Prayer for deceased parents — Pro patre et matre

The Fourth Commandment — «Honour thy father and thy mother» (Ex 20:12) — does not end with the death of parents: the Church teaches that we continue to honour them with the constant suffrage of our prayer, especially of the Holy Mass. The Council of Trent, Session XXV (1563), Decree on Purgatory, solemnly taught: «There is a Purgatory, and the souls there detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, and above all by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar». In 2 Maccabees 12:46 lies the biblical foundation: «It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins». The Roman Missal, in the Mass Pro patre et matre defunctis, provides a proper collect for parents. This prayer may be recited every day, or on the anniversary of the parents’ death, on the visit to the tomb, and on offering a Mass of suffrage.

Lord God, who commanded us to honour father and mother while they live, and who for us and for them died on the Cross, and who instituted the Eucharist as the highest suffrage that we can offer to the departed: look with mercy upon my parents (N. and N.), who have already passed from this life to your presence.

Remember their good works, their prayers, their sacrifices, the love with which they begot me and raised me. Look with indulgence upon their weaknesses, forgive them the faults of which they repented in life or in the supreme hour, and grant them — through that precious Blood of your Son — the full purification which your justice requires.

Through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, your Mother and our Mother; of St Joseph, who cared for the Holy Family as a father; and of the patron Saints of the Baptism of my parents: bring their souls, if they still suffer any penalty in Purgatory, quickly to the joy of the beatific vision.

I offer them today, in suffrage, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Glory be that I recite here, and (if possible) the plenary indulgence of the month of November by visiting the cemetery. Accept for them, Lord, this little suffrage of the son who continues to honour them as the Fourth Commandment requires — now through prayer, since no longer through the care of the body.

Grant them eternal rest, and grant me the grace of one day being reunited with them, all together, before your face.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father. Hail Mary. Glory be. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.