A prayer for all souls

Yesterday's feast of All Saints' Day is one of the most joyous in the church calendar. Today's feast of All Souls' Day is hopeful in its own way; both more universal and more personal at the same time. There seems something inappropriately limited about confining the scope of one's prayer on this day. So let us pray for all souls, and in a special way for all those who suffered in this life because of the law or because of its absence or defects:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon them.

May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen.