[Aquinasfan]

BTW It has been a year since they died so they were either in hell or not What is praying going to do get them out?

Scripturally, the Bible in 2 Maccabees clearly states that it is an honorable practice to pray for the dead.

How can this be logically? Time exists within God. As an eternal being, God transcends time. God sees yesterday, today and tomorrow simultaneously. So if it is possible to pray for the dead at all, it doesn' t matter whether they died yesterday, five minutes ago or five centuries ago.

But our prayers are only efficacious for souls in purgatory, not those who have gone to either glory or damnation at their individual judgement at death.

And I still think it is kinda tacky praying to all all just merciful etc etc being to help Him make up His mind. Implies he can be swayed

Of course God cannot be swayed by us in the sense that we have any control over Him. Prayer is ultimately an irreducible mystery in which we are commanded to participate.

[Conservative til I die]

And I still think it is kinda tacky praying to all all just merciful etc etc being to help Him make up His mind. Implies he can be swayed

Of course God cannot be swayed by us in the sense that we have any control over Him. Prayer is ultimately an irreducible mystery in which we are commanded to participate.

Exactly. If it's pointless to pray for the dead based on uncbob's logic above, then it's just as pointless to pray for the living too.

[agrace]

But our prayers are only efficacious for souls in purgatory, not those who have gone to either glory or damnation at their individual judgement at death.

How do you know who is in purgatory as opposed to those who may have already arrived in heaven or hell? Do you pray "just in case"?

[DBtoo]

Even some physicists who have been doing research on time are starting to come to the conclusion that time, past, present, and future are all occuring at once. As if time wraps around on itself. I have believed this for some time, and that is why I pay attention to that subject matter. In our earthly forms we are just not able to comprehend or see it.