Responsory for the Dead
V. Do not remember my sins, O Lord.
R. When you come to judge the world by fire.
V. Direct my way in your sight, O Lord, my God.
R. When you come to judge the world by fire.
V. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let your perpetual light shine upon him.
R. When you come to judge the world by fire.
V. Lord, have mercy.
R. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.
Our Father...
V. And lead us not into temptation.
R. But deliver us from evil.
V. From the gates of hell.
R. Deliver his soul, O Lord.
V. May he rest in peace.
R. Amen.
V. Lord, hear my prayer.
R. And let my cry come to you.
V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.
Let us pray. Lord, welcome into your presence your son, N., whom you have called from this life. Release him from all his sins, bless him with eternal light and peace, raise him up to live for ever with all your saints in the glory of the resurrection. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.
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Where Does This Prayer Come From?
Night.
A monastery church.
A coffin before the altar, and candles all around it.
The monks begin to chant:
“Dirige, Domine Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam.”
“Direct my way in thy sight, O Lord, my God.”
For centuries, the Church began her night prayer for the dead with those words.
The Office of the Dead
Christians prayed for their dead from the very first centuries.
In time, the Church gathered those prayers into the Office of the Dead.
Psalms and chants, sung at evening, through the night, and at dawn.
In the form the Church later knew, it took shape around the seventh or eighth century.
Around A.D. 850, Amalarius of Metz wrote about it as something already in use.
Where the Word “Dirge” Comes From
That first word, Dirige, gave the Office its old English name.
It is where our word “dirge” comes from: a song of mourning.
The line itself is from the Psalms:
“Conduct me, O Lord, in thy justice: because of my enemies, direct my way in thy sight.”
— Psalm 5:9
Lines From the Church’s Oldest Prayers for the Dead
The Responsory for the Dead gathers lines from those old prayers.
“Do not remember my sins, O Lord, when you come to judge the world by fire” is a chant from the night Office of the Dead.
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord” opens the Church’s Mass for the dead and gives it its name: the Requiem, from the Latin word for rest.
“From the gates of hell, deliver his soul, O Lord” was sung at dawn, in the morning prayer of the Office of the Dead.
And “Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you” is from the Psalms:
“Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.”
— Psalm 101:2
When you pray it, you pray with the whole Church, the way she has prayed for her dead for more than a thousand years.
And she still teaches that it is “a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead” (CCC 958).
