Why Catholics Pray For The Dead compiled by Anthony Okosa.

The mistake of venial sin.

Mistaken as a not a sin at all. Just because your heart is blooded, doesn't mean the law of God has changed.

There are two types of sin:
1. Original sin
2. Actual sin.

Original sin: this is the sin passed on to us from Adam. The sin that baptism wipes away.

Actual: These are the sin we ourselves commit.

Actual sin is subdivided into 2:
1. Venial sin
2. Mortal sin

Venial sin: Any sin that was not committed willfully. Sin that doesn't kill the soul. When one dies in this sin, one goes to purgatory

Mortal sin: Any sin that is committed knowingly. Any sin that is premeditated. Willful sin. When one dies in this sin, one goes to hell.

Now, I'm going to base this article one on VENIAL SIN
After fully explaining venial sin to a friend, he said of it, we are doomed oh.

"I'm struggling to keep from mortal sin(willful sin) and here is a type of sin I never thought was sin at all. This heaven sef, fit make am".

And I was like, let me help with that. It's easy to sin because you hold on to Satan and his life style. Hold on to God and it will be that easy to say, "I can make it".

The only problem as you climb n the ladder of holiness is that the work you'll to do increases as you go up the ladder.
Which with God's grace in time ceases to be a problem.

Purgatory is only reserved for the people you call holy, I said. Meaning, those without mortal sin but with venial sin.

Venial sin can be explained as , for example:
Someone of opposite sex walks passed you half naked. You stare at him/her, at some point your guardian Angel nugdes you and corrects you, then you chose to look away, you have chose willfully to not commit a mortal sin but a venial sin. Why VENIAL SIN? For the image of him/her remains and helps its way to become a temptation. So ultimately, what the naked guy/girl couldn't do in person, his/her image did it later. Meaning, the mind has the picture imbedded. One cannot wipe memories because that's our human nature. So therefore, our human nature is responsible for venial sin, therefore, the intervention of grace. Remember that the simplest definition of grace is UNMERITED FAVOUR.

Mortal sins leave a scar, that even after a confession, you need to gain indulgences to wipe them away.

Now, understand that mortal sin is not bigger than venial sin. No! They are the same. Sin is sin!

But the consequences for committing those sins(Mortal sin and venial sin) are different. The same in the sense that they both displeases God but, when one is in venial sin (not willful), they are in the grace of God. Meaning God's grace abides with them. This grace is termed Sanctifying Grace. One is termed holy though he/she commits sins without even knowing.

The common saying that even the holiest man sins 7 times daily. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Therefore, do you think that mathematically speaking, at the hour of your death, you won't commit a sin without knowing?

Example of sins committed without knowing:
You're walking on the road and you tried to spit on the ground , but the spit fell on someone and you had ear phones in your ear and you didn't hear the person calling you, saying you spat on him.
Now, that is sin, but you didn't know you commit it. But the fact remains that a sin is a sin. Whether you know or not. But the consequences are different, therefore, venial sin was necessitated by grace to give us a fighting chance at salvation. A chance Christ's death gave us.

There are two types of grace:
1. Sanctifying Grace
2. Actual Grace

1. Sanctifying grace stays in the soul. It’s what makes the soul holy; it gives the soul supernatural life. More properly, it is supernatural life.

2. Actual grace, by contrast, is a supernatural push or encouragement. It’s transient. It doesn’t live in the soul, but acts on the soul from the outside, so to speak. It’s a supernatural kick in the pants. It gets the will and intellect moving so we can seek out and keep sanctifying grace.

Imagine yourself transported instantaneously to the bottom of the ocean. What’s the very first thing you’ll do? That’s right: die. You’d die because you aren’t equipped to live underwater. You don’t have the right breathing apparatus.

If you want to live in the deep blue sea, you need equipment you aren’t provided with naturally; you need something that will elevate you above your nature, something super- (that is, "above" natural, such as oxygen tanks.

It’s much the same with your soul. In its natural state, it isn’t fit for heaven. It doesn’t have the right equipment, and if you die with your soul in its natural state, heaven won’t be for you. What you need to live there is supernatural life, not just natural life. That supernatural life is called sanctifying grace. The reason you need sanctifying grace to be able to live in heaven is because you will be in perfect and absolute union with God, the source of all life (cf. Gal. 2:19, 1 Pet. 3:18).

If sanctifying grace dwells in your soul when you die, then you have the equipment you need, and you can live in heaven (though you may need to be purified first in purgatory; cf. 1 Cor. 3:12–16). If it doesn’t dwell in your soul when you die—in other words, if your soul is spiritually dead by being in the state of mortal sin (Gal. 5:19-21)— you cannot live in heaven. You then have to face an eternity of spiritual death: the utter separation of your spirit from God (Eph. 2:1, 2:5, 4:18). The worst part of this eternal separation will be that you yourself would have caused it to be that way.

Restitution: A particular man sold a CD plate to a sister at a prayer ground. Now the sister forgot to collect the CD plate. Later the man died and went to purgatory. He was given the grace to appear to a friend in a dream. Who later went in search of the sister who paid for the CD plate.
When he found her, she shed tears. Later that night he appeared to the friend thanking him.

"The sin of the flesh makes war on us all. The greatest of them all have been it's victim."

The grace of God and our willingness to accept God grace will win us salvation.
Benedicamus dominus!

References:
https://www.catholic.com/tract/grace-what-it-is-and-what-it-does

#Catholic

What Of Those Dead People That Some Pastors Raise From Death, Was Their Judgement Time Pending? .....It Is Appointed Unto Man Once To Die And .After Death Comes Judgement...

praying for maggots food? is it for maggots not to eat what belongs to her or what? just like prayer is useless to the living so also it is useless to the dead body

Roy11:
God help your unbelief

don't just say that but counter his writeup

Pekun210:
You av a point though...rest in peace is nt a curse...but shud we just put the corpse inside the grave without doing nothing?

that is what you ought to do. Do you tell the animals you oil or that died to RIP?

buygala:
Something has to be done to justify the consumption of drinks and food at the funeral

If you don't go through the stress of singing funeral hymns, listening to funeral sermons, crying a bit and blowing your nose once in a while, especially when the corpse arrives the venue, and mumbling something when the corpse goes down into the hole, why then will you feel entitled to the funeral Jolof rice and Coke?

clown I can't stop laughing. Truth but comical

In accordance with the bible, it is a futile effort.

Those are kinds of prayers that does not go beyond the ceiling. However, we can pray for the people left behind by the deceased.

Even when we say RIP, it is just academic.

Queenext:
After death comes judgment, so why pray?

No repentance in grave

by that comment i believed u are a Christian. but you need to know this; God mercy is infinite! after death human efforts to be saved (grace) is gone. God mercies been infinite extend beyond death, that is if it pleases him (i will have mercy on those i chooses no one can question me). without God infinite mercy moses would be in hell fire. listen dear, one prayer for deaths is to remind God about his infinite mercies and some of the good deeds if his church and for the living aswell. some pastors will not tell u this for fear of complacency. but that is the honest truth. but might no one can ever smell heaven only through God infinite mercies according to our faiths and deeds. He chooses not we the humans

---

Pekun210:
Praying for the dead expecially during funeral service is very common and heb 9 vs 27 says everyone has to die once and then face the consequences. So if their fate is sealed already why do we still pray for them?
And besides will God answers such prayer?

The dead do not need our prayers, we need prayers more and they pity our ignorance. Death is shift of consciousness from one dimension to another, but in death it is permanent discard of the EarthBody as soul transitions to its default form and plan the next planet and dimension to visit next for more knowledge.

So, how can the dead need prayers, they feel a little regret here and there on why they didnt know the purpose of life, and say their bye bye, except those with denses energies who hang around on the lower astral and higher physical membrane as ghosts. Those are the ones that need more than prayers, they need help to cross.

Again, here they come! Many commenters, especially non catholics, some weak catholics and non Christian, show they don't really know the power and jugdement of God. For Christians, read 1 John 5: 16 to 17. Read, come back and tell me what you understand. I think if any Christian is in doubt about anything in the bible, the person should ask catholic church that has authority on the scripture.

hopefulLandlord:
prayer is useless for the living too, let alone a dead body

Nothing fails like prayer

You would have the same success praying to a milk jug as you do praying to god -- the milk jug sometimes answers your prayer the way you want to, sometimes not and sometimes the answer is delayed. See the problem here? If things turn out the way you want them to, you say it was because you prayed. If not, it's because god knows what's best and you didn't pray for the right thing. Or, if it happens 10 years later you say god answered your prayer, it was just delayed. This is nonsense. You would have the exact same effect doing nothing.

Best comment so far......I know the gullible Sheeple won't agree with me

SweetBoyFriend:

Who is gone is already gone

Even if heaven and hell does exist, your prayers wouldn't make God (if he really exists) change his mind

Religion fuccked everything up

Funeral is a time of mourning, respect and seeing the dead before he/she is buried and never to be seen again and not a time of making noise and disturbing people who are mourning with your sermon and Bible verses

Are you by any means doubting God's existence

Well..there are two ways of looking at this issue (spiritual or logical)....which is similar to the debates; "Praying to God - whether God truly exist"..."Or whether we are alone in the universe"...."Whether there's an afterlife" etc.

As for me, I'll always go with the logical route. So now being logical....there are only two possible case scenerio for this debate.

1 - It's either; when we pray for the dead -something happens...it helps them.
OR
2 - When we pray for the dead - nothing happens....they remain the same.

Looking at the above options...the best logical action to take is Pray for your dead - loved ones..

Cause if you pray for them, then either 2 things would happen - it's either your prayer would help them or not.

So if your prayers don't work for the dead....then you just wasted your time.
But what if it works ?....cause nobody alive truly know...we can only speculate...nobody have gone to the other side and back, to tell us what he really saw.

If you pray....and prayer truly helps your love ones on the other side...good...you won't lose anything.
If you pray....and your prayer does not help them....still good...and again..you won't lose anything.

It's like applying for a job.
When you apply for a job...you don't know whether you would get the job or not..you're just hoping -...faith.
If you send in your application...either one of two things happpens....it's either you get the job OR you don't get the job....so it's a Win-Lose for you here.
But if you don't send in your application...there is only one option....you don't get the job.....so it's a Lose-Lose for you here.

Same thing as serving God.
If you serve God during your lifetime on earth:
Scene 1: There is heaven and hell...you go to heaven.
Scene 2: There is no heaven and hell....you cease to exist.
Win-Lose Here
But if you don't serve God:
Scene 1: There is heaven and hell...you go to hell.
Scene 2: There is no heaven and hell....you cease to exist.
Lose-Lose Here

To round up...I'll say this....Imma hustler...a street nigga....a rapper....gambler....computer freak...a nigerian....a dot com ceo....a brother....an only son...and a survivour........Being street wise, at anytime any-day...i'll always take the Win-Lose option.....cause it gives me a shot at surviving.
So I still pray for Ma anyday I can.

Akin1212:


Compassionate as he is awesome, so what's the need for HELL FIRE?
A compassionate god creating hell fire defiles every rule of logic.

Is it logically​ for a good man to tell a bad friend wanting to spend the weekend in his place that his house role is NO SMOKING.

So it depends on the bad friend what is more important to him— the cigarette or the friend's house.

But nowhere in the world is the good man seen as bad person for doing that.

9jatatafo:
Did Jesus Christ ever taught us to pray for the dead? the bible clearly stated that the wages of sin is death and after death is judgement. Why offer needless prayer for the need? Praying for the need is useless and baseless

The death being referred to here (wages of sin) is that of the soul as all men shall still die.

ePrive:
Well..there are two ways of looking at this issue (spiritual or logical)....which is similar to the debates; "Praying to God - whether God truly exist"..."Or whether we are alone in the universe"...."Whether there's an afterlife" etc.

As for me, I'll always go with the logical route. So now being logical....there are only two possible case scenerio for this debate.

1 - It's either; when we pray for the dead -something happens...it helps them.
OR
2 - When we pray for the dead - nothing happens....they remain the same.

Looking at the above options...the best logical action to take is Pray for your dead - loved ones..

Cause if you pray for them, then either 2 things would happen - it's either your prayer would help them or not.

So if your prayers don't work for the dead....then you just wasted your time.
But what if it works ?....cause nobody alive truly know...we can only speculate...nobody have gone to the other side and back, to tell us what he really saw.

If you pray....and prayer truly helps your love ones on the other side...good...you won't lose anything.
If you pray....and your prayer does not help them....still good...and again..you won't lose anything.

It's like applying for a job.
When you apply for a job...you don't know whether you would get the job or not..you're just hoping -...faith.
If you send in your application...either one of two things happpens....it's either you get the job OR you don't get the job....so it's a Win-Lose for you here.
But if you don't send in your application...there is only one option....you don't get the job.....so it's a Lose-Lose for you here.

Same thing as serving God.
If you serve God during your lifetime on earth:
Scene 1: There is heaven and hell...you go to heaven.
Scene 2: There is no heaven and hell....you cease to exist.
Win-Lose Here
But if you don't serve God:
Scene 1: There is heaven and hell...you go to hell.
Scene 2: There is no heaven and hell....you cease to exist.
Lose-Lose Here

To round up...I'll say this....Imma hustler...a street nigga....a rapper....gambler....computer freak...a nigerian....a dot com ceo....a brother....an only son...and a survivour........Being street wise, at anytime any-day...i'll always take the Win-Lose option.....cause it gives me a shot at surviving.
So I still pray for Ma anyday I can.

You're indeed wise.

I'll quote something someone said:
"What hope is there in hopelessness?" — Anthony Okosa

.

bibe:


The death being referred to here (wages of sin) is that of the soul as all men shall still die.

So is praying for the departed right? will the prayers of the living have effect on the departed soul?

9jatatafo:


So is praying for the departed right? will the prayers of the living have effect on the departed soul?

Yes of course and vice versa, except you don't believe in the afterlife.
Why did Jesus come in the first place and also descended into hell before resurrecting?

bibe:


Yes of course and vice versa, except you don't believe in the afterlife.
Why did Jesus come in the first place and also descended into hell before resurrecting?

I don't like argument involving religion and politics as they bring heated argument

Canonization is a foolish & fruitless exercise by some so called Christian denomination. A pagan practice. If death meet you unprepared at this time, you are lost forever. No wprayer will make you a saint. Some ignorant churches even bring corpse into the church for prayer & some zombies shed crocodile tears there. Who told you a dead man rest in peace after death?

Better make your life rapturable everyday because nobody knows when death will come. There is no repentance in the grave Luke13:1-5
Apostle Paul said, I die daily.

Its obvious you don't understand the verse you quoted.

Proudgorgeousga:


isn't this kinda contradictory.?

exodus 3:6

Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.


he used I am present tense to say this to Moses even though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were already dead at the time.

I always pray for the souls of my loved ones that are gone to be resting in peace everyday.

Futile or not, I don't care, I just feel happy praying for them.

bentuzene:
Ask this?

Did Jesus ever pray for the Dead? When? Where? and Why?

Only When he was to resurrect someone did he pray for them.

Solomon even said in Ecclesiastics the dead know Nothing!

Actually Praying for the Dead started with Catholics and was a means to generate funds through Penances and Indulgences back in the ages (Sorry to all Catholics here for mentioning your faith.) But that's the origin of praying for the dead!

Live to the best and fullest for once you die, It's all over!

Except you lived the good life on earth as Christ taught. Stay Blessed and free from the dear of Death!

Please where did you get the info in bold from?

Amberon11:
Its obvious you don't understand the verse you quoted.

oya you that understand explain.

I still pray for my dad till date, and will never stop praying for him

Such prayers are usually made to make the deceased family and lived ones feel better.

They are the ones that psychologically benefit from such prayers and not dead fellow.

comments i read above are provethat men see em as men when they are gods

SweetBoyFriend:

Who is gone is already gone

Even if heaven and hell does exist, your prayers wouldn't make God (if he really exists) change his mind

Religion fuccked everything up

Funeral is a time of mourning, respect and seeing the dead before he/she is buried and never to be seen again and not a time of making noise and disturbing people who are mourning with your sermon and Bible verses

.have you not seen all these things happening, supernatural powers here and there and you still doubts the existence of God,I use to think this way sometime ago but thanks for his Grace.

It is not a futile effort,no one knws d mind of God.If he likes he can raise d dead through a righteous man's prayers.Forget o he is a miracle working God,n to all that still dnt believe he exists,I pray he visits u soon.

AntiPonzihater:


Is it logically​ for a good man to tell a bad friend wanting to spend the weekend in his place that his house role is NO SMOKING.

So it depends on the bad friend what is more important to him— the cigarette or the friend's house.

But nowhere in the world is the good man seen as bad person for doing that.

This does not logically explain a compassionate and awesome god creating hell fire.