To make a good Lent, three acts receive pride of place: almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (Matthew 6:1-18). This Lent, we shall explore the many ways we can undertake the first of those, almsgiving. Each week, we consider some corporal and spiritual works of mercy. This week, it is to bury the dead and to pray for the living and the dead. Burying the dead was added to the list of corporal works of mercy early in the Second Christian Millennium, no doubt because of the many threats to public health. Corpses in the street of those who suffered a lonely, agonising death demanded a Christian response. Nowadays and in this part of the world, responsibility for burying the dead is largely outsourced. In the main, funeral directors do great work for our families. Many times I have been grateful for their reverence and care for the dead. On occasion, the company has borne the funeral costs of someone who died without family or means. Thus, in a remote way, the funeral costs we incur can be said to contribute to the corporal work of mercy, burying the dead. Of all the works of mercy we have seen over the course of this Lent, the one we shall all need ourselves is prayer for the dead. Other works of mercy may or may not apply during our living days, but we shall all become the Church’s beggars in death. If you have been indifferent to the call for almsgiving and merciful service, perhaps self-interest alone will finally lead you to act. For if you pray for the holy souls in Purgatory, they may yet pray for you in Heaven. It is easy enough to pray for those we have loved in life, those with whom we were pleasantly acquainted. But what of those we once were at school with or worked with? What of those we met only once or twice? You might be the only person who would remember to pray for them. This call to pray for the dead will be all the more urgent when we consider how many Catholics are dying without the sacraments or receiving a Catholic funeral. Many are the times a family has not thought to call a priest at the end. Many are the times a cancellation has come through for a booked funeral, if they even get that far. Add to this the problem of access to the sacraments. I recently attended an aged care facility whose local clergy had told them not to call for last rites: the staff had been told the local clergy are too busy. Praying for the dead need not be elaborate. So long as it is heartfelt, God will hear. The practice of visiting a church is a venerable one, as is making the sign of the cross as we pass by. You might consider offering the first Hail Mary of the day for the dead. The holy souls await your prayers, you who can do all that they would like to do but are now unable. How will you show them mercy?