Prayer to the Ancestors on the 15th of the 7th Month

Namo Amitābha Buddha! (3 times) I bow to the nine directions of Heaven, the ten directions of all Buddhas, the Buddhas of the ten directions. I respectfully bow to the ancestors of both paternal and maternal sides and all the spirits. The faithful (we) are: ………………………………………………… Residing at: ………………………………………. ……….. Today is the 15th of the 7th lunar month, year …………. On this Vu Lan occasion in the Trung Nguyên season, we remember the ancestors, grandparents, and parents who gave us birth, who built our family enterprise and laid the foundations of virtue, so that we today may enjoy their hidden merit. We feel that the labor of birth and nurture cannot be repaid; the merit as great as Heaven and Sea is hard to repay. We the faithful prepare offerings, incense, flowers, tea, fruit, gold and silver votive paper; we light incense of devotion, sincerely presented to the High Ancestors and Ancestresses, the uncles and brothers, the aunts and sisters, and all the spirits of the lineage on both paternal and maternal sides of the family …………. We humbly ask the elders to have compassion on the descendants, manifest in sacred power, bear witness to our sincerity, partake of these offerings, and bless the descendants with health and peace, advancing fortune, all things good, the household prospering, the heart turned to the right way. We offer modest gifts with sincere hearts; before the altar we humbly bow and ask to be sheltered and supported. Namo Amitābha Buddha! (3 times)