Prayer for the Departed

The Apostle John teaches: “I write these things to you so that you may not commit sin. But if someone does commit a sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world” (1Jo 2:1–2; see Q240b, Q269).

Regarding sins not committed in a habitual and deliberate manner (1Jo 5:16–17; see Q305, Q353), the Church remembers the Lord’s teaching that the repentant should “bear fruits that befit repentance” (Luk 3:8; see Q481). As St Cyprian writes:

I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one confess his own sin while he is still in this world, while his confession can still be received, and while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are pleasing to the Lord. (St Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lapsed, 29)

When Christians have fallen asleep in the Lord, yet not in a state of perfect unity with the Church on account of sin, it is the most ancient belief of the faithful that they may find comfort and aid through prayers offered on their behalf, especially those offered in union with the oblation of the bloodless Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ, and by works of mercy done in faith for their memory.

Not only Christians, but believing Jews before them, offered prayers for the reposed: the practice rests on the constant tradition of the catholic Church, whose sources appear already in the ‘Church of the Old Testament’, as when Judas Maccabaeus offered sacrifice for his fallen men, “making atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2Ma 12:43–45; see Q040, Q554).

Prayer for the departed has always been a fixed part of the Divine Liturgy, from the ancient Liturgy of St James onward: no ancient liturgy has been documented without petitions for the reposed. As St Cyril of Jerusalem says: “very great will be the benefit to those souls for whom prayer is offered while the holy and most awesome Sacrifice lies before us” (St Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catechesis 5.9; see Q003, Q008).

St Basil the Great, in the Kneeling Prayers of Pentecost, leads the whole Church in this great intercession:

O Lord… who on this all-perfect and saving feast are graciously pleased to accept propitiatory prayers for those imprisoned in Hades, granting us great hope that You will send down refreshment and consolation to the departed from the griefs that hold them… give rest to the souls of Your servants who have fallen asleep, in a place of light, of verdure, of refreshment, whence all sickness, sorrow, and sighing have fled away. (Third Kneeling Prayer, Vespers of Pentecost)

Orthodox Christians pray for the reposed in the firm belief that “love will cover a multitude of sins” (1Pe 4:8), and that “neither death nor life… nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38–39; see Q262, Q402). The Church passes no judgment, indeed she has no knowledge, as to whether a particular departed person is with the Lord, or in a state from which “none may cross” (Luk 16:26); rather, she obeys the apostolic instruction that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all… for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all” (1Ti 2:1–6; see Q266, Q402).