Why don't LDS people ever pray for the dead -- for those who've moved on to the next level?

I once asked a kindly old stake president that question. To my surprise, he said he did pray for them.

"I always pray for my daughter who passed away," he said.

Perhaps the practice is more widespread than many of us realize.

I know that Catholics constantly pray for people who've moved on. Where Mormons believe we visit spirit prison and paradise after we die, Catholics believe we visit purgatory.

Purgatory is a place of purification where faithful souls prepare to meet God and sinners get one last chance to get themselves cleaned up.



Just as people wash themselves and put on clean clothes before going to church each Sunday, purgatory is the place where people get spiffed up before going to heaven -- kind of a family bathroom for the soul.

The Catholic Bible talks about this "waiting room" after death. It's mentioned in 2 Maccabees 12.

There, when Judas Maccabees finds some of his slain soldiers, he sees they are wearing pagan charms. So he takes up a collection for a sacrifice that will help them in the afterlife.

"If he were not expecting the fallen to rise again," the scripture reads, "it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought."

According to Catholic tradition, purgatory is a place that has "heaven in view." People there have an "instinct for God," though they are "temporarily restrained."

Sounds a lot like LDS spirit prison and paradise to me.

As for praying for those who've passed on, I think about the summer I went on a whitewater river trip. There were several rafts in the party. And as we moved along, I remember being concerned not only for those who were coming after us on the river, but for those who'd gone on ahead.

It was a natural instinct.

And it's a natural instinct that many LDS people feel concerned for those who've died and moved on down the river.

How are they doing?

Have they changed?

What have they learned?

What can I do to help them?

John Bunyan wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress." The LDS version would probably be called "The Pilgrim's Eternal Progress."

The grave isn't the end. It's just a train station where people wait a spell before continuing their journey.

In the end, I find it a little surprising that other faiths who teach that the soul is immortal don't worry much about those who've moved on down the river of life.

The Catholics go all out for them.

They hold masses to plead with God to protect deceased loved ones and to bless those who continue to struggle.

Mormons do that, too.

Only we don't call them "masses."

We call them temple ordinances.