Catholic prayers for a grieving family
Grief outlasts the funeral. The casseroles stop arriving, the visits taper, and the family is left in a house that still has the absent person's coat on the hook. The prayers below are for that long stretch, the months when most people have moved on but the family has not. Catholic tradition makes room for this. We pray for the dead. We pray for the bereaved. We do both for a long time.
What people pray when they don't know what to pray
From the PrayerTrain Catholic prayer library. Tap any prayer to see its full text and instructions.
Rosary of the Seven Sorrows
Our Lady of Sorrows
Our Lady of Sorrows is the patroness of every parent who has lost a child. The Seven Sorrows Rosary is a Catholic prayer specifically for those whose grief has the weight of a lost loved one and no obvious end.
Surrender Novena
Don Dolindo Ruotolo · 9 days
Don Dolindo wrote these meditations for the soul that has nothing left to do but surrender. For a grieving family, the nine days are nine days of being told, by Christ Himself, that He is taking care of it.
The Memorare
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Mary, who watched her own son die, is the natural intercessor for any family in mourning. The Memorare is short enough to pray every time the grief catches you in the middle of the day.
Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Our Lady of Perpetual Help · 9 days
The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help shows Mary holding the child Jesus while He flinches at the instruments of His coming Passion. It is the Catholic image of the mother who knows what your grief feels like.
Peace Prayer of St. Francis
St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. The Prayer of St. Francis is one of the few prayers that can be said by someone in deep grief without the words feeling like a betrayal of the loss.
Offering Up Suffering
Catholic tradition holds that suffering offered up for another's intention is real prayer. For a grieving family, this is one way the loss itself becomes intercession.
What prayer is for
Catholic tradition does not ask the bereaved to be over it. Pope Francis has spoken about the legitimacy of weeping with those who weep, of grief as a form of love, of the dead as still part of the body of Christ. If your prayer is mostly tears for a long time, that is still prayer.
More on this on our story.
Pray together with others
A PrayerTrain for a grieving family is one of the few things that does not stop after the funeral. Friends sign up for specific days across thirty, sixty, ninety days. The family knows the dates have been claimed. At the end, they receive a Spiritual Bouquet PDF with every name that prayed and every day that was covered.
Frequently asked
What is the best prayer for a family that has lost a child?
The Seven Sorrows Rosary is written for exactly this. Our Lady of Sorrows lost her own son; her intercession for parents in mourning carries the weight of personal experience. The Surrender Novena is the nine-day companion when even the Rosary feels like too many words.
How long should we keep praying for a grieving family?
Longer than feels socially comfortable. Catholic tradition prays for the souls of the dead in November every year (All Souls Day, the entire month dedicated to it). A PrayerTrain that runs a year, marked by the anniversaries, is well within the Catholic pattern.
Can I send the Spiritual Bouquet PDF to a grieving family?
Yes, and they will keep it. A printable record of every name that prayed for their loved one, every day that was covered, is one of the most concrete things you can hand someone in mourning. It says: you were not alone in this.