Źródła i motywacja modlitwy Kościoła za zmarłych

Abstract

The paper discusses the issue of the motivation of the prayer for the dead. It presents the history and sources of the prayers. The first Christians believed that man after death needed prayer from the living. The Church since its beginning has been passing the idea of after-death purification. From the 11th century onwards the term “purgatory” (Lat. purgatoriunv, Gr. πῦρ ϰαϑαρτιϰός). From the times of Charles the Great masses are said for concrete dead persons. At the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries there was a practice to say many masses for the dead, and also devotions ordered in the wills of the dead persons. The new theological trend calls for a proper understanding of the concepts concerning purification after death. The concept of purgatory may not be interpreted in the categories of punishment, penance, but as the ultimate way of sanctification. The prayer for “the souls in purgatory” retains its values and is accounted for by “the communing of the saints.” The motive for the prayer for the dead is Christ – His mystery of death and resurrection is a safeguard of this prayer.