It is a treasured monastic tradition to pray for the dead, to visit the cemetery and to recall
lives of those who have gone ahead of us to receive the Lord’s mercy. Some groups of monks have the custom of praying an entire Psalter for their deceased confreres, concluding each psalm with the verse, “Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.” Generally the Mass and private devotions are all that mark the day in many monasteries.
The Mass offered today is offered for all the departed monks, nuns, sisters and oblates who persevered in their consecration under Saint Benedict’s guidance. After death, the monks, nuns, sisters and oblates buried in the monastery’s cemetery are not abandoned, not forgotten by their monastic family who remain on earth. The Mass, psalmody, and other prayers, like the rosary or particular litanies to effect in God’s plan their purification and obtain the beatific vision.
O God, giver of pardon and lover of humankind, we beseech your mercy that through the intercession of blessed Mary ever-virgin, and of all the Benedictine saints, our brothers and sisters, relatives and benefactors who have passed out of this life, may be admitted into the fellowship of everlasting bliss.