May They Rest In Peace: An All Souls’ Day Reflection

Today is All Souls’ Day, a feast to commemorate all the faithful departed.

The practice of praying for the dead is grounded in Scripture. 2 Machabees 12:46 says, “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” Later, in the New Testament, St. Paul the Apostle prays for an apparently deceased man to receive mercy from God (2 Tim. 1:16-18), “The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus: because he hath often refreshed me, and hath not been ashamed of my chain: But when he was come to Rome, he carefully sought me, and found me. The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou very well knowest.”

James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man has great power.” And in what better way can prayer be used than in assisting our loved ones who went before us to reach eternal joy in heaven as soon as possible?