Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.
Prayer of Saint Gertrude
For the Holy Souls
Any day. Many people say it once, or after Mass. It is a devotion, not a spell.
St. Gertrude the Great — appearances, prayers, the whole page
Where it comes from
A prayer loved under the name of Saint Gertrude the Great. The Church encourages prayer for the dead. A tradition speaks of a great number of souls helped by this offering. That number is not a dogma, and it is not a guarantee. What the Church does teach is that the Mass, and prayer offered in union with it, helps the dead.
- Do not treat “a thousand souls” as a contract. God is not bound by a count. Say the prayer because the dead need charity, and because Christ offered His Blood.
- Saint Gertrude was a Benedictine nun at Helfta in the thirteenth century. The devotion attached to her name is wider than any one sentence in her writings.
Pray also