Can someone explain the catholic belief of praying for the dead and lost souls ?

Question

Does this give one a second chance ? Sounds like a popularity contest of sorts. The bum who dies on the streets and isn't missed has less of a chance than the rap star who lives a life of PURE SIN.

Answer 1

The short answer to the question is that not all Catholics pray for the dead for exactly the same reasons. But scripture lies at the root of many of them.

Catholics have traditionally pointed to the Old Testament, as the Book of Maccabees talks about the “usefulness of offering prayers for the dead”.

Unfortunately, the Protestant Reformation was a result, in part, of abuses of indulgences. For that and other reasons, the book of Maccabees was purged from their Bibles.

But Catholics have a much more compelling reason to pray for the dead. We pray for the dead to imitate Jesus. We pray for the dead because Jesus prayed for the dead.

In the New Testament, we have documentation of two specific people that Jesus raised from the dead. Jesus prayed as he spoke to His Father before raising Martha and Mary’s dead brother, Lazarus (Jn 11:41). And Jarius prayed as he got on his knees and begged Jesus to raise his dead daughter (Lk 8:41). Two people were raised from the dead, after having prayers said for both of them.

Answer 2

What sort of explanation are you looking for?  Will you call it "ancestor worship"?  The Oriental peoples do it.  The Natives do it.  Buddhists do it.  And the Jews do it.  Why not Catholics?  Do you think that those who have gone ahead are actually gone, with no hope for a resurrection?  Where do you suppose those souls are?

Answering these questions and using scripture for a guide has brought Catholics to this conclusion.  Clearly Christ and the apostles used the deuterocanonicals as reference in their teachings, yet so many Christians today treat them worse than the works of JK Rowlings.

Get a real bible and read it.

Answer 3

Nope... I can't explain it other then most Catholics views are misconstrued big time...sigh*, now that is something to pray for...

Answer 4

Luke 16:24   "The rich man shouted, `Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in these flames.'  

Luke 16:25   "But Abraham said to him, `Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish.  

Luke 16:26   And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. Anyone who wanted to cross over to you from here is stopped at its edge, and no one there can cross over to us.'  

As you can see anyone who is in h**l can not cross the chasm that separates them from God and all that is good. Once you have breathed your last breath, it is too LATE!

Answer 5

No you have the wrong idea. We pray for the persons soul to be with God. His soul is not lost but we know they are to go to the light as you may say. We were not of this earth and we're going home when we are dead.The soul lives after death its not dead and yes our body is a place where it stays and leaves upon death but we have to help them there. They may have needed a few extra prayers or they are there already which we do not know. You would not liket o say the person is dead oh well hes done. that is nuts tobelievee that there is no hope and God has said he would help us all and not o ne person is deleted. The people that go to h**l are like the angels cast into h**l they were against God and that is hard to get like that. God is all loving forgiving and wants our souls to be with him and therefore you need to get all thehelp youu can. Because you have money does not make a sure way to heaven. You must realize that. but I assure you that he didn't make us to go to h**l either he wanted us to have eternal life with him where our home is really and we need to help and that is why we do this. take care no one but pure of sin was his mom Mary she was consumed body and soul into heaven and this day no one could find her body.

Answer 6

Praying For The Dead

Why do Catholics pray for the dead? Before we can answer this question there are two points that need to be made. First, the Catholic Church believes that the Body of Christ is One. This simply means that there exists a real unity among ALL members of the Christ's Body regardless of whether they are alive or dead (Jn 17:20-21). Second, the Catholic Church, in her prayers for the dead, is not praying for those souls that she has declared are in heaven   Once in heaven, a soul no longer needs our prayers, rather that soul then enters into continual praise and worship of God and also takes on the role of intercessor (Rev 5:8).

Once we have acknowledged these two truths - the unity of Christ's Body and that Catholics do not pray for those souls that we know with certainty are in heaven - then we must address the question of why Christians pray for each other in the first place. When did the practice of praying for others begin? The earliest biblical reference we find is in the book of Genesis:

Now then restore the man's wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. Gen 20:7

In the New Testament we find Jesus saying:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... Matt 5:44

And then in Acts:

And Simon said, "Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me." Acts 8:24

Yet no one mentions intercessory prayer more than St. Paul. He continously asks for the prayers of others and tells them that he is praying for them (Rom 1:9, 10:1, 15:30-32; 2 Cor 1:11, 9:14, 13:7; Eph 1:16, 6:18-19; Phil 1:3-5, 1:9; Col 1:9, 4:3, 4:12; 1 Thess 1:2, 5:25; 2 Thess 1:11, 3:1; 1 Tim 2:1-3; 2 Tim 1:3; Philemon 4; and Heb 13:18). Of course, I'm sure that most of us ask others to pray for us and have prayed for others as well. The reason we pray for one another is because we want some "good" for the other. So intercessory prayer is concerned with the good of the other. The greatest good we can want for another is eternal life.

It is based on this understanding that the Catholic Church beseeches us to pray for the dead, specifically the souls in Purgatory. The following are excerpts from two outstanding articles. The first deals with Purgatory and the second with praying for the dead.

"Purgatory Not in Scripture"

Some Fundamentalists also charge, as though it actually proved something, "The word purgatory is nowhere found in Scripture." This is true, and yet it does not disprove the existence of purgatory or the fact that belief in it has always been part of Church teaching. The words Trinity and Incarnation arent in Scripture either, yet those doctrines are clearly taught in it. Likewise, Scripture teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesnt use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory.

Christ refers to the sinner who "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:32), suggesting that one can be freed after death of the consequences of one�s sins. Similarly, Paul tells us that, when we are judged, each man�s work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man�s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15). Now this loss, this penalty, can�t refer to consignment to h**l, since no one is saved there; and heaven can�t be meant, since there is no suffering ("fire") there. The Catholic doctrine of purgatory alone explains this passage.

Then, of course, there is the Bible�s approval of prayers for the dead: "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43�45). Prayers are not needed by those in heaven, and no one can help those in h**l. That means some people must be in a third condition, at least temporarily. This verse so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine.

Prayers for the dead and the consequent doctrine of purgatory have been part of the true religion since before the time of Christ. Not only can we show it was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner�s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one so that the loved one may be purified. It was not the Catholic Church that added the doctrine of purgatory. Rather

Answer 7

The complete answer to this would be exhaustive, but here is a synopsis:

Before the Roman Catholic church was completely formed, theological writers such as Augustine (ca 350-430 A.D.) and Origen wrote their interpretation that "unforgiven" sins had to be paid for by being cleansed (being punished) by fire.  Pope Gregory I (ca 540 A.D.) spoke of having to be purged from unforgiven sin by fire.  Praying for souls in purgatory was accepted and practiced by some, but it simply does not exist in the Bible.  Thus, it is sinful to do it.

In the 6th century, a new practice was adopted, the Catholic practice of accepting money to give early remission of sins (the Council of Epaon).  This led to Pope Urban II's declaration that those who participated in the Crusades (fighters), would have their sins forgiven by doing the Pope's bidding.

In the 13th century, the concept of a Church "treasury" of forgiveness of sins was available on the basis that Jesus needed none of His goodness and that "saints" didn't need all theirs.  From this "treasury" grew the Sale of Indulgences where sins could be "pardoned" for money, souls of the dead could be "redeemed" from Purgatory for a price, and many other abuses.  This continued into the the 16th century.

The bottom line is that Purgatory is not a scriptural concept.  Neither is the idea that a "treasury of goodness" is available for the Popes to use at their disposal.  Praying for the dead is shown in Scripture as being an utterly useless thing.  The entire thing from beginning to end is sinful because it is totally unscriptural.

Answer 8

I don't quite understand your question, but it's intriguing non-the-less.

my take on dead people though is that they go back to paradise where they can review their actions of the life they've just left, and decide whether to come back and try again.

There is no such thing as pure sin. Wrongful actions are necessary, in order to know and experience rightful actions! Just like you don't know hot until you've experienced cold, up until you've experienced down, left until you've experienced right and love until you've experienced hate. God does not judge us because he/she has no need or reason to, WE judge us.

We get as many chances as we need to become whole, healed spiritual beings.

Answer 9

One day Jesus was talking to his disciples. He told them: "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."-John 14

Jesus is the ONLY way to get to Heaven. This is the gospel, the foundation of Christian faith. Scriptural evidence does not support the whole idea of Purgatory

" Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord...We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord." -2 Corinthians 5:8

And it doesn't support praying for the dead because having to pray for the dead means that our salvation would be based on works of others and not faith

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” -Ephesians 2:8,9

I hope this is helpful

Answer 10

You keep the dead in your prayers so they are not forgotten.

Answer 11

I don't pray for rap stars or celebrities. Unless I was a true fan and they did something meaningful. I pray for loved ones that they make it safely to Heaven and that they know I still love them. I also ask them to watch over me