Praying for Others On Mr.

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Praying for Others

On Mr. Shea's blog a question arose as to whether it might ever be improper to pray for the repose of the soul of anyone. The particular person fingered was Judas. Below is my response with a couple of other thoughts appended.

You ask whether it would be appropriate to pray privately or have a mass said for the repose of the soul of Judas. St. Francis Borgia prayed about/ for Judas quite frequently as part of his personal devotion.

There is an upside to "Judge not lest ye be judged," and that is, that it is legitimate to say a prayer for the repose of the soul of ANYBODY because we do not know what God's will was for them, nor are we required to know. We are required merely to extend to others what we would have them do for us. If Judas is in heaven, I would certainly want him praying for me, because he who is forgiven much, loves very much and the love is undoubtedly reciprocated.

I guess that's a long way of saying that prayer for anyone is never wrong. If the fate of that person has already been determined, God can use the willingness to do good things to other purposes. God is, after all, God, and prayer for others is, in part, about changing yourself into a better likeness of Jesus.

Most of us add the "Fatima Prayer" to each decade of the Rosary. If we are serious about that prayer, "Lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy," we must include everyone. Here's the hard and frightening part, the part that has gotten the Holy Father criticism from some circles--"all souls" includes Osama Bin Laden, those who perpetrated the hideous crimes of last year, Slobodan Milosovic, those who masterminded the Genocide in Rwanda, Robert Mbotu, and all sorts of peole for whom we would rather not be praying. However, if we pray that single, simple prayer in each decade of the Rosary, we are indeed praying for those we would probably just as soon not. Isn't it wonderful the way our Lady gave us the opportunity to do the right thing in a way that would be easy to us?

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on September 12, 2002 7:09 PM.

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