Prayer collection
Prayers for the Dead: For All Souls' Day, Funerals and Remembering Loved Ones
All Souls' Day, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, falls on Monday, November 2, 2026, the day after All Saints. Catholic and Orthodox Christians pray for the dead throughout the year, and anyone may need words at a funeral or on the anniversary of a death. Below are the prayers themselves, each printed word for word from a dated edition and labelled with its church: the Catholic "Eternal rest" in Latin and English, burial and anniversary prayers from the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer, the Orthodox prayer "O God of spirits", and Psalm 130 ("Out of the depths", Psalm 129 in the Douay–Rheims numbering). After the prayers: which churches pray for the dead and which do not, the Bible passages each side reads, the Catholic All Souls' indulgence, and prayers for the grieving that every church can use.
4 prayers
Out of the Depths (Psalm 129)
The Douay-Rheims rendering of a psalm for grief, mercy, and patient hope.
Eternal Rest (Requiem Aeternam)
The Catholic prayer for the dead, "Eternal rest grant unto them", in Latin and English, with the form for one person, from the 1889 Baltimore Manual of Prayers.
Burial and Anniversary Prayers (1928 Prayer Book)
Burial prayers and the anniversary prayer from the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer: some pray for the departed, others for the living.
O God of Spirits: Orthodox Prayer for the Departed
The Orthodox prayer for the departed from the Requiem Office, with its closing exclamation, in Isabel Hapgood's 1906 Service Book translation.
Which churches pray for the dead
Catholic: yes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 1032) grounds the practice in 2 Maccabees 12:46 and says the Church has honoured the dead and prayed for them from the beginning, above all by offering the Mass, and also commends almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance on their behalf. It teaches that those who die in God's friendship but are not yet fully purified undergo a purification, called purgatory, before they see God (paragraphs 1030–1031).
Orthodox: yes. Isabel Hapgood's Service Book (1906), an English translation of the Russian Orthodox services made for parishes in America, prints the Requiem Office for the Dead, whose litany prays for the departed's "repose, tranquillity and blessed memory" and which ends with the choir singing "Memory eternal!"
Anglican: it varies. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England gives thanks at a burial for the person who has died and prays for the living who are present; its collect asks that we may rest in Christ "as our hope is this our brother doth". The 1928 Prayer Book of the Episcopal Church in the United States also prints prayers that ask God's mercy for the departed themselves; three of them are on this page.
Lutheran: not forbidden. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, writing about the early Church's teachers, says: "we know that the ancients speak of prayer for the dead, which we do not prohibit". What it rejects is offering the Lord's Supper on behalf of the dead.
Reformed and Baptist: no. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) says that prayer is to be made for the living and for those who shall live hereafter, "but not for the dead" (chapter 21, section 4). The Baptist confession adopted by the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1742 says the same (chapter 22, section 4). Christians in these churches pray for the mourners and give thanks to God, and the prayers in the last section below are written for them as much as anyone.
What the Bible passages say
2 Maccabees 12:43–46. After a battle, Judas Maccabeus took up a collection and sent it to Jerusalem for a sacrifice for the sins of the fallen. The Douay–Rheims (1609–10) closes the passage: "It is therefore a holy, and healthful cogitation to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (12:46). Which Bibles contain it matters here. The Council of Trent (1546) lists "two books of the Machabees" in the Catholic Old Testament, and the Orthodox Church in America counts the books of Maccabees in its longer canon. The Church of England's Articles of Religion (Article VI) place both books of Maccabees among those the Church reads "for example of life and instruction of manners" but does not apply "to establish any doctrine", and many Protestant Bibles leave them out. On this site the passage is in the Douay–Rheims and in the World English Bible (where it is numbered 12:43–45); the Berean Standard Bible, King James Version and American Standard Version texts here do not include the book.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–18. Paul writes about those who have died so that believers "will not grieve like the rest, who are without hope" (4:13, Berean Standard Bible), because "God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him" (4:14). He ends: "Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (4:18, King James Version). The Prayer Book's burial collect takes up verse 13: Paul taught us "not to be sorry, as men without hope".
John 11:25–26. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus tells Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (Berean Standard Bible). The Prayer Book collect opens with these words, and the Orthodox prayer ends with them: "For thou art the Resurrection, and the Life".
The other side's passages. For its rule against praying for the dead, the Westminster Confession cites 2 Samuel 12:21–23, where David stops fasting when his child dies ("I will go to him, but he will not return to me", 12:23, Berean Standard Bible), together with Luke 16:25–26, the "great chasm" in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, and Revelation 14:13, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord".
All Souls' Day and the Catholic indulgence
This applies to Catholics, and the rule is the same in every country. The Catholic Church's Enchiridion of Indulgences (fourth edition, 1999, grant 29) grants a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory, to a Catholic who devoutly visits a cemetery and prays for the dead, even only in the mind, on any day from November 1 to 8; and to one who devoutly visits a church or oratory on All Souls' Day and there says the Our Father and the Creed (with the bishop's consent, the Sunday before or after, or All Saints' Day, may be used instead). A cemetery visit on any other day, or saying the "Eternal rest", carries a partial indulgence, also only for the souls in purgatory. A plenary indulgence needs the three usual conditions (sacramental confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope's intentions) and freedom from all attachment to sin, even venial sin; a parish priest can explain how they are kept locally.
If your church does not pray for the dead
Not every prayer on this page asks something for the person who has died. In the Prayer Book set, "O merciful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" prays that we, the living, may rise from sin and rest in Christ, and "O Lord Jesus Christ, who by thy death didst take away the sting of death" asks that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in him. Psalm 130, "Out of the depths", is a cry of waiting and hope prayed in every church. Read with 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 and John 11:25–26, these can be said at any graveside. For more help in grief, see Bible Verses for Grief and the study Lament, companionship, and hope in grief.