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Pro Fidelibus Defunctis
A devotion for the faithful departed, in fifteen minutes or thirty
“It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”2 Machabees 12:46
The Layman’s Lantern · laymanslantern.org/devotions/holy-souls
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Pray it at home, at the grave of someone you love, or before the Blessed Sacrament: on any day, and by an old custom on Mondays, through November, and on the anniversaries of a death. Kneel when you can and sit when you must. Pray aloud and slowly, and keep the pauses.
The words in red italics are directions, not prayers. Parts marked ✠ Core make the fifteen-minute devotion. Parts with a rule down their side, marked 30-minute path, are added for thirty minutes.
To gain a plenary indulgence for a soul: make the intention; do one work — on any day, half an hour of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Way of the Cross, five decades of the Rosary in a church or with others, or half an hour of reading Scripture; from 1 to 8 November, a visit to a cemetery with prayer for the dead; on All Souls’ Day, a visit to a church with an Our Father and the Creed — and add the usual conditions: confession within about twenty days, Holy Communion, a prayer for the Holy Father’s intention, and freedom from all attachment to sin. One plenary indulgence can be gained in a day; if anything is lacking it is partial. (Manual of Indulgences, N17, N20; Grants 7, 13, 17, 29, 30.)
Write the names of the departed you are praying for, and name them at the offering and wherever the prayers say N.
And the souls who have no one to pray for them.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
Offer this time to God for the holy souls, in your own words or in silence. Name those you are praying for: N. Then remember the souls who have no one to pray for them.
V. O God, come to my assistance;
R. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
V. Deus, in adiutorium meum intende.
R. Domine, ad adiuvandum me festina.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Psalm 69:2 (Douay-Rheims), the verse that opens the Hours of the Divine Office; the Glory Be as on the Lantern’s Prayers.
An indulgence is gained only by one who is free of all attachment to sin. Ask pardon first.
O my God! I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.
The traditional Act of Contrition of the Baltimore Catechism, as on the Lantern’s Prayers.
A gradual canticle.
Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord:
Lord, hear my voice.
Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities:
Lord, who shall stand it.
For with thee there is merciful forgiveness:
and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord.
My soul hath relied on his word:
my soul hath hoped in the Lord.
From the morning watch even until night,
let Israel hope in the Lord.
Because with the Lord there is mercy:
and with him plentiful redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine:
Domine, exaudi vocem meam.
Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem deprecationis meae.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine:
Domine, quis sustinebit?
Quia apud te propitiatio est:
et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.
Sustinuit anima mea in verbo eius:
speravit anima mea in Domino.
A custodia matutina usque ad noctem,
speret Israel in Domino.
Quia apud Dominum misericordia:
et copiosa apud eum redemptio.
Et ipse redimet Israel ex omnibus iniquitatibus eius.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Psalm 129 (130 in the Hebrew numbering), Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision; the Latin of the Vulgate. The Eternal rest closes it as in the Office of the Dead.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
The Introit of the Requiem Mass, Roman Missal. Said for the dead, it carries a partial indulgence applicable only to the souls in Purgatory (Manual of Indulgences, Grant 29 §2).
Pause in silence.
After the battle, Judas found that the slain had died wearing idols’ tokens, and had sacrifice offered for them.
2 Machabees 12:43–46And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision.
30-minute path
The first reading of many Masses for the Dead.
Wisdom 3:1–9But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery: And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust, he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. They that trust in him shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love, shall rest in him: for grace and peace are to his elect.
Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision.
30-minute path
1 Corinthians 3:11–15For other foundation no man can lay, but that which is laid: which is Christ Jesus. Now, if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: Every man’s work shall be manifest. For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire. And the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision. On how the Church reads this passage, see The Witness of Scripture.
Pause, and let the Word be heard again in silence.
Devotion to the holy souls need not be complicated. The Church gives the faithful simple means by which charity for the dead can become part of ordinary Catholic life: the Mass, the Rosary, short prayers, sacrifices, cemetery visits, indulgenced works, and the offering of daily duties. What matters most is fidelity. A single prayer said daily for the dead, persevered in for years, is better than a great intention quickly forgotten.
The point of such a rule is not anxiety, calculation, or spiritual bookkeeping. It is love. The holy souls are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They cannot merit for themselves, but they can be aided by us; and when they enter Heaven, the charity shown to them is not forgotten before God.
From X. A Rule of Charity for the Holy Souls
30-minute path
It is important to understand what Purgatory is not. It is not a "second chance" for repentance. Those who enter Purgatory are already saved — they have died in the state of grace and their eternal destiny is assured. They will reach Heaven. Purgatory is not a middle state between salvation and damnation, but the final preparation of the saved. Those who die in mortal sin descend immediately to Hell; there is no passage from Hell to Purgatory or from Purgatory to Hell.
From I. What Purgatory Is
The offering of the Holy Mass is the most powerful suffrage that can be offered for the souls in Purgatory. The Mass is the unbloody re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary — the very same Sacrifice by which Christ redeemed the world. When a Mass is offered for a deceased person, the infinite merits of Christ's Sacrifice are applied to that soul, according to the will of God and in the measure He determines.
From VI. How We Help the Holy Souls
These customs, both liturgical and popular, testify to the Church's maternal solicitude for her children beyond the grave. The November devotions are not a morbid preoccupation with death but an act of faith in the resurrection, an exercise of charity toward the suffering, and an expression of hope that one day we shall be reunited with those we have loved in the eternal life of God.
From IX. The November Devotions and All Souls
Pause in silence, and bring the souls you love before God.
O God, the 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 supplications they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Fidelium, Deus, omnium Conditor et Redemptor, animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum remissionem cunctorum tribue peccatorum: ut indulgentiam, quam semper optaverunt, piis supplicationibus consequantur. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Collect Fidelium, Deus, Roman Missal: the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (2 November) and the Mass for the Dead.
Say the name at N. For several, pray it once for each.
Incline Thine ear, O Lord, unto our prayers, wherein we humbly entreat Thy mercy: that Thou wouldst establish in the region of peace and light the soul of Thy servant N., which Thou hast called out of this world, and bid it to be numbered among Thy saints. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad preces nostras, quibus misericordiam tuam supplices deprecamur: ut animam famuli tui N., quam de hoc saeculo migrare iussisti, in pacis ac lucis regione constituas, et Sanctorum tuorum iubeas esse consortem. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Collect Inclina, Domine, Roman Missal, Mass for the Dead, for one who has died. In the Latin, for a woman say famulae tuae.
30-minute path
O God, who hast commanded us to honour our father and our mother, in Thy mercy have pity on the souls of my father and mother, and forgive them their sins; and make me to see them in the joy of eternal brightness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Deus, qui nos patrem et matrem honorare praecepisti: miserere clementer animabus patris et matris meae, eorumque peccata dimitte; meque eos in aeternae claritatis gaudio fac videre. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Collect Deus, qui nos patrem et matrem, Roman Missal, Mass for the Dead, for one’s father and mother.
30-minute path
O God, who didst raise Thy servants to the dignity of bishop or of priest in the apostolic priesthood: grant, we beseech Thee, that they may also be joined for ever to their company. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes famulos tuos pontificali seu sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta, quaesumus; ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregentur consortio. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Collect Deus, qui inter apostolicos sacerdotes, Roman Missal: All Souls’ Day and the Mass for the Dead, for deceased bishops and priests.
For the most abandoned souls, who have no one to pray for them, and for all who lie in Christ, here and everywhere.
O God, by whose mercy the souls of the faithful find rest: mercifully grant to all Thy servants and handmaids, here and everywhere sleeping in Christ, the pardon of their sins; that, being absolved from all guilt, they may rejoice with Thee for ever. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Deus, cuius miseratione animae fidelium requiescunt: famulis et famulabus tuis omnibus, hic et ubique in Christo quiescentibus, da propitius veniam peccatorum; ut a cunctis reatibus absoluti, tecum sine fine laetentur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Collect Deus, cuius miseratione, Roman Missal, Mass for the Dead, for all who rest in a cemetery.
An offering of the Precious Blood, in union with every Mass offered today.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
The promise often printed with this prayer, that it releases a thousand souls each time it is said, is not found in St. Gertrude’s writings and has never been approved by the Church. Pray it as an offering of the Precious Blood in union with the Mass.
A popular prayer attributed to St. Gertrude the Great.
30-minute path
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Jesus Christ in satisfaction for my sins, in supplication for the holy souls in purgatory, and for the needs of holy Church.
The offering of the Precious Blood of the Raccolta, the Church’s former collection of indulgenced prayers.
Private revelation Never binding: weigh it.
Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to heal the wounds of our souls.
My Jesus, pardon and mercy, through the merits of Thy holy Wounds.
From the Chaplet of the Holy Wounds, which Sr. Mary Martha Chambon (1841–1907), a Visitation nun of Chambéry, said Our Lord taught her: the first on the chaplet’s large beads, the second on its small ones. Her account is private revelation, labelled as the Purgatory guide labels such sources.
30-minute path
O most merciful Jesus, lover of souls, I pray Thee, by the agony of Thy most Sacred Heart, and by the sorrows of Thy Immaculate Mother, cleanse in Thine own Blood the sinners of the whole world who are now in their agony, and who are to die this day. Amen.
Heart of Jesus, once in agony, have pity on the dying.
The prayer for the dying of the Raccolta, the Church’s former collection of indulgenced prayers.
Pause in silence.
Announce one of the Sorrowful Mysteries — the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pillar, the Crowning with Thorns, the Carrying of the Cross, or the Crucifixion — and offer the decade for the souls. Pray the Our Father, ten Hail Marys and the Glory Be, and after the Glory Be add the Eternal rest.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Ten times.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem: sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Decies.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
The whole Rosary — five decades without interruption, with meditation on the mysteries — prayed in a church or oratory, or in a family, a religious community or any group of the faithful, can gain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, and it may be given to a soul; prayed alone elsewhere, it gains a partial one (Manual of Indulgences, Grant 17 §1). For all twenty mysteries with Scripture, see The Scriptural Rosary.
The Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be as on the Lantern’s Prayers.
O Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the deep pit;
deliver them from the mouth of the lion, that hell may not swallow them up, and they may not fall into darkness;
but let the standard-bearer holy Michael bring them into the holy light:
which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and to his seed.
V. We offer to Thee, O Lord, sacrifices and prayers of praise: do Thou receive them for those souls whom we commemorate this day. Grant them, O Lord, to pass from death to life,
which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham and to his seed.
Domine Iesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni et de profundo lacu:
libera eas de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum:
sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam:
quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius.
V. Hostias et preces tibi, Domine, laudis offerimus: tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam,
quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini eius.
Offertory of the Mass for the Dead, Missale Romanum (1962); English after the traditional hand missals. It is a prayer of the Mass, said here as a private prayer.
Pause in silence. If you are before the Blessed Sacrament, adore Him.
Entrust to her the souls you have named, and all the holy souls.
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
V. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God,
R. that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genetrix,
R. ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. Amen.
The Marian antiphon Salve Regina, with its versicle, as on the Lantern’s Prayers.
The Heroic Act of Charity is a voluntary offering by which a member of the faithful places all of his or her satisfactory works — all the merit of one's prayers, penances, good deeds, and indulgences, together with all the suffrages that may be offered for oneself after death — into the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to be distributed by her to the souls in Purgatory according to her will.
The Heroic Act is a voluntary devotion, not a vow, and can be revoked. Older books describe indulgences and privileged-altars grants associated with it. Those historical privileges should not be confused with present discipline: Paul VI’s Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1967), norm 20, abolished special altar privileges.
From VI. How We Help the Holy Souls
It is entirely voluntary. The formula is not fixed: the Act may be made by an interior intention alone, or by the short prayer the guide gives.
O Lord, for the benefit of the holy souls in Purgatory, I place all my satisfactory works, and all the suffrages which may be offered for me after my death, into the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.
The formula as given in How We Help the Holy Souls. For indulgences under the current norms, see Gaining Indulgences for the Holy Souls.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.
Three times.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.
Ter.
Fidelium animae, per misericordiam Dei, requiescant in pace. Amen.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
The Eternal rest, from the Requiem Mass; Fidelium animae, the versicle that closes the Hours of the Roman Breviary and the Grace after Meals.
The Layman’s LanternScripture from the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Vulgate; collects and Offertory from the Masses for the Dead of the Roman Missal; meditations from the Purgatory guide, laymanslantern.org/purgatory.
In any of the silences, or before the Blessed Sacrament when the words run out, say one slowly, again and again.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them eternal rest.
Pie Iesu Domine, dona eis requiem.
Sweet Heart of Mary, be my salvation.
Dulce Cor Mariae, esto salus mea.
My Jesus, mercy.
Eternal rest: the Introit of the Requiem Mass. Pie Iesu: the closing verse of the Dies irae, the sequence of the Requiem Mass. Sweet Heart of Mary and My Jesus, mercy: aspirations of the Raccolta.