Praying for the "repose of someone's soul"

[Magna]

I was talking to someone today on the phone and the person mentioned how a mutual acquaintance died. The person I was talking to said they were going to "pray for the repose" of the person's soul. Both the person I talked to and the person who just died are/were Catholic.

From what I see in doing a little online research, "praying for the repose of someone's soul" means praying to God that the person's soul which is presumably in Purgatory will be expedited into Heaven (based in part on the prayers of repose?).

I have a few questions based on the above:

• Praying for the "repose" of someone's soul presupposes they are not yet in Heaven. Presumptuous?
• God isn't bound by time. Would the prayer of one person for the "repose" of a someone's soul shorten that soul's time in Purgatory? What if five billion people all prayed for the "repose" of a single soul? Based on the vast number of prayers, would that soul gain rapid admittance into Heaven?

 

[Wulven]

Not real sure how that works praying for a soul after death. From Bible readings I can say the path to Heaven or Hell is determine by the persons choice to repent of his sins. By changing his ways. Praying to God for forgiveness. Believing Jesus Christ the son of the Living God died on the cross for his sins.

 

[Alexej]

A couple of thoughts

- praying that somebody's soul may know rest and peace is a good thing. For them to know peace now that they cannot directly influence things any more.

- praying across time is something that I believe is possible. If God is beyond time then praying now for something in the past is possible - but within limits. (However, this is not something that is much spoken of or done in the Protestant churches

 

[Streetwise]

I was talking to someone today on the phone and the person mentioned how a mutual acquaintance died. The person I was talking to said they were going to "pray for the repose" of the person's soul. Both the person I talked to and the person who just died are/were Catholic.

From what I see in doing a little online research, "praying for the repose of someone's soul" means praying to God that the person's soul which is presumably in Purgatory will be expedited into Heaven (based in part on the prayers of repose?).

I have a few questions based on the above:

• Praying for the "repose" of someone's soul presupposes they are not yet in Heaven. Presumptuous?
• God isn't bound by time. Would the prayer of one person for the "repose" of a someone's soul shorten that soul's time in Purgatory? What if five billion people all prayed for the "repose" of a single soul? Based on the vast number of prayers, would that soul gain rapid admittance into Heaven?

it may come from the fact, that no one knows!, what the person who died ,believed in the moment before they died ,and there are people on the earth ,who have never been evangelised in any !way, only jhvh(I use that name! as that's the tender affectionate side of the God of Avraham ,Yitzak and Yaacov) knows!

 

[Greatshield17]

• Praying for the "repose" of someone's soul presupposes they are not yet in Heaven. Presumptuous?

In this case, no, it is precisely because we don’t know whether a soul is in Heaven or Purgatory, that we pray for said soul; it is an act of kindness and charity that we pray for this soul just in case. I myself, when I pray for a soul that’s just died, also pray that they die in a state of grace, that if they any mortal sins on them that they repent of them just before they die and have a chance to.

• God isn't bound by time. Would the prayer of one person for the "repose" of a someone's soul shorten that soul's time in Purgatory? What if five billion people all prayed for the "repose" of a single soul? Based on the vast number of prayers, would that soul gain rapid admittance into Heaven?

I’m a bit confused about this question, ultimately no one knows how long or short the time an individual soul spends in Purgatory is, or how much time prayer, shortens the time spent there. Certainly the more people pray for the souls in Purgatory the better; it’s something that needs to be encouraged and sadly, something that isn’t preached in Catholic churches today, as much as it was in the past. Praying for the souls in Purgatory is one of the prayer intentions of my prayer group.