For more than a 1000 years Holy Church has remembered all the dead on one day and reminding the faithful what we believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus and thus for those who die in grace. Spend some time with the Mass Collect below. It is not merely remembering the dead, as good as it is, but also to hold fast to the faith we are Baptized into: Christ's death and resurrection.
As a way of entering into what the Lord desires, the Church formed the All Souls Indulgence. Read about it here. You have until November 8 to observe the conditions of the Indulgence.
God, who has raised Jesus from the dead, will give life also to your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwells in you.
With the Church we pray,
O God, who willed that your Only Begotten Son, having conquered death, should pass over into the realm of heaven, grant, we pray, to your departed servants that, with the mortality of this life overcome, they may gaze eternally on you, their Creator and Redeemer.
If you want a simple prayer for the dead, pray the following:
V. From the gate of hell.
R. Deliver their souls, O Lord.
V. May they rest in peace.
R. Amen.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come unto Thee.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that through our devout prayers they may obtain pardon which they have always desired. Who lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen.
V. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
R. And let perpetual light shine upon them. Amen.
- According to a tradition of the Church, today any priest has the permission to offer three Masses following the norms established by Pope Benedict XV in the Apostolic Constitution, Incruentum altaris sacrificium, August 10, 1915: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 7 (1915): pp. 401-404.
A previous post on All Souls may be read here.
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