Reverend Jerry Falwell

I doubt that Rev. Falwell and I could have agreed on much in this life, however I do believe that he had a deep faith in Christ.  I pray for the repose of his soul and the grief his family and Church are experiencing.

Depart, O Christian soul, out of this world;
† In the Name of God the Father Almighty Who created you;
† In the Name of Jesus Christ Who redeemed you;
† In the Name of the Holy Spirit Who sanctifies you.
May your rest be this day in peace,
and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God.

Fidelium animae † per misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace.
May the souls † of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Comments

[Monk-in-Training]

Greetings Francoise!!

You correctly referred to a common Protestant belief, but perhaps "standard Christian' may have been covering too much ground. The Romans, Anglicans, Orthodox, Coptic, and I believe some Lutherans all pray for the dead.

So, why pray for those who have died?

Because we believe that they continue to live in the resurrected life, so we ask God to be with them, so that they will "increase in knowledge and love of God" and "may go from strength to strength". See, as you certainly know, we still love those we see no longer in this world, so basically we are praying that may become "better and better saints," and that we may continue in communion with them (and the rest of the Saints) until death brings us to them.

While it may make litte sense to you, perhaps it explains the practice somewhat. :)

[Francoise]

I'm curious, Josh. What's the point of praying for someone when they're dead? According to standard Christian belief,once you expire, you're either in Hell or Heaven. If you're Catholic, you might still believe in Limbo and Purgatory, too.

I'm not at all sad that he's gone. He blamed people like me and some of my friends for 9/11. He supported apartheid in South Africa. He supported segregation in USA. He made piles of ca$hola selling afterlife insurance, apparently heedless of Jesus's observation about the rich man and the camel getting through the eye of a needle.

[Joshua Ligan]

Yeah, surprisingly enough, I did pray for Rev. Fallwell when I heard he died. Whilst some (well rather, a lot) may be glad he's done and gone, he was a living soul who deserved to be respected as a human being. I do believe that he had a purpose in his life- and that was to help us expand our hearts as we love someone who may not love us as much as he should. May he rest in peace.