Number of entries: 79

Good afternoon. I have 2 questions (similar). 1) Is it possible to mention suicides in morning prayer at home? 2) Is it possible to mention in morning prayer at home those who may not have been baptized (no one knows if he was baptized, but they say he always loved to draw crosses and loved God, I didn’t know him, he died more than 20 years ago, when he was young, his wife took it upon herself to perform the funeral service for him)?

Stanislav

Hello, Stanislav. At home, you can remember anyone and any way you want, but we must not forget the Apostle’s warning - everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Pray for those you personally know or have known. Mainly for those who asked you about it, or you suggested it, and he agreed. Respect individual freedom.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Please tell me, is it possible to serve a prayer for the health of relatives and for the repose of the deceased on the same day?

Natasha

Natasha, of course you can. The Church prays daily for both health and peace. Every day in one church they baptize, and perform a funeral service, and meet in new life and escorted to a new life.

Hieromonk Victorin (Aseev)

Hello. A friend of mine had an accident and is in serious condition in the hospital. She is involved in charity throughout the Chelyabinsk region: Natalya Kuznetsova, director of the 74RU TV channel, took a girl from an orphanage two weeks ago. Please tell me what can be done for her, besides health notes? What prayers should I read? I can organize a collective prayer, tell me what kind. Thank you!

Oksana

Oksana, the best thing is to submit notes about her at the Liturgy more often, this is the greatest spiritual help to a person. And besides, order prayers for health. As for other prayers, you can read the Psalter about her at home and remember her in the “Glories” for health.

Hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello! Help me. I'm Russian. The groom is Muslim. Can I pray for him and light candles for him in our church? Thank you.

Tatiana

Hello Tatiana. You should not write in the notes of the unbaptized, but you yourself can pray and light candles with prayer. God help you.

Priest Sergius Osipov

Hello, please tell me, if a person has been ordered a service - a magpie about health, they should start reading it tomorrow, and the person died today, what to do and what to do in this case?

Moseychuk Anastasia

Anastasia, it’s okay, everyone is alive with God. If possible, go to that church and ask to rewrite the magpie from health to repose.

Hieromonk Victorin (Aseev)

Hello! Thank you so much for the extraordinary useful tips, I found a lot of things that I consider very important. I have this question: for quite some time I submitted notes about the health of one person, believing that he was baptized. There was no way to find out whether this was so. This man subsequently received baptism. Is it a sin that he was remembered in church prayer? Thanks in advance for your answer!

Anastasia

Anastasia, it’s better to be sure that the person is baptized. Of course, if we pray out of ignorance for an unbaptized person, this is not a sin, but it is always better to clarify and find out if there are doubts.

Hieromonk Victorin (Aseev)

Bless, father! I asked one priest if I could pray for the unbaptized. He said that the unbaptized have no name, and it is better not to pray for them. Now there is a woman who is at enmity with me, and I think that she is an occultist. She is most likely unbaptized and I don’t know whether to pray for her or not. The Gospel says that you need to pray for your enemies. And in some Orthodox newspaper they wrote that you cannot pray for occultists, sorcerers, psychics, that you need to love your enemies and hate the enemies of the Lord. Please tell me, if an occultist is at enmity with me, should I pray for him (for example, when reading the Psalter), or simply ask the Lord to save me from him? And if my enemy is an alcoholic, a gopnik, a criminal, etc., then should I pray for such a person, or should I also just ask the Lord to protect me from him?

God's blessing be upon you! It is simply necessary to pray for the unbaptized and for enemies, this is the essence of Christianity (only for the unbaptized - in your personal, not church prayer). Moreover, they have a name. There is no need to attach such super-mystical, even occult significance to the name. If we follow the opinion that you write about, it turns out that if I am driving along the highway, see an accident, pray for the wounded and dead, then my prayer does not reach the Lord? The Lord is omniscient, He is everywhere, He commanded us to love our neighbors, and a neighbor is not only the one whom we love and who loves us, but first of all the one who is not loved by us and does not love us. The main enemy of the Lord is ourselves. We insult Him with our actions, we crucify Him with our sins. You need to fight with yourself first. God bless you!

Archpriest Andrey Efanov

Hello! Help, please: my grandmother was sick, I came to the temple, went up to the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, lit a candle, and I started to feel better. internal monologue to the saint that the Lord would ease the grandmother’s suffering and maybe it would be easier for the grandmother in heaven. And I was scalded by the last thought that I wished for death, I immediately drove away those thoughts, lit a candle for my health to make my grandmother feel better, and asked for forgiveness for these thoughts. Very worried.

Natalia

Natalya, don’t be so shy away from your own thoughts, this can lead to nervous disorders. To fight thoughts, to purify your thoughts, you need to frequent confession, both in your actions and in your thoughts themselves.

Hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello! Could you explain to me the strangeness that when I ask for something important for my family or for the health of relatives, everything only gets worse? I visited Matronushka and asked that our family business prosper - our partner immediately betrayed us and took everything from us. Another time she asked for the health of her grandfather - he soon died, she asked for the health of her grandmother at home in front of the icon - the next day she developed a new sore! But at the same time, when I feel really bad and I tearfully ask for something for myself at home in front of the icon, God gives it to me. I am already afraid to ask for my relatives and for our new business, which is already barely holding on. Help as much as you can. Thank you

Love

Love, ask better for the spiritual, and not for the material. In the end, it is not so important how we live this life - with or without business, healthy or even sick - what matters is what will happen at the end of it. This is what you are asking for. And if you need something in your life’s journey, the Lord will give it to you. Mentally focus on the purpose of your journey, and not on the shoes you are walking in.

Hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

How to light a candle correctly: first for peace, and then for health, or vice versa?

Elena

Elena, it doesn't matter. Whatever you like best. The main thing is to pray for your relatives and loved ones for health and peace.

Hieromonk Victorin (Aseev)

Hello, father! I have this question: my grandmother was a Catholic, her name was also not Orthodox - Filumena. And I also don’t know the religion of my great-grandparents. Is it possible to read the psalter for them? And the second question. Is it possible to read the psalter about health and peace at the same time?

Natalia

Natalya, I will express in in this case my personal opinion: I think that you can pray for deceased relatives, if they belonged to Catholicism, this is a matter of mercy. In the end, they are still Christians, although they were mistaken, they believed in the Savior. Therefore, I think that the Psalter can also be read about them. As for reading the Psalter about health and repose at the same time, this can be done, but only at different “Glories” of kathisma, that is, at the first “Glory” about health, the Patriarch, bishops, the entire priestly rank and your confessor, if one, are mentioned there is, on the second “Glory” - about the health of all relatives and friends, and on the third - everything is about repose, starting with the deceased Patriarchs, and ending with everyone we know and for whom we pray.

Hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

On Parents' Saturday, a liturgy for repose is held in church, and is health mentioned in prayers on this day? Sorry if I didn't express myself quite correctly.

Svetlana

Hello Svetlana! On any day when the Liturgy is celebrated (including on Parental Saturday), the priest commemorates both living and deceased Orthodox Christians. This happens at the proskomedia (part of the liturgy when the hours are read). Therefore, you can submit notes about health and repose. But out loud, at the litany, in parents' Saturdays Usually only the deceased are remembered.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Hello! What consequences will there be if you put candles for the health of all your relatives near the icon where they put candles for the repose, out of ignorance?!

Basil

Vasily, the main thing is not to light candles, but to live a church life. You need to regularly confess and receive communion. Now, if you don’t do this, then there will be bad consequences in eternal life. And if you put the candle in the wrong place out of ignorance, nothing will happen.

Hieromonk Victorin (Aseev)

Hello. Tell me, please, I once did a love spell, I talked about this sin in confession, but I read somewhere else that you need to order notes for the health of the person on whom the love spell was performed. If this is so, then what kind of notes, a prayer service or something else?

Irina

Irina, of course, if you have caused spiritual harm to a person, then you need to help him - it is very good to write the name of that person in notes. It is best to submit customized notes for the Divine Liturgy, and if it is not possible to go to church every day, then you can submit a note for six months or a year.

Hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Good afternoon. Out of ignorance, I ordered a prayer service at the church for health for unbaptized loved ones. Now I'm worried. Tell me, please, what to do? Thank you.

Elena

In the temple they pray by name only for members of the Church of Christ. But your mistake is not so big that you should worry too much. Pray for your loved ones at home, give alms. God will forgive!

Archpriest Maxim Khizhiy

I found out about my uncle’s illness, they said he had a stroke. I ordered a prayer service and the Psalter as for a sick person. And only later it turned out that the disease was related to alcohol. They just told me that it is not customary to order prayer services for people whose illnesses are due to alcohol addiction as if they were sick. Please enlighten me on this issue. Thank you in advance.

Tatiana

Dear Tatyana, you did the right thing in ordering a prayer for your relative. It is equally important to pray for him yourself. It’s sad, of course, that your uncle suffers from alcoholism, but you can and even need to pray for him, and precisely as if you were sick, since he is sick. God bless you!

Archpriest Andrey Efanov

The tradition of the Church brings to us a lot of evidence about the effectiveness of prayer for unbaptized people who do not belong to the Church.

One day Rev. Macarius of Egypt walked through the desert and saw a human skull lying on the ground. When the monk touched him with a palm stick, the skull spoke. The elder asked:

"Who are you?" The skull replied: “I was a pagan priest of the idolaters who lived in this place.” He also said that when St. Macarius, having mercy on those who are in eternal torment, prays for them, then they receive some consolation. “As far as the sky is from the earth, there is as much fire under our feet and above our heads,” the skull said again, “We stand in the middle of the fire, and none of us is positioned so as to see our neighbor. But when you pray for us, each one sees the other’s face somewhat. This is our joy."

After the conversation, the elder buried the skull in the ground.

For people who died without holy baptism or belonged to another denomination or faith, we cannot pray at the Divine Liturgy and perform funeral services for them in the Church, but no one forbids us to pray for them in our personal home prayers.

Those. During the Liturgy, you cannot pray at all for the unbaptized, neither out loud, nor even silently, because at this time the bloodless Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered, and it is offered only for members of the Church. Such remembrance is allowed only during a memorial service, silently, and never at the Liturgy.

The Venerable Leo of Optina, consoling his spiritual son Pavel Tambovtsev, whose father tragically died outside the Church, said:

“You shouldn't be overly sad. God, without comparison, loved and loves him more than you. This means that you can only leave the eternal fate of your parent to the goodness and mercy of God, who, if He deigns to have mercy, who can resist Him.”

The Great Elder gave Pavel Tambovtsev a prayer, which, with some modifications, can be said for the unbaptized:

« Have mercy, O Lord, on the soul of Your servant(name), who passed away into eternal life without Holy Baptism. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not make this my prayer a sin for me. But Thy holy will be done"

This prayer can be used when reading the Psalter for the departed, reading it at every “Glory”.

Another holy Optina elder, Reverend Joseph, later said that there is evidence of the fruits of this prayer. It can be read at any time (repeatedly throughout the day). You can also do it mentally in the temple. Alms given to those in need for the deceased help. It is good to pray to the Mother of God, reading the rosary " Virgin Mary, rejoice..." (as much as strength allows: from 30 to 150 times a day). At the beginning and at the end of this rule, one must ask the Mother of God to help the soul of the deceased.

The Orthodox Church testifies that there is a Christian saint who has the special grace to pray for those who have died unbaptized. This is a victim in the 3rd century. St. Martyr Uar. There is a canon for this saint, in which the main content is a request to St. martyr to pray for the unbaptized. This canon and the prayer of St. Martyr Uar is read instead of those funeral prayers that the Church offers for the baptized.

Those close to the deceased (especially children and grandchildren - direct descendants) have a great opportunity to influence the afterlife fate of the deceased. Namely: to reveal the fruits of spiritual life (to live in the prayer experience of the Church, to participate in the Holy Sacraments, to live according to the commandments of Christ). Although the one who departed unbaptized did not himself show these fruits, but his children and grandchildren, he, too, is involved in them as a root or trunk.

And I would also like to say: loved ones should not lose heart, but do everything possible to help, remembering the mercy of the Lord and knowing that everything will be finally determined at the Judgment of God.

How to pray for the unbaptized?

The tradition of the Church brings to us a lot of evidence about the effectiveness of prayer for unbaptized people who do not belong to the Church.

One day Rev. Macarius of Egypt walked through the desert and saw a human skull lying on the ground. When the monk touched him with a palm stick, the skull spoke. The elder asked: “Who are you?” The skull replied: “I was a pagan priest of the idolaters who lived in this place.” He also said that when St. Macarius, having mercy on those who are in eternal torment, prays for them, then they receive some consolation. “As far as the sky is from the earth, so much fire is under our feet and above our heads,” the skull said again, “We stand in the middle of the fire, and none of us is positioned so as to see our neighbor. But when you pray for us, each one sees the other’s face somewhat. This is our joy." After the conversation, the elder buried the skull in the ground.

For people who died without holy baptism or belonged to another denomination or faith, we cannot pray at the Divine Liturgy and perform funeral services for them in the Church, but no one forbids us to pray for them in our personal home prayers.

The Venerable Leo of Optina, consoling his spiritual son Pavel Tambovtsev, whose father tragically died outside the Church, said: “You should not be overly sad. God, without comparison, loved and loves him more than you. This means that you can only leave the eternal fate of your parent to the goodness and mercy of God, who, if He deigns to have mercy, who can resist Him.” The great elder gave Pavel Tambovtsev a prayer, which, having been slightly modified, can be said for the unbaptized: “Have mercy, O Lord, on the soul of Thy servant (name), who passed into eternal life without Holy Baptism. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not make this my prayer a sin for me. But Thy holy will be done.”

This prayer can be used when reading the Psalter for the departed, reading it at every “Glory”.

Another holy Optina elder, St. Joseph, later said that there is evidence of the fruits of this prayer. It can be read at any time (repeatedly throughout the day). You can also do it mentally in the temple. Alms given to those in need for the deceased help. It is good to pray to the Mother of God, reading the rosary “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice...” (as much as strength allows: from 30 to 150 times a day). At the beginning and at the end of this rule, one must ask the Mother of God to help the soul of the deceased.

Those close to the deceased (especially children and grandchildren - direct descendants) have a great opportunity to influence the afterlife fate of the deceased. Namely: to reveal the fruits of spiritual life (to live in the prayer experience of the Church, to participate in the Holy Sacraments, to live according to the commandments of Christ). Although the one who departed unbaptized did not himself show these fruits, but his children and grandchildren, he, too, is involved in them as a root or trunk.

And I would also like to say: loved ones should not lose heart, but do everything possible to help, remembering the mercy of the Lord and knowing that everything will be finally determined at the Judgment of God.

Cold does not create God's righteousness

I myself grew up in an environment where there were no believers, literally not a single one! Only my nanny went to church, but no one took this nanny seriously. After the death of my parents, I was baptized and didn’t even ask myself the question: is it possible to pray for the unbaptized dead? My parents were baptized, but I knew that they were just as unbelievers as their unbaptized friends. And the latter are the same good people as my parents! How could a property, the presence of which, so to speak, did not involve the hearts of my parents, make their afterlife brighter than that of friends who did not possess this property? They explained to me that notes cannot be submitted for the unbaptized, and I immediately understood this (I remember how I immediately accepted it), but in my prayer for the dear deceased unbelievers I never made a distinction: baptized or not.

A mystery that doesn't deprive you of hope

The Church teaches that the souls of the dead need our prayers. The Last Judgment differs from the so-called private trial of the soul of a deceased person in that Last Judgment her fate it could get better- it may turn out to be “praised.” An impression from the period of my neophyte was etched in my memory: a story by a priest’s mother about a friend of hers whose son committed suicide. Weighed down by such a terrible grief, the woman tirelessly prayed for her son for twenty years, and one day her relatives heard her exclaim in her room: “I prayed for it!” I thought then: “How does she know that everything is okay now? She just felt that her soul became lighter.” And then I thought: “How else could she have been notified? And why shouldn’t you trust her?” This story and my trust in it were often recalled to me later, and I came to the conclusion that if the soul of a suicide can be prayed for, then even more so this should apply to the souls of the unbaptized, so I thought.

The most famous case of the effectiveness of prayer for the deceased, unbaptized, is found in various books, mentioned in various teachings and in the synaxarion of the Sabbath of Meat. It is also cited by Father Seraphim Rose, who is distinguished by his strict strictness, in the book “The Soul after Death” (Offering of an Orthodox American. Collection of works of Father Seraphim Platinsky. M., 2008. P. 196). We are talking about how Saint Gregory the Dvoeslov was heard in prayer for the soul of Emperor Trajan. The saint was touched by Trajan's good deed and prayed with tears for the pagan emperor, so that in his life it is said that Trajan was (as if in retrospect) “baptized with the tears” of the prayer book. It is worth remembering, however, that Saint Gregory was told at the same time: “Ask no more for any other pagan!” From what? - this is worth thinking about. But, be that as it may, there is no reason not to trust the mentioned story about St. Gregory and Emperor Trajan. “Although this is a rare case,” comments Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), “it gives hope to those whose loved ones died outside the faith.”

The bitterness of feeling for loved ones who did not accept Christ has the utmost expression in the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans: “I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit, that there is great sorrow for me and unceasing torment of my heart: I desired I would myself be excommunicated from Christ for my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh” (Rom. 9.1-3) - if only they were saved. It happens that in prayer for a dear unbeliever, non-church person, you want to exclaim: “Lord! You know him! Isn’t this, and this, and this from You, precious before You?” You ask for his conversion, but he dies, an outsider to the Church, and sometimes even unbaptized. So what now?

Martyr Uar

Saint Huar was an officer in the Roman army, the commander of one of the cohorts stationed in Alexandria. He suffered for Christ in 307 AD. The torturers threw Uar's body into the place where the corpses of animals were dumped. A pious widow named Cleopatra found his body and, with the help of slaves, carried it to her home, where she buried it. A few years later, when the persecution subsided, Cleopatra decided to return to her homeland, Palestine. Under the pretext that she was carrying out the body of her husband, a military leader, she carried out the body of the holy martyr Uara. She didn’t want the Alexandrian Christians to oppose her, so she did just that. At home, in the village of Edra, not far from Tabor, Cleopatra re-buried the holy remains in the same tomb where her ancestors were buried. Every day she came to the tomb, lit candles and performed incense. Following Cleopatra, her fellow countrymen began to venerate the tomb of the martyr Huar and, through prayers to him, receive healing for themselves and their loved ones. Cleopatra's only son John reached the age of 17 and, under the protection arranged by his mother, was supposed to receive a good place in the imperial army. At the same time, the widow was busy building a temple over the tomb of St. Huar and decided not to send her son to the army until the construction was completed. After the consecration of the built temple and the celebration of the first liturgy in it, Cleopatra fell to the tomb with an ardent prayer to the saint about the upcoming career of her son. Then she arranged a rich feast and served the guests herself. During the feast, John suddenly fell ill and died at night. The inconsolable widow rushed to the tomb of the holy martyr Huar with bitter reproaches, and right at the tomb, from fatigue and great sorrow, fell asleep on a short time. “In a dream, Saint Uar appeared before her, holding her son’s hand; both of them were as bright as the sun and their clothes were whiter than snow; they had golden belts and crowns on their heads, of indescribable beauty,” says Demetrius of Rostov. In response to the reproaches, the martyr Uar told the widow that he had prayed for forgiveness of sins for her relatives, with whom she had laid him in the tomb; her son was taken into the heavenly army...

After spending another seven years serving at the tomb of the holy martyr, in which she also buried her son, Cleopatra reposed in the Lord.

This is, in fact, summary, the life of the holy martyr Huar and the pious Cleopatra. Based on the fact that Saint Huar begged for forgiveness of sins to Cleopatra’s relatives, many of whom, obviously, could not be Christians, according to established church tradition, it is believed that this saint was endowed with special grace to pray for those who died unbaptized. The canon to the holy martyr Huar in the “green menaions” is permeated mainly with this very thought.

Experience of comfort

For many years now, from sad occasion to sad occasion, I have been attending a prayer service for the holy martyr Huar in church Life-Giving Trinity on Pyatnitskaya street. This temple is visible in the distance on the left, as soon as you exit onto Pyatnitskaya from the Novokuznetskaya metro station. This is the only place in Moscow where a prayer service to the martyr Uar, with a fervent request for the repose of unbaptized relatives and “known ones,” is served religiously every Saturday after the liturgy; it begins, therefore, between half past eight and nine in the morning.

There are priests who have a categorically negative attitude towards such a prayer service, and it cannot be said that they have no grounds for this - see below. There are, on the contrary, inspired admirers of the martyr Huar and fervent prayer books for those who died outside the body of Christ. There are also those who belong to this issue benevolently and judiciously: recognizing the tradition and urgent need of Orthodox believers in turning to the martyr Huar, they eschew any inspired excess in this prayerful work.

According to the first, what is gained in prayer to St. Uaru consolation does not mean anything! You never know, they say, where we can get consolation for our imperfect feelings; it quite often happens “from the left.” Judging in the abstract, this remark is fair. But there is a certain “quality” of spiritual consolation, familiar to every church believer, in which, it seems to me, it is hardly possible to make a mistake: purity, confirmed by experience, you can't fake it! For those who are negatively inclined, this, of course, is not an argument, but, thank God, in Orthodoxy you can look differently and remain faithful to what is verified by your heart.

A lot of people gather for the prayer service, however, it happens in different ways: sometimes not so many, and sometimes the crowd is crowded. There are always people at the same time, from just one glance at whom the heart bleeds, there is no other way to say it. Dejected, pale, burdened with inescapable bitterness. I remember one time in particular. There were probably thirty people gathered. And there was a noticeable general feeling before the prayer service, as if each of those gathered had a dear deceased person who either committed suicide, or blasphemed the Church as much as he could. It seemed that what hung in the air was something that one could simply “go crazy about.” A prayer service began, familiar petitions, exclamations - and little by little things began to feel different... nothing special, no sudden “airing”, but simply different, easier. And then even easier and more. And suddenly, in the end, it became completely easy, joyful! I looked at the faces around me: other faces! This only happens in the Church. Only with living communion between the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant is such an inconspicuous and such a sure victory over the “prince of the power of the air” possible.

Living Testimony

N.A., a parishioner of one of the Moscow churches, a middle-aged woman who came to faith in the early 1980s, when her youngest son Andryusha was four years old, a little more, talks about the victory of Saint Uar “in the air.” He kept getting sick, coughing all the time, nothing helped, and one good friend, who became a priest, told his mother: “You’re trying everything.” folk remedies. Try this: give communion to Andryusha. And try to give him communion more often, once a week.” The “remedy” helped, the child recovered, and the mother came to faith. And then she went to work in the Church. It upset her that her husband remained an unbeliever. And there’s nothing you can do: respect his free choice. What about children? And what about him? ON THE. she didn’t want to calm down, but no one could help her.

About a year has passed since N.A. turned to faith, and one priest blessed her to pray for the conversion of her husband to the martyr Uar: to read the canons to him, both the hagiographic canons, and the one about the deceased, unbaptized (there was, of course, someone to pray for). Things were so bad with church literature back then that it’s even hard to imagine now. ON THE. I rewrote the canons from the pre-revolutionary menyas, and began to read them every day.

Started soon Lent. ON THE. already knew about possible temptations, and, indeed, strangers on the streets of Moscow they began to deliver them to her this way and that. Drunks, for example, came at me, sometimes rudely, sometimes with hugs. And suddenly - calm. Canons N.A. reads, but nothing “like that” happens, although I’ve already read it twenty times in a “lull.” She says to herself: “Why am I jabbering? Maybe I’m already reading in vain, since nothing is happening?” That same evening she regretted her careless question. Andryusha suddenly woke up, jumped up in his bed and shouted: “Open, open the window quickly - it’s such a stench! such a stink!” The daughter came running from the next room and opened the window, although neither she nor N.A. Didn't feel any bad smell. Only five-year-old Andryusha felt it. He sat down on the bed and said: “Here,” he pointed to his left, “a little “he” appeared, disgusting and as if wearing a crown, only it’s not a crown at all. And then - he pointed opposite - the martyr Uar appeared (although Andryusha had not heard from his mother about Uar), and rays emanated from him, which began to hit “that one”. “That one” wriggled and wriggled, but the beam suddenly hit, and “it” then burst, and there was a bad, very bad smell!” It didn’t take long for his mother to calm him down, but finally the boy fell asleep soundly, and when he woke up the next morning, he immediately said: “What a nasty dream I had last night!” We wouldn’t call it that, but it was difficult for the child!

Husband N.A. that same year he was baptized, and after some time, in an incurable illness, received his martyr's crown.

Why so strict?

At the prayer service for the martyr Uar in the church on Pyatnitskaya Street N.A. doesn’t happen, but he won’t say a bad word about that prayer service. She was blessed to read the canons to the martyr Uar only privately, and she reads it privately. It must be said that the venerable confessor Saint Athanasius (Sakharov) in his famous book “On the Commemoration of the Dead According to the Rule Orthodox Church“He writes about prayer for the unbaptized only in Chapter 4, “Remembrance of the Dead at Home Prayer,” in the section “Remembrance of the Non-Orthodox at Home Prayer,” as well as in the next section, “Canon to the Martyr Uar on Deliverance from the Torment of the Dead in Other Faiths,” where, By the way, it is also said that the tradition of turning to the martyr Uar with prayer for the unbaptized deceased is a very ancient tradition. Like Saint Athanasius, many pastors consider only cell prayer for those who were outside the Church acceptable. Why so strict?

Think about it and ask yourself: “What does strictly mean? What would you like? Are you forbidden to go to Uaru’s prayer service on Pyatnitskaya? Not prohibited. Priests simply say what they think, they think as they think. Would you like there to be a prayer service for the martyr Uar in every church? So it’s you who “builds” everyone internally. And the Church adheres to freedom, goodwill and sobriety. This is not about indifference to the fate of those who died unbaptized. The point is only that for those who make up the body of Christ, the most precious thing is Christ. Imagine with what “just feeling of indignation” those whom Christ called “dead men” learned that the son did not come to his father’s funeral! And if he came, he would sincerely forget Christ. So it is here. Excessive sincere bitterness about those who are indifferent to Christ contributes to the development of feelings behind which faith will begin to double... If you scratch, it’s no longer faith, but humanism... Even in compassion for the unfortunate, you can lose Christ Himself. Do you remember? “You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me” (Matthew 26.11). And even more so, you can lose Him in thoughts about transcendental spheres, in desires related to the unknown, if in these thoughts and these desires you forget about faith and indulge in compassion alone.

From a humanistic point of view, there is nothing higher than compassion, and it should be for everyone... But if it is “higher” than Christ (for example, like Ivan Karamazov’s in the chapter “Revolt”), then it becomes untrue and is fraught with destruction. Radishchev’s compassion (his look “around”) served as the seed of the revolution. Through compassion, Prince Myshkin died and the deaths of other heroes of the novel significantly, albeit involuntarily, contributed. Compassion is one of the best feelings, and it would be insulting to say that you shouldn’t “give in” to it. But too often strong sincere feelings are the very rivers and the very winds that “blow” over the house of our faith.

Another thing is heartache for dear person, living or deceased, pain that you can present to God in prayer. The faith of this person or his unbelief, his detachment from the Church is the secret of his heart, known only to the One who knows the extent of our guile and our truth. But if you yourself do not value your belonging to the Church, if you do not feel like a member of it, if you do not notice the qualitative difference in being baptized or not, this does not mean that there is no such difference, and that you can fall into the general lad (“the main thing is to be a good man") and almost demand from God that He arrange everything to satisfy your “good feelings.” He won't do that. Bewilderment and bitterness (sometimes to the point of resentment) are all from unbelief, from the inability to give to God what is only in His knowledge. And you “shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret.” And He will reward you with silence.

Inexplicable joy

We meet different people in life. Among them there are those whom we remember with special gratitude and special warmth. I had a friend from work, a little older than me, who suddenly died of cancer in two months, “out of the blue,” and she was already twenty years old. She is buried at the Donskoye Cemetery, and when I am there, I always go to see her. And as soon as I find myself at her grave, I feel (almost always like this) - joyful! I, so to speak, “can’t help it.” This Elena had... an irresistible friendliness. She will say to the student cheerfully: “What did you write to me here?” and show him his wild stupidity. And he’ll send you away and give you a bad mark, without giving in to anything. And he will retain his friendliness in full. Everyone loved her. And suddenly the Lord took it away. She just (at the end of “perestroika”) began to take an interest in religion and read books, but she died unbaptized. And, although I never doubted for a second and do not doubt her bright afterlife, and who (besides my parents) I would like to meet “there” is her, I still remember her one of the first times when I turn to Saint War. And I feel that this is so necessary, it is so right, and it is truer than my (even how reliable for me) impressions.

Trust in the Holy

The point is not only that everything is correct and that everything is done - in relation to the people dear to us - that can be done by us. In Christ Jesus, “only faith has power,” according to the words of the Apostle Paul. acting by love"(Gal.5.6). Love for the deceased who is dear to us does not allow us to calm down and, so to speak, to leave his fate “mechanically” to God; we do everything that can be done from our hearts. And how good it is that there is a saint to whom our petition can be “entrusted”! How good it is that there is a church tradition that allows us to resolve such a difficult question that touches us so deeply!

For the sake of truth, one cannot help but say that among the zealots of cleanliness Orthodox faith, there are those who deny not only the legitimacy of the prayer service on Pyatnitskaya Street, but also the very appeal to the martyr Uar with a prayer for the unbaptized, even to the point of doubting the interpretation of his life. Thus, priest Konstantin Bufeev in the article “On the non-statutory service to the martyr Uar” (“Holy Fire” N12) states that “there is no reason to suspect Cleopatra’s relatives of unbelief and paganism.” Further, Priest Constantine proposes to bring episodes from the lives of other saints to the point of absurdity and, for example, to compose a service to the prophet Elisha, “ to him was given the grace to raise the dead to their feet.” Witty, to say the least, and even poisonous. But, like cold, toxicity does not create God’s righteousness. There is also no reason to consider Cleopatra’s ancestors to be believers in Christ, but there is a tradition of prayer to Uar, and the tradition, as already mentioned, is ancient.

By following it, trusting the Church, trusting the holy martyr, we gain experience that increases faith, for we are not left without certificates. We do not receive any confirmation that now the afterlife of those for whom we care has become bright, but we gain confidence that the Lord has taken our care completely upon Himself, and that means everything will be right.

One day I received a call from a classmate who had come from the funeral of her workmate (unbaptized), complete decline feelings, almost in despair - this is how she experienced the unexpected death of her friend (in a car accident). I tell her: “Well, the Church of Cyril and Athanasius is not far from you. There is an icon of the martyr Huar, go and pray to him.” She called me two hours later: the minus of her exclamations changed to a plus. For her, this was the testimony of faith about which the Apostle John speaks: “He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself” (1 John 5.10). For me, on the one hand, there was nothing surprising in this, but on the other, of course, there was also evidence here, confirmation of what I already knew well. We cannot live without the Church and we cannot live without communication with each other, which confirms our innermost experience. By the way, in the Church of Saints Cyril and Athanasius (in Afanasvesky Lane not far from Kropotkinskaya) a prayer service to the martyr Uar is held on Wednesday evening, if there is no pre-holiday evening service.

God has everyone alive

And everything is alive. I really loved taking exams together with the Lena I talked about above. Every time she told me that she would start the exam herself and added (I remember the gesture with her palm): “It’s okay if you’re late.” And now, at the wall of the Donskoy Monastery, in the deep peace that is so clearly present in this cemetery, I look at her photograph, and, although so many years have passed, I don’t feel at all that I’m “very late”... It’s somehow here everything is different. The sorrow was yesterday, but the good is forever.

The tradition of the Church brings to us a lot of evidence about the effectiveness of prayer for unbaptized people who do not belong to the Church.

One day Rev. Macarius of Egypt walked through the desert and saw a human skull lying on the ground. When the monk touched him with a palm stick, the skull spoke. The elder asked: “Who are you?” The skull replied: “I was a pagan priest of the idolaters who lived in this place.” He also said that when St. Macarius, having mercy on those who are in eternal torment, prays for them, then they receive some consolation. “As far as the sky is from the earth, there is as much fire under our feet and above our heads,” the skull said again, “We stand in the middle of the fire, and none of us is positioned so as to see our neighbor. But when you pray for us, each one sees the other’s face somewhat. This is our joy." After the conversation, the elder buried the skull in the ground.

For people who died without holy baptism or belonged to another denomination or faith, we cannot pray at the Divine Liturgy and perform funeral services for them in the Church, but no one forbids us to pray for them in our personal home prayers. Those. During the Liturgy, you cannot pray at all for the unbaptized, neither out loud, nor even silently, because at this time the bloodless Eucharistic Sacrifice is offered, and it is offered only for members of the Church. Such remembrance is allowed only during a memorial service, silently, and never at the Liturgy.

The Venerable Leo of Optina, consoling his spiritual son Pavel Tambovtsev, whose father tragically died outside the Church, said: “ You shouldn't be overly sad. God, without comparison, loved and loves him more than you. This means that you can only leave the eternal fate of your parent to the goodness and mercy of God, Who, if He deigns to have mercy, then who can resist Him?" The Great Elder gave Pavel Tambovtsev a prayer, which, with some modifications, can be said for the unbaptized:

“Have mercy, O Lord, on the soul of Your servant (name), who passed into eternal life without Holy Baptism. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not make this my prayer a sin for me. But Thy holy will be done."

This prayer can be used when reading the Psalter for the departed, reading it at every “Glory”.

Sedlec Ossuary in Kutna Hora (Czech Republic)

Another holy Optina elder, St. Joseph, later said that there is evidence of the fruits of this prayer. It can be read at any time (repeatedly throughout the day). You can also do it mentally in the temple. Alms given to those in need for the deceased help. It is good to pray to the Mother of God, reading the rosary “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice...” (as much as your strength allows: from 30 to 150 times a day). At the beginning and at the end of this rule, one must ask the Mother of God to help the soul of the deceased.

The Orthodox Church testifies that there is a Christian saint who has the special grace to pray for those who have died unbaptized. This is a victim in the 3rd century. St. Martyr Uar. There is a canon for this saint, in which the main content is a request to St. martyr to pray for the unbaptized. This canon and the prayer of St. Martyr Uar is read instead of those funeral prayers that the Church offers for the baptized.

Those close to the deceased (especially children and grandchildren - direct descendants) have a great opportunity to influence the afterlife fate of the deceased. Namely: to reveal the fruits of spiritual life (to live in the prayer experience of the Church, to participate in the Holy Sacraments, to live according to the commandments of Christ). Although the one who departed unbaptized did not himself show these fruits, but his children and grandchildren, he, too, is involved in them as a root or trunk.

And I would also like to say: loved ones should not lose heart, but do everything possible to help, remembering the mercy of the Lord and knowing that everything will be finally determined at the Judgment of God.

Priest Pavel Gumerov

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