Prayers for the Dead: All Souls' Day and the Month of November
November 2 is the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, better known as All Souls' Day. The day after the Church rejoices with the saints in heaven, she prays for everyone who has died in God's friendship but may still be undergoing purification before seeing Him face to face. A yearly day of prayer for all the dead spread from the Benedictine abbey of Cluny, where St. Odilo established it around the year 998, and the whole month of November is traditionally devoted to the Holy Souls.
Scripture calls prayer for the dead "a holy and wholesome thought" (2 Maccabees 12:46), and it is one of the spiritual works of mercy. This month, visit a cemetery, have a Mass offered, and name your loved ones in prayer. The texts below, Eternal Rest, the De Profundis, and the traditional collect of All Souls' Day, are short enough to pray at a graveside or before a family photo.
The November Indulgences
The Church grants a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, to the faithful who devoutly visit a church or oratory on All Souls' Day (or, where the bishop allows, on the Sunday before or after, or on All Saints' Day) and there pray the Our Father and the Creed. A plenary indulgence is likewise granted on each day from November 1 to 8 to those who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even only mentally, for the departed; on other days of the year the same visit gains a partial indulgence.
The usual conditions apply: sacramental confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, and freedom from all attachment to sin, even venial sin. In some recent years the Apostolic Penitentiary has extended these dates, so check with your parish or diocese.
The Prayer
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. 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. Let us pray. O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants departed the remission of all their sins, that through pious supplications they may obtain the pardon which they have always desired. Who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.
More prayers for the dead and the dying
Eternal Rest, the Church's simplest prayer for the dead.
The De Profundis, Psalm 129 (130) on its own page.
Prayer for a Departed Soul, for a parent or loved one who has died.
Prayer to St. Joseph for a Happy Death, patron of a holy death.
May He Support Us All the Day Long, St. John Henry Newman's prayer for peace at the last.
Sources: Eternal Rest, traditional form; Psalm 129 (130), Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision); collect of All Souls' Day, traditional English; all public domain. Indulgence details per the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (1999), grant 29.
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