Catholics..... Why pray for dead people ?

Question

I have always been taught that we enter heaven on our beliefs and practices. Why and how could prayer for me after I pass on help me ? Doesn't that seem like a popularity contest ? If you don't have enough people praying then you are out of luck ? Where is this taught ? I have never seen a reference to anything like it in my bible.

I am not getting specific answers. By praying for the dead, aren't you second guessing GOD ? Again, this sounds like a popularity contest. If enough prayers don't happen for me, I stay in purgatory.... forever ? I KNOW it's not in my bible, so where did the belief come from ?

Answer 1

Catholics pray for the dead for the following reasons:

+ We pray that the the dead person was right with God at the time of his (or her) death. God can do anything and is not constrained by a little thing like time.

+ We pray that the dead person will not have a hard process of purgation.

Yes, Catholics believe in Purgatory.

Are you perfect now? Most people would say no.

Will you be perfect in heaven? Most people believe yes.

Purgatory (or purgation) is the process of God's love changing our imperfect selves into perfect beings.

Depending on the amount of change needed by different people this can be an easy or slightly harder process.

Everyone in purgatory is on their way to heaven.

I don't think Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a very hard time of it.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

The reason that you o not find it in your Bible is because the book that mentions praying for the dead (1 Maccabees) was taken out of your Bible by the Protestant reformers. Curiously enough, the same book is the only place in the Old Testament that mentions the resurrection of the body.

Praying for the souls of the dead is a very ancient Jewish practice. We leave this life as imperfect souls. Before we enter Heaven, Jesus must purge us of our imperfections one last time. This process is called Purgatory. Being purged of our imperfections can be a bit rough and our prayers are that the process may be swift.

It is not a popularity contest. We pray for the souls of the faithfully departed at each and every Mass, so everyone who has ever died has more than enough praying for them.

Answer 3

Well as a devoted 23 year old Catholic no one except God Jesus and Holy Mary are perfect people on earth. I pray for dead people to help them in the next world to become a better person. By doing this I am hopping who I pray for hears my prayers and tries even harder to be more Christ like to get into the next plain there are 7 and people usually enter on plain 3 or 4 (purgatory) plain1 is when you are the Best person you can be a person who is sinless and Christ like in actions like e.g. guardian angles.
It is not a popularity contest I and some people I know who I am in a youth mass group with often pray for the souls of people who have no one here to pray for them. Jesus and God wouldn't favour 1 over another due to how many prayers or people who pray for them, it would be against the teaching of God.

Answer 4

You will find that Purgatory has its roots in the Jewish Talmud. If you wish to believe that only the neutered Bible (that missing the Apocrypha) is the only truth of God, then you're correct. It isn't biblical.

However, the Church allows Tradition to play its role as well. It is not good enough to know the Bible, one must understand it, love it, understand how our understanding of it has changed over the years, to fully appreciate the fact that God continues to reveal himself to every single generation, not just those around when Jesus walked the Earth.

Without tradition, religion is a dead thing, devoid of a past and lacking a future. Tradition is the strong tap root of a living Church, and the Body of Christ is the Body of the Living God, not the body of a dead god.

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Re: prayers & purgatory -- those who go to purgatory are guaranteed Heaven. Their time in Purgatory is a time to PURGE the guilt of their sins; to pay back the debt, as it were. It is taught to be an unpleasant place to be but that it is permiated with HOPE, they are going to Heaven. Prayers are not REQUIRED, but HELP.

Again, this comes straight out of the Talmud and the story of Abraham's death. But without understanding the Jewish roots of Christianity, you wouldn't know this, would you?

Answer 5

its not intended to be a popularity contest....it is simply praying that the soul of our departed has been cleansed and will enter heaven. it is not a teaching that the more people there are who pray for you, the better your chances. we dont know what God decides, thats the point! it is really just the same as standing around at any funeral and joining in on the prayers said there.

it is also another way to commemorate the dead- just like placing fresh flowers at a gravesite on certain days of the year.

regarding paying money so someone will become a saint..... no way! dont believe that one- total bs.

and finally regarding christians not liking zombies....well yeah they are kind of embarrassing at restaurants and parties...

Answer 6

You have not seen that in your Bible because Protestant reformators tampered with the Sacred Canon of the Holy Scriptures to fit their anti Catholic ideology.
Prayers and sacrifices for the dead are found in Maccabees.
Nothing impure ever enters Heaven, as is found in Rev, people who die in the friendship of God either go directly to Heaven if they have made penance for the sins they have committed and if they have any remains of sin in them they go to a place where they after death are purified.
A person who is not totally free from sin and it's consequences would rather go to hell than enter into the presence of God unpurified.
We can help the people in purgatory by our prayers and sacrifices, as we can with people on earth because we as the Body of Jesus are in communion with each other.

The Jews also pray for the dead since this practice predates Christianity and has always been done by the people of God.

Remember though that it's only through the Precious Blood of Jesus that persons are forgiven and purified either in this world or in the next.

Answer 7

Jesus and Paul both taught that sin is removed by confession and penance, but there remains the stain of it upon the soul.

Since only total purity is admissible in heaven, that stain's gotta go. The location for that cleansing is called Purgatory. There the soul undergoes whatever it needs to be purified enough to enter heaven.

We accept Paul's assertion of our unity of the spirit in the Mystical Body of Christ. So we tend to feel closer to other souls. We are joyed to know that our efforts can help those to whom we are so close. So we assist the soul by offering prayers, works, joys and sufferings in their name. For Scripture, see I & II Macabbees. Protestant Bibles may not have these books, but the New American will.

Answer 8

Catholics are more forgiving of their dead. WE have this place called purgatory. It's between heaven and hell, a waiting station if you will. While there, the dead pray for their sins so they can achieve heaven (after all, we're only human and not perfect). Those on earth pray for the dead to help them gain heaven. Isn't that a nice thought? A chance to make up for your sins and you have the loved ones you left behind praying for you, cheering you on.

Answer 9

It is probably not in the bible. They prayer is intended to help you move from purgatory to heaven, and without enough prayer you'll just hang out there. It is a popularity contest, but I think that's why you're supposed to pray for everyone you know who has died. I was taught this in CCD class, which is like Sunday School, only not on Sunday. I wouldn't worry about it.

Answer 10

Catholics pray for people cause they think they are in purgatory. They try to pray them into Heaven. It doesn't say anything about purgatory in the bible. I don't know where they got that from. My grandma is Catholic and she has never told me why she prays for my aunt who died in 1991. You only get to heaven by asking Jesus to come into your heart and having a relationship with Him.