercy on the deceased, spare him and not subject him to eternal torment, but take him to himself, to his Kingdom, where the soul will be surrounded by eternal divine glory.

Tradition and Faith

Since ancient times, people have been practicing various funeral rites. The roots of modern prayer are in ancient habits, ancient rules of reverence. It is known that in ancient times a person who died while hunting for a mammoth could count on a grave decorated with flowers and bones of prey.

In antiquity, ancestors were considered patrons, the Chinese offered prayers to the departed, asking them to grant wisdom to those who live in the mortal world. The Slavs made sacrifices on the altars of their ancestors. Today in our country the main religion is Orthodoxy. It forbids the worship of the human spirit, but allows the offering of prayer for the soul of the deceased. If you ask a priest about whether you can pray for the dead unbaptized or not, he will answer in the negative. Afterthe soul can no longer ask for repose from higher powers for itself. Even those who still live in the mortal world cannot ask for the unbaptized in the church.

It is worth noting that the restrictions on asking for mercy are the foundation for the emergence of numerous rites. It is precisely because of the impossibility of asking for oneself even before repose, a person must repent, prepare for departure to another world. The soul whose body has died can no longer speak. She can only wait in humility for a decision. Relatives, parents, children, spouses who have remained in the mortal world can offer prayers to the divine forces, thereby rejoicing the deceased, lightening their burden and improving the future of the eternal essence. It has long been said that a person is alive only as long as it is in someone's memory.

Ask for help

If you ask a Protestant whether to pray for the dead, the person will answer in the negative. In this religion, it is believed that immediately after death, the entity is judged in accordance with deeds and falls into the bosom of divine mercy. In Orthodoxy, opinions about the afterlife are slightly different. It is customary for us to think that the relatives of the deceased should ask the Lord, and also turn to God's angels. This allows you to somewhat mitigate the fate of the deceased in another world. The hotter the prayer is offered, the stronger it is, the higher the chances for the newly deceased to receive the grace of the divine essence, which means that the future of the soul will be bright and happy.

Prayerbook contains a huge variety of texts. They are applicable in different cases. There are special ones for those who died suddenly and unpredictably. There are motiveswho are commemorated for those who have died because of a tragic accident. There are lyrics dedicated to those who found their deaths in the war.

From the prayer book you can learn how to pray for a dead baby, what texts you need to read if the baby was born dead. A complete list of various options is simply impossible to give, so many prayers exist. The task of relatives is to study the prayer book in order to determine which prayers are suitable for the current situation, and to use them when referring to higher powers.

About the arbitrarily dead

Until recently, a person who died by his own hand was rejected by Christianity. More recently, a new canon has appeared. It was called "On the self-willed life of those who died." As you can see from the name, it is dedicated to those who committed suicide. Previously, prayers for such persons were not allowed. No circumstances could be the reason for making requests to the divine powers. Even today, the holy fathers in the church will not ask for God's mercy to someone who himself caused his own death, who died by his own hand. The Church, however, allows private prayer, that is, the offering of requests for the deceased at home. Suicide is a great sin in the understanding of any church. It is simply impossible to pray for him, he is so big. And yet, the relatives of the deceased can offer their prayers to higher powers in order to at least slightly mitigate their fate in the afterlife.

Parents and children

Children should ask how to pray for dead parents. Religion is responsible for themprayers for the deceased older generation. There are quite a few prayers. Some are specifically for children who make supplications for their deceased parents.

There are also those in which the prayer asks for all Christians who died in Orthodoxy. The texts ask to remember the one who departed from life, the one who served the Lord all his life. During the ascension of the conversion, it is necessary to bow to the divine essence.

Parents must be mentioned by name in places in the prayer text intended for their insertion. Here they are asked to remember all "relatives in the flesh." Offering such a prayer, they pray to higher powers to give the deceased pleasure, to grant endless life. Asking for the deceased parents, the children beg to have mercy on them, calling on God as the Lover of mankind. Three times they ask the Lord to forgive the sins of the one who has gone to another world and give him hope for resurrection. Three times they ask for eternal memory to all those who died in the Orthodox faith.

Begging the Lord to grant eternal life and enjoyment to deceased parents, children at the same time pray for the satisfaction of their sorrows. The priest, explaining how to pray for deceased parents, will definitely say about the need for the correct appeal to divine powers.

Prayer is offered to Jesus, who comforts the weeping, patronizes the orphans, grants shelter to those who are immersed in sorrow. Offering prayers, they appeal to divine mercy, pointing to the virtues of children as a reason to have mercy on their parents. Asking the divine powers to grant happiness and peace in the afterlife, children always say that God is the Father foreveryone, and all people are his children, which means that he should understand especially well why the offspring so pray for a bright future for their mother and father. When praying, they turn to higher powers as "Merciful Lord." Be sure to include in the text the words that God is the only one whom petitioners can rely on, hoping to beg for happiness for the deceased.

He althy and sick

Is it necessary to pray for the dead, who suffered a long illness during their lifetime, due to which they died? The Orthodox religion allows such prayers, moreover, approves of them. If you turn to the prayer book, you can find special texts for such cases. There are two types of prayers. Both of them are dedicated to those who died due to a long illness. In their prayers, relatives must necessarily mention the name of the one who reposed. The prayer turns to the Lord, saying that it was by his will that the deceased served the higher forces with his sufferings, illnesses, becoming part of the Passion of Christ. Relatives, turning to higher powers, ask them to honor the deceased with participation in the glory of Christ.

When offering a prayer, they are asked to accept a prayer for someone who has reposed. Turning to higher powers, they beg to forgive the sins of the one who prays and help the deceased relative of the one who prays. In addition, they cry out for assistance in the fight against devilish machinations, they ask to get rid of troubles and diseases, as well as other evil.

The one who prays promises to live righteously, despite the fact that any mortal people are unworthy. He offers a prayer for the deceased, asking to be merciful to him and to the one who prays, who will glorify the One with his whole life. Gentlemen.

About caregivers

Holy fathers can help those whose mother has died. How to pray in such a situation, the priests explain using a prayer book. Prayers for mentors can also be offered in similar ways.

If these people were important to the person turning to the divine powers, then the educators are to some extent equated with the parents in the perception of the other world. Accordingly, when begging higher powers to grant them happiness and save them from punishment, a person uses the same texts that were created to appeal in the name of parents. True, in this way you can only ask for those who were really important for the person who raised him. You can use a separate prayer. The prayer book contains a special text of an appeal to higher powers, used if you need to beg the Lord to be merciful with a mentor.

About the rules

You can learn how to pray for the deceased by referring to the recommendations and advice of the holy fathers. Known general rules for the ascension of petitions to the divine forces. In the general case, prayers are offered while at home or visiting a cemetery. At home, you can pray to the Lord every evening, when the time comes to commemorate the dead in accordance with Orthodox rites. If a person died no more than 40 days ago, you can offer up prayers dedicated to him daily in the afternoon, when other texts are spoken. If a person has free time and he has such an opportunity, you need to read the Canon, created specifically for commemorationdeceased.

It is customary to offer prayers to the Lord every time you visit a cemetery. Some just make the sign of the cross, briefly greet. Church authorities have limited special parenting days. At these moments, you must definitely visit the cemetery, decorating each grave with holiday relics, as well as remembering how to pray for the deceased.

Attributes include Easter eggs, willow branches, Easter. You can not visit the burial sites on Christ's Resurrection. On this day, the dead are raised by divine forces from their place of eternal rest. They come to visit the family in order to taste a meal in honor of Easter. It is allowed to christen in absentia, to congratulate in advance on the approaching bright day. A good time to visit the burial sites is Tuesday of the week that begins after Easter. In Orthodoxy, it is called Bright Week.

The Importance of Prayer

The importance of knowing how to pray for the departed cannot be underestimated. Of course, when a person dies, his memory can be perpetuated with a luxurious monument, a specially allocated place in the cemetery. You can arrange numerous and magnificent commemorations. However, this is all material, which means that it does not matter to the soul that has flown off to another world. The only thing that can affect the spiritual aspects is the offering of prayers to the divine forces.

Saving the soul of the deceased, a person thereby grants salvation to the family. Only the petition of the living can become a source of mercy for the deceased. Praying for the newly deceased, the person adjusts himself in harmony with the higher powers, becomes closer to the heavenly and spiritual,distracted from the vanity and temporality, from the transient that surrounds us in this world. Prayer is one way to secure a future for yourself outside the mortal world and save yourself from arbitrary sin.

If you know how to pray at home for the deceased (the general rules are described above), if you regularly offer such words for your deceased loved one, you can thereby position your soul for the outcome. One of the key Christian commandments is the readiness to depart at an unpredictable moment in time. Regularly praying for the departed, thereby a person makes such a transition more predictable, habitual for himself, which means that he can come to terms with it in advance. If a departed person has found eternal bliss and in the next world prays for the one who is still living with us, such appeals are especially highly valued, since they help more than anyone else.

Must and can

Orthodox canons, the rules on how to pray for the deceased, point to the commemoration of the deceased in prayers as a duty and obligation of every person who has accepted Orthodoxy. Church canons require especially responsibly and carefully, regularly and zealously to offer prayers in the first 40 days after the death of a person.

A widow must pray for her deceased spouse, children must offer petitions in the name of their parents. If a loved one dies, a real Orthodox Christian will commemorate the deceased daily in his appeals to the divine forces. The reading of names is carried out using a commemorative book created specifically for this purpose. This is the name of a small book in which the names of all the deceased andrelatives still living in mortal bodies. There is such a pious Orthodox custom, according to which they conduct a family commemoration. A person, turning to the divine forces, must read the names of all his relatives, even if they lived several generations ago. Thanks to such books, people can even remember those of their relatives who died many years, decades, centuries ago.

If you ask the holy father how to pray for the deceased before the 40th day, the priest will advise you to pray at home. They are considered the most effective. But after this moment, at home, prayers of divine forces have practically no result and you need to contact the church.

At home until the 40th day, petitions can be made for those for whom it is allowed to pray in the church, and for those who are not accepted in it (such as suicides). Not every text can be read within the walls of an Orthodox institution, but it is possible to offer any prayer while being at home. If a person was not baptized and died, you can pray for him at home. The official church refuses requests for such a deceased. In order for prayer to give a result, you need to concentrate on the ceremony and follow your intentions as much as possible. It is equally important to reproduce the exact text of the prayer. You can not be distracted or make changes to your liking. You can not adjust either the time of the ceremony, or the text of the appeal, or the nuances of the conduct.

Important rules

Priests know how to pray for the deceased after 40 days. Religious rules recommend offering prayers fordeceased after that day as often as possible. Be sure to contact here on the days that are established by religious rites as intended for commemoration. It will not be superfluous to use the help of priests at any other time when there is an opportunity to come to church in order to pray for the departed.

There is a special evening rule. Appeals to the divine forces shortly before going to bed are necessary so that each person regularly thinks about death. It so happened that ordinary people, getting lost in everyday life, do not at all remember the moment of departure to another world. Knowing how to pray for the deceased before the 40th day at home, being able to offer evening prayers daily and after this period, the person comes to terms with the thought of impending death. None of our contemporaries knows what will happen tomorrow or the next day, no one knows when the time will come to leave the mortal world. By observing the nightly prayer ritual, you can prepare for the moment of the exodus, no matter what day it falls.

About the most important and not only

Learning from a priest how to pray for the deceased up to 40 days, you can hear about the importance of the divine liturgy. The process is accompanied by a sacrifice to the divine forces without blood. When the liturgy ends, the memorial service begins. The ceremony is performed at the eve - a table with candlesticks, on which a crucifix is depicted. The ceremony is necessary to remember the dead. Having come to church, a person leaves an offering, which is sent to church needs.

When figuring out how to pray for the deceased up to 40 days, do not forget about Magpie. itservice must be ordered by contacting the Orthodox Church. It is considered one of the most important for the deceased. Sorokoust is a liturgical Orthodox rite that begins when a person leaves the mortal world and ends by the 40th day. When the magpie ends, you can order a new conduct of this ceremony. Extended memorials can be booked for six months or even a whole year.

The easiest way to commemorate the deceased is a candle set for repose.

About children

Sometimes parents are forced to seek help from priests to learn how to pray for a dead child who has not been baptized. Traditionally, the rite of baptism is carried out 40 days after birth. Throughout this period, it is believed that the mother and her child are protected by one Angel. The rite of baptism allows the child to receive his own guardian. If it so happened that the child died without having had time to survive the rite of baptism, it is necessary to pray for him especially sincerely, strongly, zealously. Any true Christian feels heaviness in the soul, realizing that someone has died outside the bosom of the church. So that the afterlife of such a soul is as calm as possible, heartfelt prayers are offered.

In churches, it is strictly forbidden to send requests, indicating in it the name of the deceased unbaptized. Priests, telling how to pray for the unbaptized dead, indicate the possibility of offering petitions to divine forces only at home or in a cemetery. If a person has not entered the church bosom, he cannot be mentioned by the holy fathers. The more significant the soul becomes a person,who mentions her in prayer at home.

If you ask how to pray for the unbaptized dead, a knowledgeable person will surely recommend making requests to St. Huar. There is a special canon. The saint devoted himself to prayers for the unfortunate who failed to enter the bosom of the Orthodox Church. By sincerely addressing this martyr, one can ease the afterlife of the soul.