My Prayers for the Dead

Today is All Soul’s day.

In the Western Christian calendar its the conclusion of Allhallowtide.

It is a day to pray for the dead. For Christians its usually for the Christian dead. The Roman Catholic church has a developed theory of the afterlife and speaks of a place between death and paradise for believers who have issues clinging to them. It’s called purgatory. Whether it’s a place or a state, whether it involves fire or cleansing; well, that’s not quite as developed. Other Christians have different views. What’s interesting is that most all Christians pray for the dead.

And, well, they’re not alone.

Most religions include prayers for the dead. Maybe all. Prayers for the dead are a feature of Jewish worship, and Muslim worship, and is found in Hinduism, and Taoism, certainly in Buddhism.

In our own little Empty Moon Zen sangha, like with other Western sanghas, most of our liturgies offer a place for people to insert the names of people, sometimes in difficult circumstance, but also very much for the dead.

I have a little litany I always include for my immediate family, all of whom are now dead.

Boline, Donald, Barbara, James, Julia, Moss, Josh. I am the last of them, and if feels like my duty. Duty is another interesting word.

I often include other names depending on various things.

And it invites questions. Why? To what purpose?

Well, I’m less certain about that part. What prayer is precisely, I’m not sure. How it might work, I have little certainty there, as well.

It’s a whole lot of not knowing.

It is also a deep visceral thing for me. I feel a need to do it. And I do it.

And so, that there’s a day in my larger culture that invites the moment feels a good thing.

With that, I add my prayers for my dead to the prayers of the many ascending to the heavens like incense…