Letter 2: Ferrandus, servant of Christ, to the most blessed Bishop Fulgentius, greetings.

Ferrandus, servant of Christ, to the most blessed Bishop Fulgentius, greetings. The question I raise now is one that pastoral situations make practically urgent: what is the condition of the souls of the faithful dead between their death and the final resurrection? The general Christian conviction is clear: the souls of the faithful are in God's keeping, in a condition better than the present life and anticipatory of the full blessedness of the resurrection. But the specifics are more difficult. Are they conscious? Do they intercede for the living? Is their condition already one of beatitude, or do they await the resurrection for the fullness of whatever beatitude is theirs? Augustine's answers, as I read them, are more tentative than his admirers sometimes acknowledge. He is clear that we pray for the dead, which implies that their condition is not yet final. He is less clear about exactly what we are asking for when we pray. I am asking on behalf of people who have asked me: when we pray for the dead, what are we praying? What good does it do them? The answer to this is pastorally important, because the grief of those who mourn is real and the prayers they offer deserve to be understood. Your student who asks in the hope of an answer, Ferrandus