Is it possible,
Elder, for the dead (other than the Saints) who have not entered yet into
judgment to pray?
They regain awareness and seek help, but they’re not able to
help themselves. All those who are in Hades for only one offence, would ask if
Christ could give them only five minutes to repent. We who are alive still have
time for repentance, but the unfortunate reposed, they cannot improve their
condition, so they await our help. Therefore, our duty is to help them with our
prayer.
My thoughts tell me that only ten out of a hundred of those
who are dead are in a demonic state, and where they are, they curse God, like
the demons. They do not ask for help, nor do they want help. What would God do
with them otherwise? Like a child that distances themselves from their father,
who after squandering their fortune they go on to curse their father. What can
the father do? Others who have died, if they have a little philotimo, sense
their guilt, repent and suffer for their sins, they ask for help and are helped
positively with the prayers of the faithful.
Thus, God gives them a chance, even now, as they are
awaiting judgment, to find help before the Second Coming happens. And, as in
this earthly life, the one who is a friend of the king may intervene to the
king and help on behalf of someone awaiting trial, so it is the same with
someone who is a friend of God, they may with their prayer help the dead move
from one prison to another better one; from one jail cell to a better one. He
can even move them into a room or into an apartment.
Just as we relieve prisoners by bringing them refreshments
and other things, so also we relieve the dead, with the prayers and alms we do
on behalf of their souls. Prayers and memorials from those who are still alive
on behalf of the reposed is the last opportunity that the Lord gives to help
the reposed, until the Last Judgement. After their trial, it will not be
possible to help them anymore.
God wants to help the reposed, because He hurts for their
salvation, but He does not do it, because He has nobility. He does not want to
give the right to the devil to say: "Why did You save him, although he has
not laboured?" When we pray for the reposed, we give God the right to intervene.
God is more moved when we pray for the reposed rather than the living.
This is why our Church has kollyva (boiled what) and
memorials. Memorials are the best lawyers for the souls of the reposed. They
have the ability to remove souls even from hell. So also should you, in every
Divine Liturgy, to read memorials and have kollyva for the reposed. There is
meaning to the wheat: It is sown in corruption, and raised in incorruption,
that is, it symbolizes the death and resurrection of humanity, as Scripture
says.
Elder, do the ones
who recently died have greater need of prayer?
When they sentence someone to jail, isn’t it true that it is
more difficult for them at the beginning? We have to pray for the reposed who
didn’t please God while alive, so that God will do something for them.
Particularly when we know that someone was hardened - because we might have
thought they were hardened, but in reality they weren't - and lived a sinful
life, then we have to pray a lot - with Divine Liturgies. Forty Liturgies are
to be served consecutively for their soul, alms should be given to the poor for
the salvation of their soul, so that the poor will pray for them saying,
"May their bones become sanctified," so God will have mercy on them.
Thus whatever they have not done, we will do for them. Meanwhile one person who
had goodness even if their life was not good, can be helped much with a little
prayer.
I am aware of events that testify how much the reposed are
helped through the prayers of spiritual people. Someone once came to my Hut and
said to me in tears, "Elder, I didn't pray on behalf of a certain reposed
man who was known to me, and he appeared in my dreams. He told me that it had
been twenty days and I did not help him, but now he suffers because I forgot
him. Indeed, for twenty days I had forgotten due to the various concerns of
life, and I had not even prayed for myself."
When someone dies and
we’ve been asked to pray for them, is it good, Elder, to pray a full prayer
rope on their behalf for forty days?
If you pray the full prayer rope for them, pray at the same
time for all the reposed. Why should the whole train go to its destination for
only one passenger, when it is able to fit many others? How many unfortunate
dead have need and seek for help, but there is no one to pray for them! People
sometimes only do memorial services for someone who was their relative or very
close. By doing it this way they do not help even their own, because their
prayer is not so pleasing to God. As they have made so many commemorations for
their close one, let them also make commemorations for all those who are
strangers.
Elder, the dead who
do not have people to pray for them, are they helped by those who generally
pray for the reposed?
Of course they are helped. When I pray for all the reposed,
I see my parents in my dreams, because they are at rest from my prayers. Every
time I have a Divine Liturgy, I do a general memorial for all the reposed. If I
sometimes do not pray for the reposed, then the reposed who are known to me
appear before me. A relative of mine, who was killed in the war, I saw him in
front of me after the Divine Liturgy, during the memorial, because I didn't
have his name written with the others who had reposed, since he was
commemorated during the Preparation of the Gifts with those who had fallen
heroically. You also, at the Holy Prothesis, do not only commemorate the names
of the sick, but also the names of the reposed, because the reposed have
greater need.
After death people continue to maintain the powers of their
consciousness, and can continue to communicate with God. I do not mean that the
soul will pray to God asking for this or that thing, or this or that favour.
When I say pray, I mean the energy that unites people with God.
With this kind of prayer, the dead can communicate with the
entire human race, in the same way we communicate and pray for the souls of the
dead. This is why we have memorials. It is the way we use to communicate,
through the grace of the Holy Spirit, with those who have already left for the
great journey.
Death does not separate us!
No comments:
Post a Comment