Teachings of the Optina elders. How the Holy Fathers console us How to find consolation for loved ones

The man suffered death, but even in this case God showed him a great benefit, namely by not leaving him to remain in sin forever. God expelled man from paradise, as if into exile, so that man, within a certain time, would cleanse his sin and, admonished by punishment, be returned to paradise again. If a defect is discovered in a vessel just made, it is refilled or remade so that it becomes new and whole; the same thing happens to a person in death. For this reason, he is crushed by its power, so that during the resurrection he may appear healthy, that is, pure, righteous and immortal.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

After his fall, the first man lived for many hundreds of years. But God did not lie when he said: “On the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), for because man fell away from true life, the sentence of death was fulfilled on him on that same day, and a few years later physical death befell Adam.

Saint John Chrysostom:

For sin, the Lord mercifully established death; Adam was expelled from paradise, so that he would no longer dare to touch the tree that constantly supports life, and would not sin endlessly. This means that expulsion from paradise is more a matter of God’s care for man than of anger.

Although the first parents lived for many more years, as soon as they heard that they were: “You are dust and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19), they became mortal, and from then on it could be said that they died. In this sense, it is said in Scripture: “on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), that is, you will hear the verdict that from now on you are already mortal.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria:

By death the Lawgiver stops the spread of sin and in the very punishment he shows his love for mankind. Since He, giving the commandment, connected death with its crime, and since the criminal fell under this punishment, He arranges it so that the punishment itself serves salvation. For death destroys our animal nature and thus, on the one hand, stops the action of evil, and on the other, it saves a person from illness, frees him from work, stops his sorrows and worries and ends his suffering. With such love for humanity the Judge dissolved the very punishment.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

You have shortened the duration of our life; its longest term is seventy years. But we sin before You seventy times seven. By mercy You have shortened our days so that the series of our sins does not lengthen.

By the fall, both the soul and the body of man changed... The fall was also death for them... death is only the separation of the soul from the body, which had already been killed by the departure of True Life, God, from them.

Death is a great mystery. She is the birth of a person from earthly, temporary life into eternity.

And the body continues to exist, although we see that it is destroyed and turns into the earth from which it was taken; it continues to exist in its very corruption, it continues to exist in corruption, like a seed in the ground.

By death, a person is painfully cut and torn into two parts, his components, and after death there is no longer a person: his soul exists separately, and his body exists separately.

In the proper sense, the separation of the soul from the body is not death, it is only a consequence of death. There is death incomparably more terrible! There is death - the beginning and source of all human illnesses: mental and physical, and the severe illness that we exclusively call death.

Hour of Exodus

Don’t you know, my brothers, what fear and what suffering we are subjected to at the hour of departure from this life when the soul is separated from the body?.. Good Angels and the Heavenly Army approach the soul, as well as all... the opposing forces and princes of darkness. Both want to take the soul or assign it a place. If the soul acquired good qualities here, led an honest life and was virtuous, then on the day of its departure these virtues, which it acquired here, become good Angels surrounding it, and do not allow any opposing force to touch it. In joy and joy, with the holy Angels, they take her and carry her to Christ, the Lord and King of Glory, and worship Him together with her and with all the Heavenly Powers. Finally, the soul is taken to a place of rest, to unspeakable joy, to eternal light, where there is no sorrow, no sighing, no tears, no worries, where there is immortal life and eternal joy in the Kingdom of Heaven with all others who have pleased God. If the soul in this world lived shamefully, indulging in the passions of dishonor and being carried away by carnal pleasures and the vanity of this world, then on the day of its departure the passions and pleasures that it acquired in this life become crafty demons and surround the poor soul, and do not allow one to approach her Angels of God; but together with the opposing forces, the princes of darkness, they take her, pitiful, shedding tears, sad and lamenting, and take her to dark places, gloomy and sad, where sinners await the day of Judgment and eternal torment, when the devil and his angels will be cast down.

There is great fear at the hour of death, when the soul is separated from the body with horror and sorrow, because at this hour the soul will be presented with its deeds, good and evil, done by it day and night. The angels will hasten to pluck it out, and the soul, seeing its deeds, is afraid to leave the body. The soul of a sinner is separated from the body with fear and goes with trepidation to stand before the immortal Judgment Seat. The one forced to leave the body, looking at her deeds, says with fear: “Give me at least one hour of time...” But her deeds, having gathered together, answer the soul: “You made us, with you we will go to God.”

The torment of the sinner's repentance at death exceeds even the fear of death and separation.

The day will come, brothers, the day will certainly come and will not pass us by, in which a person will leave everything and everyone and go alone, abandoned by everyone, ashamed, naked, helpless, without an intercessor, unprepared, unrequited, if only this day overtakes him in negligence: “on a day in which he does not expect, and in an hour in which he does not think” (Matthew 24:50), when he is having fun, collecting treasures, and living in luxury. For suddenly one hour will come and everything will end; a little fever - and everything will turn into futility and vanity; one deep, dark, painful night - and a person will go, like a defendant, where they will take him... then you, man, will need many guides, many prayers, many helpers in the hour of separation of the soul. Great then is the fear, great the trembling, great the mystery, great the upheaval for the body during the transition to another world. For if on earth, moving from one country to another, we need someone who will show the way and leaders, then all the more will they be needed when we move into boundless centuries, from where no one returns. I also repeat: you need a lot of helpers at this hour. This is our hour, not someone else’s, our way, our hour, and a terrible hour; Ours is a bridge and there is no other way. This is the end common to all, common to all and terrible. A difficult path that everyone must walk; The path is narrow and dark, but we will all take it. This is a bitter and terrible cup, but let us all drink it and not another. The mystery of death is great and hidden, and no one can explain it. It is terrible and terrible what the soul experiences then, but none of us knows this except those who preceded us there; except those who have already experienced it.

When the sovereign Powers approach, when terrible armies come, when the divine takers command the soul to move from the body, when, carrying us away by force, they take us to the inevitable judgment seat, then, seeing them, the poor man... shudders, as if from an earthquake, all trembles... The divine takers, having taken the soul, ascend through the air, where the rulers, powers and rulers of the world of the opposing forces stand. These are our evil accusers, terrible publicans, scribes, tribute collectors; they meet on the way, describe, examine and calculate the sins and handwritings of this person, the sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed by deed, word, thought. Great is the fear there, great is the trembling of the poor soul, indescribable is the suffering that she then endures from the innumerable multitude of enemies surrounding her in darkness, slandering her in order to prevent her from ascending to Heaven, settling in the light of the living, and entering the Land of Life. But the holy Angels, having taken the soul, take it away.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

Death leaves no one, and the longer we live, the closer it is to us. This limit of God is both unknown to us and very terrible, Unknown, since death indiscriminately snatches away old and young, babies and young men, ready and unready, righteous and sinners. Terrible, because from here begins endless, unceasing, ever-present eternity. From here we depart either into eternal bliss or into eternal torment; "either to a place of joy, or to a place of mourning. From here we begin either to live forever, or to die forever; or to reign forever in Heaven with Christ and His saints, or to suffer forever in hell with Satan and his angels.

Just as the behavior of a carnal and spiritual person is different and life is unequal, so death is not similar, and after death the future state. Death is terrible for a carnal man, but peaceful for a spiritual man; Death is sad for a carnal man, but joyful for a spiritual man; Death is sad for a carnal man, but sweet for a spiritual man. A carnal man, dying temporarily, dies eternally: “To be carnally minded is death,” says the holy Apostle (Rom. 8:6), but a spiritual man through this death passes to Eternal Life, for spiritual wisdom is life and peace... To the carnal - hell, Gehenna, but Heaven will be the spiritual home. The carnal dwells with the devil and his angels in eternal fire, but the spiritual with Christ, Whom he diligently serves, in eternal joy. Both are rewarded according to their deeds that they did in the body.

For those who stop sinning, repent, the suffering and death of Christ do not remain in vain, but receive their fruit, that is, remission of sins, justification, and intercede for Eternal Life; but they do not bring any benefit to those who do not repent, but to those who remain in sins, and therefore, because of their unrepentant life, they are in vain. And the Blood of Christ for everyone, including the one shed for them, was shed for them, as it were, in vain, for its fruit, that is, conversion, repentance, new life and remission of sins and salvation, is lost in them. Although “Christ died for all,” according to the teaching of the Apostle (2 Cor. 5:15), the death of Christ saves only those who repent of their sins and believe in Him, and in the unrepentant it does not receive its saving fruit. And this is not due to the fault of Christ, “who wants all people to be saved and to attain the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) and “died for everyone,” but due to the fault of those who do not want to repent and take advantage of the death of Christ.

On whom we want to hope on the day of our death, now, during our life, we must place all our hope in him, resort to him and cleave to him. Then everything will leave us: honor, wealth will remain in the world; then strength, reason, cunning will disappear and wisdom; then neither our friends, nor our brothers, nor our friends will help us; Christ alone, our Redeemer, if we now truly believe in Him and trust in Him, He will not abandon us then to the Angels. “He will command his own to travel with us, to carry our souls to Abraham’s bosom, and there he will rest us. We must now cling to this one Helper by faith and place all our trust in Him alone, and this trust will not be put to shame both during death and after death.

Death of the Righteous

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).

The righteous and saints rejoice in the hour of death and separation, having before their eyes the great work of their asceticism, vigils, prayers, fasting and tears.

The soul of the righteous at death rejoices, because after separation from the body it desires to enter into peace.

If you were a toiler, then do not grieve at the approach of this good migration, because he who returns home with wealth does not grieve.

Death, which is terrible for everyone and horrifies mortals, seems like a feast to the God-fearing.

Death is afraid to approach someone who fears God and only comes to him when she is commanded to separate his soul from his body.

The death of the righteous is the end of the struggle with the passions of the flesh; after death, the fighters are glorified and receive victorious crowns.

Death is bliss for the saints, joy for the righteous, sorrow for sinners, and despair for the wicked.

According to Your command, O Lord, the soul is separated from the body so that it can ascend into that granary of life, where all the saints await Your Great Day, hoping on that day to be clothed with glory and give thanks to You.

Saint John Chrysostom:

Those who carefully strive in virtue, moving away from this life, truly, as it were, are released into freedom from suffering and bonds.

Venerable Macarius the Great:

When the human soul leaves the body, some great mystery is performed. For if she is guilty of sins, then hordes of demons, evil angels and dark forces come, take this soul and drag her to their side. No one should be surprised at this, for if a person, while still alive, in this world submitted, surrendered and enslaved him, then will they not possess him even more and enslave him when he leaves this world? As for the other, better part of people, something different happens to them. Angels are still present with the holy servants of God in this life; holy spirits surround them and protect them; and when their souls are separated from their body, the faces of the Angels accept them into their society, into a bright life and thus lead them to the Lord.

St. Augustine:

The Guardian Angel must place the soul of the righteous before God.

Since Christians, after the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, are assured that by dying (in Christ), they pass from death into Life and into the joy of being with Christ, they desire death. For if the Spirit of Christ is the life of the soul, then what is the benefit to those who have received Him to live in this world and thereby be excluded from the joy that is given by being with Christ.

There are two types of death: natural and spiritual. Natural death is common to all, as Scripture says: “it is appointed for men to die once” (Heb. 9:27), but spiritual death is only for those who wish, for the Lord says: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.” (Mark 8:34); He does not force anyone, but says: “whoever wants.” But we see that others face only one death, natural, but the venerable saint of Christ faces a double death - first spiritual, and then natural. Someone said well when discussing the resurrection of Lazarus: Christ brought Lazarus back to life so that a person born into the world once would learn to die twice, for natural death cannot be good and pure before God if it is not preceded by spiritual death. No one can receive Eternal Life after death unless he gets used to dying before death. No earlier did Moses leave Egypt with the people of Israel on the journey leading to the promised land than when the firstborn of Egypt were killed; so a person will not enter Eternal Life if he does not first kill sinful lusts in himself. Blessed is the one who has learned to die to sin before death and to bury his passions in a body mortified to sin before being buried in a coffin.

Remember the suffering of those in exile from the city, from home, from the fatherland; all this is present in our life, for life is exile, exile, as the same apostle says: “we do not have a permanent city here, but we are looking for the future” (Heb. 13, 14). Remember the suffering from hunger, thirst and deprivation of everything necessary for existence, and all this is in abundance in our lives, which is best seen from the apostolic words: “until now we suffer hunger and thirst, and nakedness and beatings, and we are wandering” (1 Cor. 4, 11). For this life does not satiate anyone completely; satiation is possible only in Heaven, as the psalmist says: “I will be satisfied with Your image” (Ps. 16:15). Think what an evil it is to be in captivity, in chains, in death! All this has life, for life is captivity and death, as St. Paul says: “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Imagine the fear of living in a house that threatens to collapse; such is our life, for “we know that... our earthly house, this hut, will be destroyed” (2 Cor. 5:1). Therefore, the saints of God wished better to die and live with Christ than to continue their days in this life.

If you die (for Christ), you will not be defeated, but then you will win the most perfect victory, preserving to the end the unshakable truth and unchanging boldness for the truth. And you will pass from death to Eternal Life, from dishonor among people to glory with God, from sorrows and torment in the world to eternal rest with the Angels. The earth did not accept you as its citizen, but Heaven will accept you, the world persecuted you, but the Angels will lift you up to Christ and you will be called His friend, and you will hear the longed-for praise: “well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt. 25, 21, 23). As the Scripture says, “Abraham died and the prophets” (John 8:52), and the saint of Christ Peter also paid his debt to death - he died, but he died a worthy death: “The death of His saints is precious in the sight of the Lord!” (Ps. 115:6). He died an immortal death, his hope of immortality was fulfilled, and this book of his death became the book of birth, for through a temporary death he was reborn to Eternal Life. Death, a good death, has books of its kinship, and kinship is not bad, but worthy, good. For just as from a good root comes good shoots, and from a good tree good fruit is born, so a good death has its origin from a good family. What this good kind of good death is, we will now see.
Do not think, my listener, that I am talking here about the carnal nobility of the bishop of God, for from his youth he despised his family. I am not talking about his carnal, but about his spiritual and virtuous generation, that is, about his godly life, in which virtue was born from virtue. Humility gave birth to love for God; love for God - contempt for the world; contempt for the world gave birth to abstinence; abstinence - mortification of bodily feelings; the mortification of feelings gave birth to purity of flesh and spirit; purity - mental contemplation of God; the contemplation of God gave birth to tenderness and tears; finally, from all this, a good, blessed, honest, holy death was born, leading to peace, for “the righteous, even if he dies early, will be at peace” (Wisdom 4:7).

"Don't be afraid of death, but prepare for it"

Do not fear death, but prepare for it by living a holy life. If you are ready for death, you will stop being afraid of it. If you love the Lord with all your heart, you yourself will wish for death.

Saint John Chrysostom:

Stop crying about death and cry about your sins in order to atone for them and enter into Eternal Life.

(Christian), you are a warrior and constantly stand in the ranks, and a warrior who is afraid of death will never do anything valiant.

Let us begin to tremble not before death, but before sin; It was not death that gave birth to sin, but sin that produced death, and death became the healing of sin.

It is not death that causes sorrow, but a bad conscience. Therefore, stop sinning - and death will become desirable for you.

Let's stop grieving over death, and let's take on the sadness of repentance, take care of good deeds and a better life. Let us think about the ashes and the dead in order to remember that we too are mortal. With such a memory, it is difficult for us to neglect our salvation. While there is time, while it is still possible, let us better bear fruit, or correct ourselves if we have sinned out of ignorance, so that if the day of death overtakes us by chance, we will not have to look for time for repentance, and no longer find it, ask for mercy and the opportunity to make amends sins, but not getting what you want.

Be prepared for the fact that the Lord may claim your soul every day. Don’t do it in such a way as to repent today and forget about it tomorrow, cry today and dance tomorrow, fast today and drink wine tomorrow.

Let those who come to take our soul not find us like the merry rich man, dwelling in the night of intemperance, in the darkness of wickedness, in the darkness of covetousness. But may they find us on the day of fasting, on the day of holiness, on the day of brotherly love, in the light of piety, in the morning of faith, alms and prayer. May they find us sons of the day and lead us to the Sun of Truth, not as those who erected barns (Luke 12:18), but as those who generously emptied them and renewed ourselves with fasting and repentance, the grace of Christ.

Always expect, but do not fear death, both are the true characteristics of wisdom.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

Come, mortals, let us pay attention to our race, which is destroyed and destroyed by the hand of murderers - death. Let us ask our Lord for bounties while we are still here, in the land of the repentant, because there is no longer room for repentance there.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

You see that the wound clock is constantly moving, and whether we are sleeping or awake, doing or not doing, it is constantly moving and approaching its limit. Such is our life - from birth to death it constantly flows and decreases; whether we rest or work, whether we are awake or asleep, whether we talk or are silent, it continually continues its course and approaches the end, and has already become closer to the end today than it was yesterday and the day before, at this hour than in the past. Our life is so imperceptibly shortened, hours and minutes pass by! And when the chain ends and the pendulum stops striking, we don’t know. The providence of God hid this from us so that we would always be ready to leave whenever our Lord God called us to him. “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds watching” (Luke 12:37). Damned are those whom He finds immersed in a sinful sleep.

This example and reasoning teach you, Christian, that the time of our life is constantly running out; that it is impossible to return the past tense; that the past and the future are not ours, and only the time that we now have belongs to us; that our death is unknown to us; therefore, always, for every hour, for every minute, we must be prepared for the outcome if we want to die blissfully; hence it follows that a Christian must be in constant repentance, the feat of faith and piety; what someone wants to be at the end, he should try to be like that at every time of his life, because no one knows in the morning whether he will wait for the evening, and in the evening whether he will wait until the morning. We see that those who were healthy in the morning lie lifeless on their deathbeds in the evening; and those who fall asleep in the evening will not get up in the morning and will sleep until the trumpet of the Archangel. And what happens to others, the same thing can happen to you and me.

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

Pilate mixed the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices - the Lord said: “unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way”; The pillar of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people - the Lord also said: “If you do not repent, you will all perish in the same way” (Luke 13: 3, 5). This makes it clear that when misfortune befalls others, we need to talk not about why and why this happened, but quickly turn to ourselves and see if we have any sins worthy of temporary punishment to admonish others, and hasten to blot out their repentance. Repentance cleanses sin and removes the cause that attracts trouble. While a person is in sin, the ax lies at the root of his life, ready to cut him off. It doesn’t flog because repentance is expected. Repent - and the ax will be taken away, and your life will flow to the end in a natural order; If you don’t repent, wait for the beating. Who knows whether you will live to see next year. The parable of the barren fig tree shows that the Savior prays to the truth of God to spare every sinner in the hope that he will repent and bear good fruit (1 Tim. 2:4). But it happens that the truth of God no longer listens to petitions and does anyone agree to let anyone live for another year. Are you sure, sinner, that you are not living your last year, not your last month, day and hour?

The Holy Church now transfers our attention beyond the boundaries of this life, to our departed fathers and brothers, hoping by a reminder of their condition, which we cannot escape, to position us for the proper passage of Cheese Week and the Great Lent that follows it. Let us listen to the mother of our Church and, remembering our fathers and brothers, let us take care to prepare ourselves for the transition to the next world. Let us remember our sins and pay for them, committing ourselves further to keep ourselves clean from all filth. For nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God, and at the Judgment none of the unclean will be justified. After death, do not wait for purification. No matter what you go through, you will remain the same. This cleansing must be prepared here. Let us hasten, for who can predict longevity for himself? Life can end at this hour. How to appear in the next world unclean? With what eyes will we look at our fathers and brothers who will meet us? How will we answer their questions: “What is wrong with you? What is this? And what is this?” What disgrace and shame will cover us! Let us hasten to correct everything that is faulty in order to emerge into the next world at least somewhat tolerable and tolerant.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

He who is daily prepared for death dies daily; whoever has trampled all sins and all sinful desires, whose thought has moved from here to Heaven and remains there, dies daily.

All earthly bonds, the closest bonds, bonds imposed by nature and law, are mercilessly broken by death.

Afterlife

Everyone should know that the souls of the righteous, although they are in Heaven, do not receive perfect reward until the Last Judgment, just as the souls of the condemned do not undergo perfect punishment. Only after the Judgment will souls and bodies finally receive either a crown of glory or punishment.

Saint Athanasius of Alexandria:

The joy that the souls of saints now feel is a private pleasure, just as the sadness of sinners is a private punishment. When the king calls his friends to dine with them, as well as the condemned, in order to punish them, those invited to the supper, even before it begins, arrive in joy in front of the king’s house, and the condemned, imprisoned until the king comes, indulge in sadness. This is how we should think about the souls of the righteous and sinners who moved there from us.

Venerable Jacob of Nizibia:

It would have been better for them (the infidels) if they had not been resurrected at all. Thus, a slave awaiting punishment from his master, going to bed, would never want to wake up, because he knows that when the morning rises, they will tie him up and begin to beat and torture him. But the good servant, to whom the master has promised rewards, watches and eagerly awaits the day, because as soon as the morning comes, he will receive rewards from his master; if he falls asleep, then in a dream he sees how his master gives him the promised rewards; he rejoices both in sleep and in joy he awakens. This is how the righteous sleep, and their sleep is sweet both day and night. They do not feel the length of the night, because it seems to them to be one hour, for in the morning they will awaken and rejoice. But the sleep of the wicked is painful and painful. They are like someone with a fever who rushes about in bed and does not know peace all night. So the wicked man waits in horror for the morning, because he is guilty and will have to appear before the Lord. Our faith teaches that the spirit that dwells in the righteous when they die goes to the Lord in its Heavenly Origin until the time of the Resurrection. Then he returns again to unite with the body in which he lived, and he always begs God for the resurrection of the body with which he was united, so that it too may participate in rewards - just as it participated in virtues.

Saint Theophilus of Antioch:

Can you imagine how the soul will be seized with trembling until the determination is made over it? This time is a time of sorrow, a time of uncertainty. The holy forces will stand face to face against hostile forces, presenting the good deeds of the soul in contrast to the sins presented by the enemies. Imagine what fear and trembling torment a soul that is in the midst of these opposing forces, until the judgment over it is decided by the Righteous Judge! If the soul turns out to be worthy of God’s mercy, then the demons are put to shame, and the Angels accept it. Then the soul will calm down and will live in joy, for, according to Scripture, “Thy dwellings are desired, O Lord of hosts!” (Ps. 83:2). Then the words will be fulfilled that there is no longer any illness, no sorrow, no sighing. Then the liberated soul ascends into that unspeakable joy and glory in which it resides. If the soul is caught in a careless life, it will hear a terrible voice: let the wicked be taken, let him not see the glory of the Lord! Then a day of wrath will come upon her, a day of sorrow, a day of darkness and gloom. Consigned to utter darkness and condemned to eternal fire, she will endure punishment for endless ages... If so, then how holy and pious our life should be! What love we must acquire! What should be our treatment of our neighbors, what should be our behavior, what should be diligence, what should be prayer, what should be constancy. “As you look forward to this,” says the apostle, “be diligent to appear before Him undefiled and blameless in peace” (2 Pet. 3:14), so that we may be worthy to hear the voice of the Lord saying: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from creation of the world" (Matthew 25:34) forever and ever.

Reverend Abba Isaiah:

When the soul leaves the body, the passions that it acquired during earthly life serve as the reason for its enslavement to demons; virtues, if she has acquired them, serve as protection from demons.

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

About the image of the future life, the Lord said that they do not marry or give in marriage there (Matthew 22:30), that is, our earthly everyday relationships will not take place there; therefore, all the orders of earthly life. There will be no sciences, no arts, no governments and nothing else. What will happen? There will be God - all in all. And since God is Spirit, unites with spirit and acts spiritually, then all life there will be a continuous flow of spiritual movements. One conclusion follows from this: since the future life is our goal, and this life is only preparation for it, then to do everything that is appropriate only in this life, and inapplicable in the future, means going against your purpose and preparing for yourself a bitter, bitter fate in the future. . It’s not that it’s absolutely necessary to give up everything, but, working as much as necessary for this life, the main concern should be turned to preparing for the future, trying, as far as possible, to turn menial earthly work into a means to the same goal.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

The Word of God reveals to us that our souls, after their separation from their bodies, join - according to the good or evil qualities they acquired in earthly life - to the Angels of light or to the fallen angels.

The reward for both the righteous and sinners is very different... Not only are there countless heavenly abodes... but hell also has many different dungeons and various types of torment.

In the insatiable contemplation of God and in the unceasing burning of love for Him lies the highest and essential pleasure of the inhabitants of heaven.

The future homes of souls correspond to their nature, that is, their ethereal nature. Eden, or heaven, corresponds to this nature, and hell corresponds to it.

To torture souls passing through the airspace, the dark authorities have established separate courts and guards... Along the layers of the heavenly realm, from the earth to the sky itself, there are guard regiments of fallen spirits. Each department is in charge of a special type of sin and torments the soul in it when the soul reaches this department.

As sons and confidants of lies, demons convict human souls not only of the sins they have committed, but also of those they have never been subjected to. They resort to fabrications and deceptions, combining slander with shamelessness and arrogance, in order to snatch the soul from the angelic hands.

The doctrine of ordeals is the teaching of the Church. There is no doubt that the holy Apostle Paul speaks about them when he proclaims that Christians are faced with warfare against the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). We find this teaching in the most ancient church tradition and in church prayers.

A sinful soul is not allowed to ascend to a land higher than the air: the devil has a reason to accuse it. He argues with the Angels carrying her, presenting her sins, because of which she should belong to him, presenting her insufficiency in the degree of virtues that is necessary for salvation and for free movement through the air.

The great saints of God, who have completely passed from the nature of the old Adam into the nature of the New Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, in this elegant and holy newness, with their honest souls, go through the airy demonic ordeals with extraordinary speed and great glory. They are carried to Heaven by the Holy Spirit...

Roman Patericon:

Fierce Lombards [Lombards are a wild Germanic tribe that conquered in the 6th century. part of Italy] o they came to a monastery in the region of Valeria and hanged two monks on the branches of a tree. They were buried that same day. And in the evening the souls of the hanged began to sing psalms at this place in clear and loud voices, and the murderers themselves, when they heard these voices, were extremely surprised and frightened. And all the prisoners who were here later testified to this singing. Almighty God made the voices of these souls audible so that those still living in the flesh would believe that those who love God and serve Him will live a true life even after the death of the flesh.

Prayer for the dead

We believe that the souls of people who fell into mortal sins and did not despair at death, but repented even before separation from real life, only did not have time to bear any fruits of repentance (such fruits could be their prayers, tears, kneeling during prayer vigils, contrition, consolation of the poor and expression in actions of love for God and neighbors) - the souls of such people descend into hell and suffer punishment for the sins they have committed, without, however, losing hope for relief. They receive relief through the infinite Goodness of God through the prayers of priests and charity performed for the dead, and especially through the power of the Bloodless Sacrifice, which, in particular, is offered by the priest for every Christian for his loved ones, and in general, for everyone, every day the Catholic and Apostolic Church offers.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

Nothing reckless, nothing useless was handed down from Christ’s preachers and disciples and was not accepted successively by the Church of God; to commemorate the dead in the right faith with the divine and glorious Sacrament is a very godly and useful deed.

If the all-discerning Wisdom of God does not forbid praying for the dead, does this not mean that it is still allowed to throw a rope, although not always reliable enough, but sometimes, and perhaps often, saving for souls who have fallen away from the shore of temporary life, but have not achieved eternal life? shelter? Saving for those souls who oscillate over the abyss between bodily death and the Last Judgment of Christ, now rising by faith, now immersed in deeds unworthy of it, now elevated by grace, now brought down by the remains of a damaged nature, now ascended by divine desire, now entangled in the rough, not yet completely stripped of the clothes of earthly thoughts...

Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite:

The priest humbly prays for the Goodness of God to forgive the deceased the sins that occurred due to human weakness, to accept into the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in a place “from where sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled,” despising with his love for mankind every sin committed by the departed. For no one is clean from sin, as the prophets say.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem:

We pray at the Liturgy for the departed, and from this great benefit comes to the souls when this Holy and Terrible Sacrifice is offered for them on the altar. But since many ask how remembrance of the departed and prayer at the liturgy can help if the soul has departed in sins, I answer this with this example. If a certain king were angry with someone and sent him into exile, and the relatives and relatives of the exiled person brought the king a precious crown for him as a gift, wouldn’t they ask for some kind of mercy? So, when we pray for the departed, we do not bring a crown, but a gift that surpasses all price, that is, Christ, who took upon himself the sins of the world, we offer as a Sacrifice, so that both for ourselves and for the departed we may find mercy from the King of kings.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov:

Making prayers for the repose of the souls of the blessed memory of the deceased servants of God, we have the firm hope that the Sacrifice made for their souls, poured out from the side of Christ, the Blood and water performed in the Holy Chalice, sprinkles and cleanses the souls of those for whom it is offered and for whom it is poured out. If the Blood and water of Christ, once shed on the Cross, washed away the sins of the whole world, then now the same Blood and water, and not others, will not cleanse our sins? If then the Blood of Christ redeemed many, countless souls from slavery to the enemy, then now it, and no other, will not redeem these remembered souls? If the suffering of Christ then justified so many, then now the same suffering of Christ, remembered by the fulfillment of the Divine Sacrifice, will it really not justify those whom we commemorate? We firmly believe in the power of the Blood of Christ, flowing with water from His side; we firmly believe that it cleanses, redeems and justifies its slaves, to whom may there be eternal memory in the Kingdom of Heaven and in the Holy Church on earth among pious people.

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

No one is too lazy to remember their parents, but all Orthodox Christians must be remembered, and not just on this day, but at every time, at every prayer. We ourselves will be there, and we will need this prayer, like a poor person needs a piece of bread and more often than not water. Remember that prayer for the dead is also strong in its community - in that it comes on behalf of the entire Church. The Church breathes prayer. But just as in the natural order, during pregnancy, the mother breathes, and the power of breathing passes on to the child, so in the order of grace, the Church breathes with the common prayer of all, and the power of prayer passes on to the deceased, contained in the bosom of the Church, which is composed of the living and the dead, the warring and the triumphant. Do not be too lazy at every prayer to diligently remember all our fathers and brothers who have departed. This will be alms from you...

Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus:

When the names of the deceased are remembered in prayers, what could be more useful than this for them? The living believe that the dead are not deprived of existence, but live with God. Just as the Holy Church teaches us to pray for traveling brethren with faith and hope that the prayers performed for them are useful to them, so we must understand the prayers performed for those who have departed from this world.

Saint Athanasius the Great:

Wine in a buried vessel, when the grapes bloom in the field, hears the smell and blooms with it. So are the souls of sinners: they receive some benefit from the Bloodless Sacrifice and charity offered for them, as our God, the only Lord of the living and the dead, knows and commands.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

When you stand in prayer, remember me with you. I ask my beloved, I conjure those who know me: pray for me with the same contrition with which I conjure you.

Venerable John of Damascus:

Every person who had a small leaven of virtues in himself, but did not manage to turn it into bread - that is, despite his desire, did not do this either out of laziness, or carelessness, or because he put it off from day to day and unexpectedly was caught and reaped by death - will not be forgotten by the righteous Judge and Lord. After his death, the Lord will motivate his family, friends and relatives, direct their thoughts, attract hearts and incline souls to assist and help him. And when God moves them, the Master touches their hearts, they will hasten to compensate for the omissions of the deceased. And to the one who led a vicious life, completely strewn with thorns and full of filth and impurity, who never listened to conscience, but with carelessness and blindness plunged into lusts, satisfying all the desires of the flesh and not caring in the least about the soul, whose thoughts were occupied only with carnal knowledge, and if he dies in such a state, no one will reach out to him. But it will happen to him that neither his wife, nor his children, nor his brothers, nor his relatives, nor his friends will help him, because God will not look upon him.

Who can count all the evidence from the lives of the holy martyrs and divine revelations, which clearly show that even after death, the greatest benefit to the deceased is brought by prayers performed for them at liturgy and alms given, for nothing loaned to God will perish, everything is returned in great abundance.

If someone wants to anoint a sick person with myrrh or sacred oil, he first anoints himself, and then the sick person; Thus, everyone who strives for the salvation of his neighbor first receives benefit himself, then brings it to his neighbor, for God is just and does not forget our good deeds.

Saint John Chrysostom:

There is, indeed, an opportunity to ease the punishment of a deceased sinner if we wish. So, if we make frequent prayers for him, if we give alms, then even if he himself was unworthy, God will hear us. If for the sake of Paul He saved others and for the sake of some He had mercy on others, then will He not do the same for our sake? From his own estate, from yours, from whomever you want, provide help, pour oil on him, or at least water. He cannot imagine his own acts of mercy? Let them be accomplished for him. Thus, the wife can intercede for her husband, doing what is necessary for his salvation. The greater the sins he is guilty of, the more necessary is alms for him. And not only for this reason, but also because now it no longer has that power, but much less, for it does not matter at all whether someone creates it themselves, or another for him. So, the smaller it is in strength, the more we must increase it in quantity.
Gather the widows, say the name of the deceased, let them say prayers and supplications for him. This will incline to the mercy of God, although not he himself, but another will do alms for him. This is in accordance with God's love for mankind. Widows standing around and crying can save, if not from present, then from future death. Many have benefited from the alms done for them by others, for if they were not completely pardoned, they at least received some consolation.

What if someone, you say, is lonely, a stranger to everyone and has no one? For this very reason he is being punished, because he has no one - neither so close, nor so virtuous. Therefore, if we ourselves are not virtuous, then we should try to find virtuous friends, a wife, a son, in order to receive some benefit through them, even a small one, but still a benefit.

Offerings for the dead are not in vain, prayers are not in vain, and alms are not in vain. All this was established by the Holy Spirit so that we would bring mutual benefit to each other, for you see: he receives benefit through you, and you receive benefit for his sake. You spent your property to do a good deed for another, and became for him the source of salvation, and for you he became the source of mercy. Do not doubt that this will bring good fruit.

It is a great honor to be remembered in the presence of the Lord, during the performance of the Terrible Sacrifice, the ineffable Mysteries. Just as in the face of a sitting king, anyone can ask for what they want; when he leaves his place, then whatever you say, you will say in vain; so it is here: while the Sacraments are presented, the greatest honor for everyone is to be worthy of commemoration. For look: here is proclaimed that terrible mystery that God gave Himself as a Sacrifice for the universe. Along with this secret action, those who have sinned are also remembered in good time. Just as at the time when the victories of kings are celebrated, those who participated in the victory are glorified, and those who are in bonds at that time are freed; and when this time has passed, those who did not have time to receive will no longer receive anything; so it is here: this is a time of victorious celebration. For “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,” says the apostle, “you proclaim the death of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:26). Knowing this, let us remember what consolations we can provide to the deceased: instead of tears, instead of sobs, instead of tombstones - alms, prayers, offerings; Let us do this to console them, so that both they and we may be worthy of the promised benefits.

Saint Gregory Dvoeslov:

One brother, for violating his vow of non-covetousness, to the fear of others, was deprived of church burial and prayer for thirty days after his death. Then, out of compassion for his soul, for thirty days they offered the Bloodless Sacrifice with prayer for him. On the last of these days, the deceased appeared in a vision to his surviving brother and said: “Until now I felt very bad, but now everything is fine: today I received communion.”

Mortal memory

"Die daily to live forever"

Die daily that you may live forever, for he who fears God will live forever.

Remember that your sins have reached their fullness, that your youth has already passed. The time has come, the time has come for your departure, the time in which you must give an account of your deeds. Know that there brother will not redeem brother, father will not free his son.

Preface your actions with the memory of your departure from the body and remember eternal condemnation. If you do this, you will never sin.

When each day comes, behave as if this day were the last in your life, and you will save yourself from sins.

Know: humility consists in considering all people better than yourself and being confident in your soul that you are burdened with sins more than anyone else. Keep your head bowed and let your tongue always be ready to say to those who reproach you: “My lord, forgive me.” Let death be the subject of your constant reflection.

Waking up from sleep, we will think that we will not live until the evening, and, going to bed again, we will think that we will not live until the morning, always remembering the unknown limit of our life. Living this way, we will neither sin, nor have lust for anything, nor become inflamed with anger at anyone, nor lay up treasures for ourselves on earth, but, expecting death every day, we will despise everything corruptible. Then carnal lust and every unclean desire will cool down in us, we will forgive each other everything and we will purify ourselves, always having before our eyes the expectation of the last hour and struggle. For the strong fear of death and Judgment, the fear of torment, raises the soul, which is sinking into the abyss of destruction.

Abba Evagrius:

Constantly keep in mind the death and Judgment that awaits you, and you will save your soul from sin.

Reverend Abba Isaiah:

Have death before your eyes every day. May you be constantly concerned about how you will be separated from the body, how you will be able to pass through the region of the powers of darkness that will meet you in the air, how you will appear safely before God. Prepare for the terrible day of answer at the Judgment of God, as if already seeing Him. Then all the deeds, words and thoughts of each of you will receive their reward, for everything is naked and open before the eyes of the One to whom we must present an account of our earthly life.

Sayings of nameless elders:

The elder said: a person who constantly has death before his eyes overcomes despondency.

Saint Basil the Great:

Whoever has the day and hour of death before his eyes and always thinks about justification at the infallible Judgment, will either not sin at all, or will sin very little, because we sin due to the absence of the fear of God in us.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

After death, no one will be able to heal with the memory of God the illness caused by sin, because confession has power on earth, but in hell it does not.

Saint John Chrysostom:

It is no coincidence that death entered our lives as a teacher of wisdom, cultivating the mind, taming the passions of the soul, calming the waves and establishing silence.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

The thought of death is inseparable from every person. But unbelievers use it poorly, regretting only the separation from the pleasures of life (and therefore hastily striving for pleasures). It helps believers to heal from shameful passions.

Come, brothers, look at this decay in the tombs. How powerfully death acts! How she destroys humanity and plunders it with contempt! She put Adam to shame and trampled upon the pride of the world. Humanity descended into Sheol, there it is given over to decay, but one day it will receive life. Renew your creation by resurrection, O Lord, full of generosity! Come, dear and beautiful ones, you will see a terrible sight in the tomb, this place of sorrow. All beauty decays there, every attire turns to dust, and instead of a fragrance, the stench of decay drives away everyone who comes... Come here, princes and strong people, giving in to pride, see to what humiliation our race has reached, and do not highly value your proud titles, they one end is death. Better than various wise books, dead bodies teach everyone who looks at them that every person will finally descend into this depth of humiliation. Come, ye glorious lands, magnified by their advantages, and look with us at this disgrace in Sheol. Some of them were once rulers, others were judges. They were called crowns and chariots, but now they are all trampled under foot, mixed into one heap of dust; just as their nature is the same, so is corruption. Bow your gaze to these coffins, young men and children, flaunting their clothes, proud of their beauty, and look at the disfigured faces and compositions, and think about this home of sorrows. A person does not stay in this world for long, and then he moves here. Therefore, hate vanity, it deceives its servants, crumbles into dust and does not achieve the end of its aspirations. Come, you crazy covetous people who collected heaps of gold, built stately houses and were proud of their estates... dreamed that the world you loved was already yours. Come and look into the tombs and see: there the poor and the rich are mixed together, as if they were one.

The king will not be saved by porphyry, precious stones and magnificent royal jewelry. The power of kings passes, and death puts their bodies in one heap and they disappear, as if they never existed. She takes the judges who carried out judgments and multiplied their sins. She takes for herself the rulers who reigned wickedly on earth. Suddenly he kidnaps the rich and the covetous, defeats the robbers and fills their mouths with dust. She also has a sailor who conquered the waves with wood; She also attracts to herself the sage who has not known true wisdom. There the wisdom of both the wise and the intelligent ceases, and the end of the wisdom of those who worked on calculating time comes. There the thief does not steal, his spoil lies next to him, slavery ends there, the slave lies next to his master. The farmer does not work there; death put an end to his work. The members of those who dreamed that the world had no end are tied. Death makes the arrogant and shamelessly looking lustful eyes droop. You don't need nice shoes there because your feet are tied. Clothes turn to dust there, bodies are bound by insoluble bonds. Neither houses, nor banqueting mansions, nor concubines go down to Sheol. The owners are taken from the world, but the houses are left to others. Neither acquisitions nor stolen wealth accompany us.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov:

Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, feasts in the evening, and it is already late; bright and cheerful. And he sees a certain hand of an invisible person signing his death warrant on the wall: “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” (Dan. 5:25). And Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was killed that night. Did he know the hour of his death, did he think that he would die that night? No! He hoped for a long life and endless happiness. Holofernes, the Assyrian commander, also rejoiced, drank to the health of the beautiful Judith, drank a lot to her love; fell asleep on the bed late in the evening and lost his head: the body remained on the bed, and the head was cut off by a woman’s hand and carried away far before the day dawned. Did he know the hour of his death, did he think that he would die that night? No, he hoped for another long life; He boasted to take the Jewish city of Bethulia by evening, like a bird, and devastate it with fire and sword, but the hour of death overtook him and did not allow him to rise from sleep.

The rich man of the Gospel, to whom the field brought abundant fruit, is sad, he is sad that he has nowhere to gather these fruits, and says: “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones... and I will say to my soul: soul, you have a lot of goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him: you fool! this night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared?” (Luke 12:18-20). I thought I would live a long time - and accidentally died; expected to live for many years - and did not live for one day. Oh, how unknown is the hour of death! Someone advises well: you don’t know where death awaits you, and therefore expect it in every place; If you don’t know what day and hour you will die, be prepared for death every day and every hour.

So, we will not make a mistake if we call death the universal teacher, for it cries out to everyone in the universe: you will die, you will die, you will not escape death by any tricks! Look at the corpse in the coffin and listen to what it silently informs you about: I was the same as you are now, but as I am now, so you will soon be; what has come for me now will come for you tomorrow: “Remember your end, and you will never sin” (Sir. 7:39); remember death so as not to sin mortally. This is the kind of teacher death is for us; death is a teacher.
The once enemy of God, Pharaoh, fell into grave sins; he did not want to let the people of Israel leave Egypt, but he reluctantly let them go. Who persuaded such a fierce one? Who softened the stone heart? Who taught you to let them go? The death of the firstborn Egyptians, killed everywhere in one night by the hand of an Angel; death was his teacher.

Saul was also bitter; When he heard from the prophet Samuel about death: “Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me,” he immediately fell to the ground and was afraid. Who taught this proud and fearless sinner humility and fear? Death was his teacher (1 Samuel 28:19-20).
Hezekiah fell ill, burdened with many sins, and the prophet of God Isaiah came to him and said: “You will die.” “And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the Lord... And Hezekiah wept greatly” (2 Kings 20, 1-3). Who taught him such heartfelt contrition and tender prayer? The word of the prophet: “you will die”; death was his teacher.

Some explain that the ashes of the youth, with which the Israelites were sprinkled, taught the memory of mortals, that everyone sprinkled with them was commanded to remember God’s words spoken to the first man, Adam: “dust you are, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19). We will pay attention to the following. The life-giving Blood and water, flowing from the most pure ribs of Christ, has the power to completely cleanse us from sins. At the same time, ashes are also needed, the memory of death. There are many who often partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, but lead faulty lives. Why? Because they do not learn mortal memory, do not think about death, and do not like this philosophy. Saint David described this perfectly: “they have no suffering until their death, and their strength is strong... That is why pride has surrounded them like a necklace, and insolence, like an outfit, dresses them... They mock everyone, they viciously divulge slander, they say from above; they lift up their lips to the heavens, and their tongue walks upon the earth" (Ps. 73:4, 6, 8, 9). This is how much evil happens because they do not learn from mortal memory and do not think about death...

“The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Sol. 5:2). If we want to know why this day is hidden and why it will come like this, “like a thief in the night,” then, it seems to me, I will fairly tell you about it. No one would ever take care of virtue throughout his entire life if this day were known and not hidden, but everyone, knowing his last day, would commit countless crimes and would already have approached the font on that day when he began to move away from of this world. If we, not knowing either the day or the hour of our end, despite the fear of waiting for it, decide to commit countless and serious sinful acts, then what would we not dare to do if we knew that we would still live many years on earth and would not die soon! And since we do not know when, on what day and hour we will die, we must spend every day as if we were expecting death every day, and when the day comes, think: “Will this day be the last of my life?” And when night falls, say to yourself: “Will this night be the last night of my stay among the living?” As you go to sleep at night, say to yourself mentally: “Will I get up from my bed alive? Will I still see the light of day? Or will this bed already be my coffin?” Likewise, when you wake up and see the first rays of daylight, think: “Will I live until the evening, before the night falls, or will the hour of death come for me during this day?” Thinking this way, spend the whole day as if you were already preparing to die, and in the evening, going to bed, correct your conscience as if you had to surrender your spirit to God that night. The sleep of the one who falls asleep in mortal sin is ruined. The sleep of one whose bed is surrounded by demons is not safe, waiting for an opportunity to drag the soul of a sinner into the valley of fire. It is bad for the one who went to sleep without being reconciled with God, for if in the case when we have offended our neighbor in some way, the apostle says: “Let not the sun go down on your anger” (Eph. 4:26), then even more so he who has angered God must take care that the sun does not set in the wrath of God, lest he fall asleep without being reconciled with God, for the hour of our death is unknown: lest sudden death snatch us away unprepared? Don’t say, man: tomorrow I will be reconciled with God, tomorrow I will repent, tomorrow I will correct myself; do not put off your conversion to God and repentance from day to day, for no one told you whether you will live until the evening.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

Do you see someone sentenced to death or a sick person near death? Reason and see what he does then. There is no concern for wealth, honor, glory, he does not seek judgment against anyone, he forgives everyone, no matter what he is offended by; does not think about luxury or anything related to this world. Only death stands before his spiritual eyes, the fear of death shakes his heart... This example and reasoning teaches you to always have the memory of death. She will teach you to always be in repentance; it will not allow you to collect wealth, seek honor and glory and be consoled by voluptuousness, it will extinguish the flame of impure lust... The fear of future Judgment and fear of torment binds the heart and does not allow you to want what is contrary to God, and leads to eternal Judgment, and the wavering and falling the soul is held and raised, for what God finds us in at our death is what He judges us in (Ezek. 18:20; 33:20). Blessed and wise is he who always remembers death.

Convince yourself that you will die, you will certainly die. You see how your brothers are carrying their dead out of their homes... This will certainly follow with you: “you are dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19). All the dead left everything they had; you will leave too. When they approached the hour of death, then they realized that everything in this world is “vanity... vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1, 2), that is, vanity in the strongest sense of the word. And you will understand this out of necessity when the hour of your death comes. It is better to understand this in advance and direct your activities in accordance with this concept... When the hour of death approaches, his entire past life is resurrected in the memory of the dying person, an impartial Judgment is ready for him, which will decide his fate for eternity; terrible trepidation and bewilderment surround him.
This will be your position when, having finished your earthly journey, you step onto the line separating the temporary from the eternal, the perishable from the imperishable.

Beloved! Constantly remember, constantly remember the hour of your death; This hour is terrible not only for sinners, but also for saints. The saints spent their entire lives thinking about death; the gaze of their minds and hearts was either directed at the gates of eternity, into the vast space that begins behind these gates, or they turned to their sinfulness, looking there, as if into a dark abyss. From a contrite heart, from a sorrowing heart, they poured out the warmest and unceasing prayers to God for mercy.

Saint Theophan the Recluse:

“Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and lest that day come upon you suddenly” (Luke 21:34). “That day,” that is, the last day of the world for each of us, comes like a thief and seizes us like a net; That’s why the Lord commands: “Watch at all times and pray” (Luke 21:36). And since satiety and over-concern are the first enemies of vigil and prayer, it is indicated in advance not to allow yourself to become burdened with food, drink and the worries of everyday life. Whoever ate, drank, had fun, went to bed, slept and did the same thing again, why should there be a vigil? Whoever is busy day and night with the same things of life has no time for prayer? “What do you say we should do? You can’t live without food, and you have to get it. That’s the concern.” Yes, the Lord did not say: do not work, do not eat, do not drink, but “so that your hearts are not burdened with this. Work with your hands, and keep your heart free; eat, eat, but do not burden yourself with food; and drink wine when necessary, but Do not allow your head and heart to be disturbed. Separate your outer from your inner, and make the latter the work of your life, and the first an ancillary thing: there be with your attention and heart, but here only with your body, hands, feet and eyes, stay awake at all times and pray and you will be worthy; fearlessly “to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). “that day” will not suddenly come upon him.

“Watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). If this were remembered, there would be no sinners, but meanwhile, I don’t remember, although everyone knows that this is undoubtedly true. Even the most strict ascetics were not strong enough to freely retain the memory of this, but managed to attach it to their consciousness so that it would not leave: some kept the coffin in their cells, some begged their companions in the feat to ask him about the coffin and grave, some held pictures of death and Judgment, who else? Death does not concern the soul - it does not remember it. But what immediately follows death cannot completely touch the soul; She cannot help but care about this, since this is the decision of her fate forever and ever. Why doesn't she remember this? She’s deceiving herself that it won’t be soon and that maybe somehow things won’t go badly for us. Poor thing! There is no doubt that the soul that holds such thoughts is careless and indulges itself; So how can she think that the case of the Court will go well for her? No, you have to behave like a student who is about to take an exam: no matter what he does, the exam won’t leave his mind; Such mindfulness does not allow him to waste even a minute in vain, and he uses all the time to prepare for the exam. If only we could tune in like that!

“Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (Luke 12:35). You must be prepared at every hour: it is unknown when the Lord will come either for the final Judgment, or to take you away from here, which is all the same to you. Death decides everything; behind her is the result of life; and whatever you acquire, be content with it for all eternity. If you have acquired good things, your lot will be good; evil is evil. This is as true as it is true that you exist. And all this can be decided this very minute, right at this very moment in which you are reading these lines, and then - the end of everything: a seal will be placed on your being, which no one can remove. There is something to think about!.. But one cannot be surprised at how little one thinks about it. What kind of mystery is happening to us? We all know that death is just around the corner, that it cannot be avoided, and yet almost no one thinks about it at all; and she will come suddenly and grab you. And what’s more... even when a mortal illness seizes you, you still don’t think that the end has come. Let psychologists from the scientific side decide this; From a moral point of view, one cannot help but see here an incomprehensible self-delusion, alien only to those who pay attention to themselves.

When getting into a boat to cross to the other side of the lake, did the apostles think that they would encounter a storm and put their lives in danger? Meanwhile, a storm suddenly arose and they no longer expected to remain alive (Luke 8:22-25). This is the path of our life! You don’t know how and where trouble will come from that can destroy us. Now air, now water, now fire, now an animal, now a man, now a bird, now a house - in a word, everything around us can suddenly turn into an instrument of our death. Hence the law: live in such a way that every minute you are ready to face death and fearlessly enter its realm. You are alive this minute, but who knows whether you will be alive the next? Hold yourself according to this thought. Do everything that you should, according to the order of your life, but do not forget that you can move to a country from where there is no return. Forgetting about this will not delay a certain hour, and deliberately banishing this decisive revolution from thought will not diminish the eternal significance of what will happen to us after it. Having surrendered your life and everything you own into the hands of God, spend hour after hour with the thought that each of them is the last hour. This will make life less enjoyable; and in death this deprivation will be incalculably rewarded with joy, which has nothing equal in the joys of life.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

To remember death, one must lead a life in accordance with the commandments of Christ. The commandments of Christ purify the mind and heart, mortify them for the world, and quicken them for Christ. The mind, detached from earthly attachments, often begins to turn its gaze to its mysterious transition into eternity.

If we are not able to desire death because of our coldness towards Christ and our love for corruption, then at least we will use the memory of death as a bitter medicine against our sinfulness, because mortal memory... having become assimilated into the soul, cuts off its friendship with sin, with all the sinful pleasures.

“The memory of death is a gift from God,” said the fathers. It is given to the performer of Christ’s commandments in order to perfect him in the holy feat of repentance and salvation.

The blessed memory of death is preceded by one’s own efforts to remember death. Force yourself to remember death often... and the memory of death will begin to come by itself, appearing in your mind... It will strike with deadly blows all your sinful undertakings.

After forcibly teaching oneself through memories of death, the merciful Lord sends a living foreboding of it, and it comes to help the ascetic of Christ during his prayer.

Constant remembrance of death is a wondrous grace, the lot of the saints of God, especially those who have given themselves over to thorough repentance in indestructible silence.

A person who began to cry at the memory of death, as at the memory of an execution, suddenly begins to cry at this memory, as at the memory of returning to his priceless fatherland - such is the fruit of remembering death.

The memory of death accompanies the humble man on the path of earthly life, teaches him to act on earth for eternity and... his very actions inspire him with special beneficence.
The living Jesus Prayer is inseparable from the living remembrance of death; living remembrance of death is associated with living prayer to the Lord Jesus, who abolished death by death.

Saving for us, deadly for sin is the memory of death born of sin.

Otechnik:

The brother asked Abba Pimen what kind of work a monk should do. Abba answered: “When Abraham came to the promised land, he bought himself a coffin and from the coffin he began to take possession of the promised land.” The brother asked: “What is the significance of the coffin?” Abba answered: “This is a place of crying and weeping.”

The brother asked the elder: “What should I do? Unclean thoughts are killing me.” The elder answered: “When a woman wants to wean her son, she anoints her nipples with something bitter. The baby is attracted to the nipples according to custom, but, feeling the bitterness, turns away from them. And mix bitterness into your thoughts.” The brother asked: “What is the bitterness that I must mix in?” The elder answered: “Memory of death and the torment that is prepared for sinners in the next century.”

Death of the soul

“You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1)

When you hear: “death of the soul,” do not think that the soul dies like the body. No, she's immortal. The death of the soul is sin and eternal torment. Therefore, Christ says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). The lost remains only at a distance from the face of the One who destroyed.

The death of the soul is wickedness and lawless life.

Just as many of the living are dead, burying their soul in their body as if in a grave, so many of the deceased live, shining with truth.

There is physical death, and there is also spiritual death. To undergo the first is not scary and not sinful, because it is a matter of nature, and not of good will, a consequence of the first fall... The other death is spiritual, since it comes from the will, exposes responsibility and has no excuse.

St. Augustine:

Although the human soul is truly called immortal, and it has a kind of death... Death occurs when God leaves the soul... This death is followed by another death, which in Divine Scripture is called the second. The Savior had this in mind when he said: “Fear more the One who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). This death is more painful and terrible than all evils, for it does not consist in the separation of the soul from the body, but in their union for eternal torment.

Reverend Abba Isaiah:

A soul that has deviated from its immaculate nature dies. The soul that has achieved Christian perfection abides in this nature. If she turns to actions contrary to nature, she dies immediately.

Venerable Macarius of Egypt:

Without the Spirit of God, the soul is dead and without the Spirit cannot do the things of God.

Just as the soul is the life of the body, so in the eternal and heavenly world the life of the soul is the Spirit of God.

True death is in the heart, and it is hidden; the inner man dies with it.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa:

When a person, having abandoned the full fruitfulness of blessings, disobediently became satisfied with corruptive fruit, the name of this fruit being mortal sin, then he immediately died for a better life, exchanging the divine life for an unreasonable and bestial one. And since death was once mingled with nature, it entered into those who were born by succession. Because of this, we were also absorbed by deathly life, since our life itself had in some way died. For in the literal sense, our life is dead, devoid of immortality. Therefore, between these two lives, the one who realizes himself between two lives occupies the middle, so that by destroying the worse he can achieve victory for the one who has not suffered change. And just as a person, by dying for true life, fell into this dead life, so when he dies for this dead and bestial life, he is put into an always living life. And therefore, there is no doubt that it is impossible to come to a blessed life without killing yourself to sin.

Venerable Simeon the New Theologian:

Corruption of the soul is a deviation to crossroads from straight and right wisdom; It was right wisdom that was corrupted and corrupted, desiring everything evil. For when right thoughts are corrupted, immediately, like thorns and thistles, the seeds of evil sprout in the soul. Thus, just as worms multiply in a dead body, so in a soul that has been deprived of Divine grace, the following multiply like worms: envy, deceit, lies, hatred, enmity, abuse, rancor, slander, anger, rage, sadness, vanity, revenge, pride , arrogance, disgrace, covetousness, theft, untruth, unreasonable lust, slander, gossip, contentiousness, reproach, ridicule, love of glory, perjury, curses, forgetfulness of God, insolence, shamelessness and all other evils hated by God; so that man ceased to be the image and likeness of God, as he was created in the beginning, but began to be the image and likeness of the devil, from whom is all evil.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

No death is so terrible as the death of a wicked sinner. His wickedness kindles an unquenchable flame, despair and hopelessness. Deliver us, Lord, from such death and have mercy according to Your goodness.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

There are three types of death: physical, spiritual and eternal. Corporal death consists of the separation of the soul from the body. This death is common to all, righteous and sinful, and is inevitable, as we see. God's Word speaks about this death: “it is appointed for men to die once” (Heb. 9:27). The second death is eternal, by which condemned sinners will forever die, but can never die; They will want to turn into nothing because of cruel and unbearable torment, but they will not be able to. Christ says about this death: “But the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). The third death is spiritual, by which all who do not believe in Christ, the true Life and Source of Life, are dead. Likewise, Christians who confess God and Christ, the Son of God, but live lawlessly, are dead by this death.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov:

Do you know what spiritual death is? Mental death is a grave, mortal sin, for which a person will suffer forever in hell. Why is grave sin death for the soul? But because it takes God away from the soul, by whom only it can live, for just as the life of the body is the soul, so the life of the soul is God, and just as a body without a soul is dead, so a soul without God is also dead. And although a sinful man walks, being alive in his body, his soul, which does not have God as its life, is dead. That is why Saint Callistus, Patriarch of Constantinople, says: “Many in a living body have a dead soul, buried as if in a tomb.” The coffin is the body, and the dead is the soul. The coffin moves, but the soul in it is lifeless, that is, godless, for it does not have God in itself. Thus, a living body carries a dead soul within itself.

If anyone does not believe what I have said, let him listen to the words of the Lord Himself. He once appeared to His beloved disciple John and said to him: “Write to the Angel of the Sardinian Church: ... I know your works; you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). Let us heed the words of the Lord: He calls a worthy, holy man with the rank of Angel, “Angel of the Sardinian Church,” alive, but considers him dead: “you bear a name as if you were alive, but you are dead.” Alive in name, but actually dead; holy in name, but dead in deeds; in name an Angel, but in deeds he is not like an Angel, but an adversary. He is alive in body, but dead in soul. Why? The reason for this is explained by the Lord Himself: “for I do not find that your works are perfect before My God” (Rev. 3:2). Oh, how scary and terrible this is! That earthly Angel had some good deeds, apparently had a holy life, was considered and called by people an Angel, and even the Lord Himself does not take away his angelic titles and calls him an Angel. But since he is not completely virtuous, not completely holy, not completely an Angel in the flesh, but only in name and opinion an Angel, holy and virtuous, but in deeds it is completely different, that is why God considers him dead. What can we, sinners, think about ourselves, not having a single good deed, but wallowing in incessant sins, like pigs in a swamp? How will we appear before God if not dead? Will the Lord not say these words to us: “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead”?

Why was Jairus late? Because he was careless and lazy. His daughter got sick. He hears that the Great Physician has come to their city, healing all kinds of diseases with a word or a touch, and even free of charge, not demanding anything except faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and Jairus says to himself: I will also go to that Doctor, worship Him and ask Him to come to my house and heal my only daughter. Jairus thought well, but did not do it right away: being careless and lazy, he put off coming to Jesus day by day, hour by hour, saying: “Tomorrow I will go.” When the morning came, he said again: I’ll go tomorrow, and then again: I’ll go tomorrow. When he put it off from day to day, the illness in the girl intensified, and the hour of death came to his daughter, and she died. Here I have something to do with Jairus.
In the face of his daughter, who was ill and died, the image of our spiritual death is shown. For when any sinful desire comes to a person either by accident, or from natural weakness, or from the devil’s temptation, then his soul is sick. And just as a sick person in body is between hope and despair, for he either hopes to recover, or, not hoping to recover, expects death, so the soul is between committing a sin and abstaining from it. She sways with confusion, like a reed in the wind, when, on the one hand, conscience forbids sin, and on the other, sinful desire draws him to a planned evil deed. When, in this doubt, he begins to gradually lean more towards desire, which pushes him to sin, than to conscience, which forbids sin, then illness begins, and he is sick until lawlessness gives birth. When he comes to the firstfruits of sin, he begins to die; when sin is finally committed, then grace is taken away from him, and he becomes dead. For just as the soul is the life of the body, so grace is life for the soul, and just as the body becomes dead after the departure of the soul, so the soul becomes dead after God’s grace is taken from it through sin. In the person of Jairus himself, an image of our negligence is shown, an example is shown of the fact that we are looking for a spiritual doctor for our soul not at the time when it begins to suffer from sinful desires, not at the time when it is already beginning to die, that is, to touch the sinful body, and not even when she is already dying. When? In this respect we are even worse than Jairus. After all, he turned to Jesus when his daughter was dying, or, as St. Matthew says, when she had just died. We are in no hurry to turn to Jesus and pray to Him for the resurrection of our soul, even when it has long been dead and frozen, when it smells of sinful carrion and has rotted. We even increase its deadness every day, repeating the same falls. We do not care about resurrecting through repentance from spiritual death into a life of grace, but we put off our repentance from morning to morning, day by day and hour by hour. The young man puts off repentance until he is old, and the old man puts it off until the time when he begins to suffer from death: then, he says, I will repent. O crazy one! Do you really want to repent when you are completely exhausted in both spirit and body?

The death of the soul is separation from God, that is, deprivation of the presence of God's grace, which occurs through mortal sin. For just as for the body life is the soul, so for the soul life is God. And just as after the separation of the soul from the body, the body dies, so when God’s grace departs from the soul, the soul becomes dead. In agreement with this, Saint Callistus says: “Many have dead souls in their living bodies, as if buried in a tomb.” Let us listen: he calls the body of a sinful person a living tomb for a dead soul. And it's true! For Christ the Lord, denouncing the hypocritical Pharisees, says in the Gospel: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside seem beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).

For what reason does the grace of God depart from the soul (as the soul does from the body) and makes the soul dead? Everyone knows that the reason for this is sin. For just as physical death entered human bodies through the sin of Adam, so through sin spiritual death enters our souls. Physical death entered once through the sin of Adam, and spiritual death enters many times through our sins. How many times we sin, and commit grave mortal sins, the same number of times the grace of God is taken away from our souls, and our souls become dead. This is what spiritual death consists of.
What is the resurrection of the soul? The resurrection of the soul is the return of God's grace to the human soul. For just as during the General Resurrection, when souls return to their bodies, all bodies will immediately come to life, so in our present sinful life, when the grace of God returns to our souls, our souls will immediately be revived. And this is the resurrection of the soul.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

Insensibility is implanted into the soul by a world hostile to God and by fallen angels hostile to God... with the assistance of our will. It grows and is strengthened by life according to the principles of the world; it grows and strengthens from following the fallen mind and will, from abandoning the service of God and from careless service to God.

The holy fathers call the state of imaginary calmness insensibility, mortification of the soul, death of the mind before the death of the body.

Insensibility is all the more terrible because the person possessing it does not understand his distressed state: he is seduced and blinded by conceit and self-satisfaction.

Our destruction was accomplished through the destruction of our communication with God and through entering into communication with fallen and rejected spirits. Our salvation lies in breaking off fellowship with Satan and restoring fellowship with God.

By the fall, both the soul and the human body changed... The fall was also death for them... Death is only the separation of the soul from the body, which had already been killed by the departure from them of True Life, God.

Our state is sad... It is eternal death, healed and destroyed by the Lord Jesus, Who is the Resurrection and Life.

Forgetting about physical death, we die a spiritual death.

Man is a fallen creature. He was cast down to earth from paradise, for he attracted death to himself by transgressing the commandment of God. Death by crime struck the soul of a person and incurably infected his body.

A soul that does not bear fruit in Christ, that remains in its fallen nature, that bears the barren fruit of natural good and is content with it, does not attract Divine care for itself. She is cut off by death in due course.

Addiction to the earth mortifies the soul with eternal death. The soul is revived by the word of God, which... lifts its thoughts and feelings to Heaven.

Temptations, when a weak person stands face to face with them, kill him with eternal death.

Woe to me if the spirit, when separated from the body, finds itself slain by eternal death.

Saint John Chrysostom:

It is bitter to fall into Gehenna, and reminders of it, which seem unbearable, protect us from this misfortune. In addition, they provide us with another service - they accustom our spirit to concentration, make us more reverent, elevate our minds, give wings to our thoughts, drive away the evil host of lusts that besiege us, and thus heal our soul.

For this purpose, the devil convinces some to think that there is no Gehenna to cast into it.

We are in such a difficult situation that, if it were not for the fear of Gehenna, we would probably not even think of doing anything good.

For this reason, we constantly remind you of Gehenna, in order to move everyone towards the Kingdom, in order to soften your hearts with fear, to dispose you to deeds worthy of the Kingdom.

If we constantly thought about Gehenna, we would not soon fall into it. This is why God threatens punishment... Since the memory of Gehenna can contribute to the proper execution of great deeds, the Lord, as if some kind of saving medicine, sowed a formidable thought about it in our souls.

And Christ constantly talked about Gehenna, because although it saddens the listener, it also brings him the greatest benefit.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

Descend now with your mind to hell, so as not to descend there later with your soul and body. The memory of Gehenna will not allow one to fall into Gehenna.

Resurrection of the soul

The resurrection of the soul is its union with Life, which is Christ. Just as a dead body, unless it receives and merges with the soul in some unfused way, does not exist and is not called alive and cannot live, so the soul cannot live on its own, unless it is united by an ineffable union and is not united in an unfused way with God, Who truly is Eternal Life. And only when she unites with God and is thus resurrected by the power of Christ, will she be worthy to see the mental and mysteriously economic Resurrection of Christ.

Through the communication, perception and communion of the God-man Jesus, the soul is again quickened and perceives its original incorruption by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, acceptable through communication with Jesus, and shows signs of the new life it has received, beginning to serve God in honor and righteousness before His eyes, and not of people.
Many believe in the Resurrection of Christ, but there are few who see it purely. Those who do not see the Resurrection of Christ in this way cannot worship Jesus Christ as Lord.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

Do not allow your soul to die of hunger, but feed it with the word of God, psalms, singing and spiritual songs, reading the Holy Scriptures, fasting, vigils, tears and alms, hope and thoughts about future blessings, eternal and incorruptible. All this and the like is food and life for the soul.

Saint John Chrysostom:

The life of the soul is service to God and morals worthy of this service.

Just as you provide the body with various clothes... so do not allow the soul to walk naked - without good deeds, dress it in decent clothes.

When a fornicator becomes chaste, a self-seeking person becomes merciful, a cruel person becomes meek, then this is also the resurrection, which serves as the beginning of the Resurrection of the Future... Sin was killed, and righteousness was resurrected, the old life was abolished, and a new life, the Gospel, began.

Such is the life of the spirit: it no longer submits to death, but destroys and destroys death and preserves immortal what it has received.

Chastity and truth are the beauty of the soul, and courage and prudence are its health.

Venerable Isidore Pelusiot:

The resurrection of the soul, killed by sins, takes place here when it is reborn into life by deeds of righteousness. By killing the soul we must understand doing something bad, and not destroying it into non-existence.

Saint Ambrose of Milan:

"Jesus went to a city called Nain; and with Him went many of His disciples and a multitude of people. And when He approached the city gate, they carried out a dead man, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and many people went with her from city. Seeing her, the Lord took pity on her and said to her: “Don’t cry.” And he came and touched the Odra” (Luke 7:11-14). Beloved brethren in Christ! Who among us does not see from the words of the Gospel how a mother weeping for her son bowed down to the merciful God, a mother whose heart was torn by grief over the death of her only son, for whose burial, out of respect for her, many people had gathered? Of course, this woman was not one of the ordinary ones, for she was honored to see her son resurrected. What does this mean? Is it not that all the sons of the Holy Orthodox Church should be completely confident in their Future Resurrection? The Savior forbade the woman to cry because he wanted to resurrect her son.
The deceased was carried on a wooden bed, “which received life-giving power from the touch of the Savior, as a sign that every person can be saved through the Life-giving Tree of the Cross.

Those who were carrying the mortal body to burial, hearing the word of God, immediately stopped. Brethren, are we not the same dead men? Are we not also lying lifeless on a bed of mental illness, when our insides are scorched by the fire of voluptuousness; when our zeal for God grows cold; When do bodily infirmities weaken our spiritual strength, or when do we harbor unclean thoughts in our hearts? This is who carries us to the burial, this is what brings us closer to the grave!
Although death deprives the deceased of all hope of returning to life, although his body sinks into the grave, the Word of God is so life-giving, so powerful that it can restore life to a lifeless body, for as soon as the Savior said: “Young man, I tell you, get up!” (Luke 7:14), the young man got up, left the coffin, began to speak and returned to his mother. But what kind of coffin is this, brothers? Are these our evil morals? Is this not the tomb of which Scripture speaks: “their throat is an open tomb” (Ps. 5:10), from which come rotten and dead words? Christian! Jesus Christ frees you from this tomb; You too must rise from this grave of sensuality as soon as you hear the word of God.

When we do not try to wash away our sins with tears of repentance, then our mother, the Holy Church, mourns us in the same way as the Nain widow mourned her only begotten son. Seeing that we are burdened with mortal sins, striving for eternal death, she grieves in spirit and is pained by our destruction, because we are called her womb, as can be seen from the words of the apostle, who says: “So, brother, let me take advantage of you in Lord; rest my heart in the Lord" (Phil. 1:20). We are flesh of flesh and bone of her bones, and when this loving mother laments for us, then many people will sympathize with us with her. Christian, rise from the bed of your spiritual illness, rise from the grave of your spiritual deadness. And then those bearing to bury you will stop, then you too will utter the words of Eternal Life - and everyone will be afraid, for the example of one can serve to correct many; everyone will glorify God, who has given us His great mercy and delivered us from eternal death.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov:

How grave, mortal and great sin takes away God from the soul, by whom it is fitting to live, and makes the soul dead, this is clearly seen in the example of the prodigal son, who is described in the Gospel parable. When he returned to his father, his father said about him: “This son of mine was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:24).

“A certain man had two sons,” says the Gospel (Luke 15:11). Likewise, God, who became man out of His love for mankind, also has two rational creatures, an Angel and a man, as two sons. The angel is His eldest son, created before man and placed above man both in place and by grace. Man is the youngest son and was created later, but if he is less than the Angels, then he is not much less: “You have made him less than the Angels” (Ps. 8:6).

The younger son, while he lived with his father and was not a prodigal, but his stepfather's son, was a worthy heir. But when he “went to a far side and there squandered his substance, living dissolutely” (Lk. 15:13), then he was called a prodigal son, and at the same time dead. Likewise, a person, as long as he holds on to God, his Creator and Life-Giver, by whom he lives and moves and exists, until then he does not appear before God as a dead soul, until then God lives in his soul, until then his soul is revived by God’s grace . But as soon as a person turns away from God and from the virtuous life befitting a true Christian, as soon as he deviates towards nasty iniquities, God immediately separates from his soul, departs from him with His life-giving grace, departs like a bee driven away by smoke, driven away by the stench of sin, and that soul becomes dead. About such a person we can say that he is dead: “you bear a name as if you were alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1).

“Just as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me” (John 15:4).

“And let us not again lay the foundation of conversion from dead works” (Heb. b. 1); and Judas was a miracle worker until he fell into the sin of love of money. Jacob the Hermit was a miracle worker until he fell into carnal sin with a girl, whom he freed from demon possession. Priest Sarpiky was a martyr, and as soon as he became embittered with anger and did not forgive his brother, he was immediately torn away from Christ.

Likewise, the soul is alive and active until it is torn away from God for sins; when, because of the Fall, she is torn away from God, she immediately becomes dead and ineffective. Is it not appropriate for such a dead person, that is, a soul killed by sins, to be resurrected? It is appropriate, and not even once, but often. Only once will there be a Resurrection of dead bodies, which we expect on the Last Day, according to the Symbol: “I hope for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the next century”; the resurrection of the soul is repeated often. What is the resurrection of the soul? Holy Repentance, for just as sin is death for the soul, so repentance is resurrection for the soul. After all, about the prodigal son, when he turned to his father in repentance, “it is said: “This son of mine was dead and is alive again” (Luke 15:24). While he was away from his father, in a sinful land, he was dead when but he returned, repenting, and was immediately resurrected in soul: “he was dead and came to life.” We said that this resurrection is often repeated with the soul, for when a person sins, he dies in soul, and when he repents, he is resurrected, according to these words: how many times will you fall? , so rise and be saved.

So, the real holiday of the Resurrection of Christ teaches us to rise from spiritual death, that is, to repent of sins; teaches not just to be resurrected, but to be resurrected following the example of Christ, as the Apostle teaches: “Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more: death no longer has power over Him” (Rom. 6:9). Likewise, we need to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

Truly a great and great miracle is that the Lord Christ raised a four-day-old man who had already begun to rot, but an even greater miracle of Christ is that He resurrects a great sinner, dead in soul and already rotting for a long time in an evil custom, as if in a grave. and leads him to Eternal Life in Heaven. To resurrect the body is a property of God’s omnipotence, but to resurrect the soul, that is, to raise a sinner to repentance from mortal sins and lead him to righteousness, is a property not only of God’s omnipotence, but also of great mercy and great wisdom. However, neither the wisdom of God, nor the mercy of God, nor the omnipotence of God will be able to resurrect the soul of a sinner, unless the sinner himself wants it.

It is not in vain that God in one place says to the sinner: I was able to create you without you, but I cannot save you without you. I didn’t ask anyone how to create you: I wanted - and I created you. How to save you, I ask you myself, as I asked the paralytic.
Do you want to be healthy? Do you want to be saved? If you yourself want, then My wisdom will guide you, My mercy will have mercy on you, and My omnipotence will help you and save you. If you yourself do not want salvation, if you yourself are running away from Eternal Life, if you love your destruction more than salvation, then neither My wisdom, nor My mercy, nor My omnipotence will help you. Can warm wax stick to ice? No way! So My mercy, My wisdom and all My power cannot stick to you if your heart is cold as ice and has no warmth of saving desire. Whenever you want to be saved, I will gladly help you. Then My Angels will rejoice and triumph over you: “There is joy among the Angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10).

So, now it is clearly visible how much greater the triumph and miracle of Christ is to resurrect the soul of a sinner who has died in sins than to resurrect a four-day-old dead man.
Our Lord Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from bodily death, but Lazarus died again, although many years later. When He resurrected the soul of a sinful woman who was crying at His feet, this soul was already immortal. She who, like cattle, labored through dumb lusts, became an accomplice of the Angels... Let us firmly remember that He rejoices and triumphs not so much over the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, but rather because He foresaw the salvation of many sinners, whom He would resurrect from His grace. mental death.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk:

Christ is risen; We also need to be resurrected with Christ in order to ascend to Heaven with Him. Resurrection is twofold: bodily and spiritual. The bodily Resurrection will be on the Last Day; We speak about this in the holy Creed: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.” To be spiritually resurrected means to lag behind sins, and to turn away from the vanity of the world, and to be in true repentance and faith, to struggle against all sin, to do the will of the Heavenly Father, to live His righteousness and to follow Christ, the Son of God, with humility, love, meekness and patience. This is the new creation about which the apostle speaks: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17); a new man, renewed by repentance and faith, a true Christian, a living member of Christ and an heir to the Kingdom of God.

Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov):

The first resurrection is accomplished through two Sacraments, Baptism and Repentance... The performer of the resurrection is the Holy Spirit.
Christ is resurrected in a person prepared for this, and the grave - the heart is again transformed into the temple of God. Resurrect, Lord, save me, my God - in this mysterious and at the same time essential resurrection of Yours lies my salvation.

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian:

Those who wish to completely avoid eternal Gehenna, in which sinners are tormented, and to gain the eternal Kingdom, here constantly endure the sorrows of Gehenna, due to temptations brought by the evil one (for deeds of piety). And if they endure to the end, expecting the Lord’s mercy with faith, then by grace they are delivered from temptations and sorrows, rewarded with internal communion with the Holy Spirit, and there they will be delivered from eternal Gehenna and inherit the eternal Kingdom of the Lord.

Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow:

Although the patriarchs, prophets and righteous people of the Old Testament were not plunged into the deep darkness in which the unbelievers and the wicked are mired, they did not emerge from the shadow of death and did not enjoy the full light. They had the seed of light, that is, faith in the coming Christ, but only His actual coming to them and the touch of His Divine Light could light their lamps with the light of true heavenly life.

What did hell become after Christ was resurrected after descending into it? The fortress into which the winner entered under the guise of a prisoner; a prison where the gates are broken and the guards are scattered. This is truly, according to Christ’s depiction, a monster that swallowed up the prophet thrown from the ship, but instead of devouring and destroying him, it became for him another, although not so calm, ship as to carry him to the shore of life and safety. Now it becomes clear how someone hoped to pass safely through hell itself: “Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 22:4). You came down from Heaven for us, like us you walked on earth, and like us you descended into the shadow of death, so that from there you could pave the way for Your followers to the light of life.

Saint Mark of Ephesus:

“We affirm that neither the righteous have yet fully accepted their lot and that blissful state for which they prepared themselves here through works; nor the sinners, after death, have been relegated to eternal punishment, in which they will suffer forever; but even then and something else must necessarily happen after that last day of Judgment and the resurrection of all; now both of them are in their proper places: the first are in perfect peace and free in heaven with the Angels and before God Himself, and already, as it were, in paradise. , from which Adam fell, but the prudent thief entered before others - and they often visit us in those churches where they are revered, and listen to those who call on them and pray to God for them, having received this hefty gift from Him, and through their relics they work miracles, and enjoy the contemplation of God and the illumination sent from there, more completely and more purely than before, when they were in life; the latter, in turn, imprisoned in hell, remain “in the dark places and the shadow of death, in the pit of the grave,” as David says. [Ps. 87, 7], and then Job: “Into a dark and gloomy land, into a land of eternal darkness, where there is no light, below the belly of man can be seen” [Job. 10, 22]. And the first ones are in all joy and gladness, already expecting and only not yet having in their hands the promised Kingdom and unspeakable blessings; and the latter, on the contrary, remain in all sorts of cramped conditions and inconsolable suffering, like some condemned people awaiting the Judge’s verdict and foreseeing such torment. And neither the first have yet accepted the inheritance of the Kingdom and those blessings, “for which no eye has seen, nor an ear heard, nor has the heart of man sighed,” nor the second have yet been given over to eternal torment and burning in an unquenchable fire. And we have this teaching handed down from our Fathers from ancient times and can easily imagine from the Divine Scriptures themselves." (Second word about cleansing fire)

Extracts from the Holy Fathers on death

Death deliverance from the evil infinity of the sinful life of fallen man

The man suffered death, but even in this case God showed him a great benefit, namely by not leaving him to remain in sin forever. God expelled man from paradise, as if into exile, so that man, within a certain time, would cleanse his sin and, admonished by punishment, be returned to paradise again. If a defect is discovered in a vessel just made, it is refilled or remade so that it becomes new and whole; the same thing happens to a person in death. For this reason, he is crushed by its power, so that during the resurrection he may appear healthy, that is, pure, righteous and immortal. Theophilus of Antioch.

After his fall, the first man lived for many hundreds of years. But God did not lie when he said: “On the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), for because man fell away from true life, the sentence of death was fulfilled on him on that same day, and a few years later physical death befell Adam. Saint Gregory of Nyssa.

For sin, the Lord graciously established death; Adam was expelled from paradise, so that he would no longer dare to touch the tree that constantly supports life, and would not sin endlessly. This means that expulsion from paradise is more a matter of God’s care for man than of anger. Saint John Chrysostom.

Although the first parents lived for many more years, as soon as they heard that they were: “You are dust and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:19), they became mortal, and from then on it could be said that they died. In this sense, it is said in Scripture: “on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17), that is, you will hear the verdict that from now on you are already mortal. Saint John Chrysostom.

By death the Lawgiver stops the spread of sin and in the very punishment he shows his love for mankind. Since He, giving the commandment, connected death with its crime, and since the criminal fell under this punishment, He arranges it so that the punishment itself serves salvation. For death destroys our animal nature and thus, on the one hand, stops the action of evil, and on the other, it saves a person from illness, frees him from work, stops his sorrows and worries and ends his suffering. With such love for humanity the Judge dissolved the very punishment. Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

You have shortened the duration of our life; its longest term is seventy years. But we sin before You seventy times seven. By mercy You have shortened our days so that the series of our sins does not lengthen. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

By the fall, both the soul and the body of man changed... The fall was also death for them... death is only the separation of the soul from the body, which had already been killed by the departure of True Life, God, from them.

Death is a great mystery. She is the birth of a person from earthly, temporary life into eternity. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

And the body continues to exist, although we see that it is destroyed and turns into the earth from which it was taken; it continues to exist in its very corruption, it continues to exist in corruption, like a seed in the ground. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

By death, a person is painfully cut and torn into two parts, his components, and after death there is no longer a person: his soul exists separately, and his body exists separately. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

In the proper sense, the separation of the soul from the body is not death, it is only a consequence of death. There is death incomparably more terrible! There is death - the beginning and source of all human illnesses: mental and physical, and the severe illness that we exclusively call death. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

And the sinners will go into everlasting torment, and the righteous into everlasting joy.

Don’t you know, my brothers, what fear and what suffering we are subjected to at the hour of departure from this life when the soul is separated from the body?.. Good Angels and the Heavenly Army approach the soul, as well as all... the opposing forces and princes of darkness. Both want to take the soul or assign it a place. If the soul acquired good qualities here, led an honest life and was virtuous, then on the day of its departure these virtues, which it acquired here, become good Angels surrounding it, and do not allow any opposing force to touch it. In joy and joy, with the holy Angels, they take her and carry her to Christ, the Lord and King of Glory, and worship Him together with her and with all the Heavenly Powers. Finally, the soul is taken to a place of rest, to unspeakable joy, to eternal light, where there is no sorrow, no sighing, no tears, no worries, where there is immortal life and eternal joy in the Kingdom of Heaven with all others who have pleased God. If the soul in this world lived shamefully, indulging in the passions of dishonor and being carried away by carnal pleasures and the vanity of this world, then on the day of its departure the passions and pleasures that it acquired in this life become crafty demons and surround the poor soul, and do not allow one to approach her Angels of God; but together with the opposing forces, the princes of darkness, they take her, pitiful, shedding tears, sad and lamenting, and take her to dark places, gloomy and sad, where sinners await the day of Judgment and eternal torment, when the devil and his angels will be cast down. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

There is great fear at the hour of death, when the soul is separated from the body with horror and sorrow, because at this hour the soul will be presented with its deeds, good and evil, done by it day and night. The angels will hasten to pluck it out, and the soul, seeing its deeds, is afraid to leave the body. The soul of a sinner is separated from the body with fear and goes with trepidation to stand before the immortal Judgment Seat. The one forced to leave the body, looking at her deeds, says with fear: “Give me at least one hour of time...” But her deeds, having gathered together, answer the soul: “You made us, with you we will go to God.” Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

The torment of the sinner's repentance at death exceeds even the fear of death and separation. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

The day will come, brothers, the day will certainly come and will not pass us by, in which a person will leave everything and everyone and go alone, abandoned by everyone, ashamed, naked, helpless, without an intercessor, unprepared, unrequited, if only this day overtakes him in negligence: “on a day in which he does not expect, and in an hour in which he does not think” (Matthew 24:50), when he is having fun, collecting treasures, and living in luxury. For suddenly one hour will come and everything will end; a little fever and everything will turn into vanity and vanity; one deep, dark, painful night and the person will go, like a defendant, where they will take him... then you, man, will need many guides, many prayers, many helpers in the hour of separation of the soul. Great then is the fear, great the trembling, great the mystery, great the upheaval for the body during the transition to another world. For if on earth, moving from one country to another, we need someone who will show the way and leaders, then all the more will they be needed when we move into limitless centuries, from where no one returns. I also repeat: you need a lot of helpers at this hour. This is our hour, not someone else’s, our way, our hour, and a terrible hour; Ours is a bridge and there is no other way. This is the end common to all, common to all and terrible. A difficult path that everyone must walk; The path is narrow and dark, but we will all take it. This is a bitter and terrible cup, but let us all drink it and not another. The mystery of death is great and hidden, and no one can explain it. It is terrible and terrible what the soul experiences then, but none of us knows this except those who preceded us there; except those who have already experienced it. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

When the sovereign Powers approach, when terrible armies come, when the divine takers command the soul to move from the body, when, carrying us away by force, they take us to the inevitable judgment seat, then, seeing them, the poor man... shudders, as if from an earthquake, all trembles... The divine takers, having taken the soul, ascend through the air, where the rulers, powers and rulers of the world of the opposing forces stand. These are our evil accusers, terrible publicans, scribes, tribute collectors; they meet on the way, describe, examine and calculate the sins and handwritings of this person, the sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed by deed, word, thought. Great is the fear there, great is the trembling of the poor soul, indescribable is the suffering that she then endures from the innumerable multitude of enemies surrounding her in darkness, slandering her in order to prevent her from ascending to Heaven, settling in the light of the living, and entering the Land of Life. But the holy Angels, having taken the soul, take it away. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

Death leaves no one, and the longer we live, the closer it is to us. This limit of God is both unknown to us and very terrible, Unknown, since death indiscriminately snatches away old and young, babies and young men, ready and unready, righteous and sinners. Terrible, because from here begins endless, unceasing, ever-present eternity. From here we depart either into eternal bliss or into eternal torment; "either to a place of joy, or to a place of mourning. From here we begin either to live forever, or to die forever; or to reign forever in Heaven with Christ and His saints, or to suffer forever in hell with Satan and his angels. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

Just as the behavior of a carnal and spiritual person is different and life is unequal, so death is not similar, and after death the future state. Death is terrible for a carnal man, but peaceful for a spiritual man; Death is sad for a carnal man, but joyful for a spiritual man; Death is sad for a carnal man, but sweet for a spiritual man. A carnal man, dying temporarily, dies eternally: “To be carnally minded is death,” says the holy Apostle (Rom. 8:6), but a spiritual man through this death passes to Eternal Life, for spiritual wisdom is life and peace... To the carnal hell, Gehenna, but Heaven will be the spiritual home. The carnal dwells with the devil and his angels in eternal fire, but the spiritual with Christ, Whom he diligently serves, in eternal joy. Both are rewarded according to their deeds that they did in the body. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

For those who stop sinning, repent, the suffering and death of Christ do not remain in vain, but receive their fruit, that is, remission of sins, justification, and intercede for Eternal Life; but they do not bring any benefit to those who do not repent, but to those who remain in sins, and therefore, because of their unrepentant life, they are in vain. And the Blood of Christ for everyone, including the one shed for them, was shed for them, as it were, in vain, for its fruit, that is, conversion, repentance, new life and remission of sins and salvation, is lost in them. Although “Christ died for all,” according to the teaching of the Apostle (2 Cor. 5:15), the death of Christ saves only those who repent of their sins and believe in Him, and in the unrepentant it does not receive its saving fruit. And this is not due to the fault of Christ, “who wants all people to be saved and to attain the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4) and “died for everyone,” but due to the fault of those who do not want to repent and take advantage of the death of Christ. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

On whom we want to hope on the day of our death, now, during our life, we must place all our hope in him, resort to him and cleave to him. Then everything will leave us: honor, wealth will remain in the world; then strength, reason, cunning will disappear and wisdom; then neither our friends, nor our brothers, nor our friends will help us; Christ alone, our Redeemer, if we now truly believe in Him and trust in Him, He will not abandon us then to the Angels. “He will command his own to travel with us, to carry our souls to Abraham’s bosom, and there he will rest us. We must now cling to this one Helper by faith and place all our trust in Him alone, and this trust will not be put to shame both during death and after death. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

The righteous rejoice in death as a transition to Eternal Life

"For me life is Christ, and death is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

The righteous and saints rejoice in the hour of death and separation, having before their eyes the great work of their asceticism, vigils, prayers, fasting and tears. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

The soul of the righteous at death rejoices, because after separation from the body it desires to enter into peace. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

If you were a toiler, then do not grieve at the approach of this good migration, because he who returns home with wealth does not grieve. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

Death, which is terrible for everyone and horrifies mortals, seems like a feast to the God-fearing. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

Death is afraid to approach someone who fears God and only comes to him when she is commanded to separate his soul from his body. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

The death of the righteous is the end of the struggle with the passions of the flesh; after death, the fighters are glorified and receive victorious crowns. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

Death is bliss for the saints, joy for the righteous, sorrow for sinners, and despair for the wicked. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

According to Your command, O Lord, the soul is separated from the body so that it can ascend into that granary of life, where all the saints await Your Great Day, hoping on that day to be clothed with glory and give thanks to You. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

Those who carefully strive in virtue, moving away from this life, truly, as it were, are released into freedom from suffering and bonds. Saint John Chrysostom.

When the human soul leaves the body, some great mystery is performed. For if she is guilty of sins, then hordes of demons, evil angels and dark forces come, take this soul and drag her to their side. No one should be surprised at this, for if a person, while still alive, in this world submitted, surrendered and enslaved him, then will they not possess him even more and enslave him when he leaves this world? As for the other, better part of people, something different happens to them. Angels are still present with the holy servants of God in this life; holy spirits surround them and protect them; and when their souls are separated from their body, the faces of the Angels accept them into their society, into a bright life and thus lead them to the Lord. Venerable Macarius the Great.

The Guardian Angel must place the soul of the righteous before God. Blessed Augustine.

Since Christians, after the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, are assured that by dying (in Christ), they pass from death into Life and into the joy of being with Christ, they desire death. For if the Spirit of Christ is the life of the soul, then what is the benefit to those who have received Him to live in this world and thereby be excluded from the joy that is given by being with Christ. Venerable Simeon the New Theologian.

There are two types of death: natural and spiritual. Natural death is common to everyone, as Scripture says: “it is appointed for men to die once” (Heb. 9:27), but spiritual death is only for those who wish, for the Lord says: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross.” (Mark 8:34); He does not force anyone, but says: “whoever wants.” But we see that others face only one death, natural, but the venerable saint of Christ faces a double death - first spiritual, and then natural. Someone said well when discussing the resurrection of Lazarus: Christ brought Lazarus back to life so that a person born into the world once would learn to die twice, for natural death cannot be good and pure before God if it is not preceded by spiritual death. No one can receive Eternal Life after death unless he gets used to dying before death. No earlier did Moses leave Egypt with the people of Israel on the journey leading to the promised land than when the firstborn of Egypt were killed; so a person will not enter Eternal Life if he does not first kill sinful lusts in himself. Blessed is the one who has learned to die to sin before death and to bury his passions in a body mortified to sin before being buried in a coffin.

Remember the suffering of those in exile from the city, from home, from the fatherland; all this is present in our life, for life is exile, exile, as the same apostle says: “we do not have a permanent city here, but we are looking for the future” (Heb. 13, 14). Remember the suffering from hunger, thirst and deprivation of everything necessary for existence, and all this is in abundance in our lives, which is best seen from the apostolic words: “until now we suffer hunger and thirst, and nakedness and beatings, and we are wandering” (1 Cor. 4, 11). For this life does not satiate anyone completely; satiation is possible only in Heaven, as the psalmist says: “I will be satisfied with Your image” (Ps. 16:15). Think what an evil it is to be in captivity, in chains, in death! All this has life, for life is captivity and death, as St. Paul says: “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24). Imagine the fear of living in a house that threatens to collapse; such is our life, for “we know that... our earthly house, this hut, will be destroyed” (2 Cor. 5:1). Therefore, the saints of God wished better to die and live with Christ than to continue their days in this life. Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

“The death of His saints is precious in the sight of the Lord!” (Ps. 115:6)

If you die (for Christ), you will not be defeated, but then you will win the most perfect victory, preserving to the end the unshakable truth and unchanging boldness for the truth. And you will pass from death to Eternal Life, from dishonor among people to glory with God, from sorrows and torment in the world to eternal rest with the Angels. The earth did not accept you as its citizen, but Heaven will accept you, the world persecuted you, but the Angels will lift you up to Christ and you will be called His friend, and you will hear the longed-for praise: “well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matt. 25, 21, 23). As Scripture says, “Abraham died and the prophets” (John 8:52), and the saint of Christ Peter also paid his debt to death - he died, but died a worthy death: “The death of His saints is precious in the sight of the Lord!” (Ps. 115:6). He died an immortal death, his hope of immortality was fulfilled, and this book of his death became the book of birth, for through a temporary death he was reborn to Eternal Life. Death, a good death, has books of its kinship, and kinship is not bad, but worthy, good. For just as from a good root comes good shoots, and from a good tree good fruit is born, so a good death has its origin from a good family. What this good kind of good death is, we will now see.

Do not think, my listener, that I am talking here about the carnal nobility of the bishop of God, for from his youth he despised his family. I am not talking about his carnal, but about his spiritual and virtuous generation, that is, about his godly life, in which virtue was born from virtue. Humility gave birth to love for God; love of God contempt for the world; contempt for the world gave birth to abstinence; abstinence mortification of bodily feelings; the mortification of feelings gave birth to purity of flesh and spirit; purity mental contemplation of God; the contemplation of God gave birth to tenderness and tears; finally, from all this, a good, blessed, honest, holy death was born, leading to peace, for “the righteous, even if he dies early, will be at peace” (Wisdom 4:7). Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

Before Abba Sisoes died, his face shone like the sun. And he said to the fathers sitting near him: “Here comes Abba Anthony.” A little later he said again: “Behold, the face of the prophets has come.” And his face beamed even brighter. Then he said: “I see the face of the apostles.” Then the light on his face became twice as strong and he was talking to someone. Then the elders began to ask him: “Who are you, father, talking to?” He answered: “The Angels have come to take me, but I ask that they leave me for a few minutes to repent.” The elders told him: “You, father, have no need for repentance.” And he answered them: “No, I am sure that I have not yet begun to repent.” And everyone knew that he was perfect. Suddenly his face shone again like the sun. Everyone was horrified, and he said to them: “Look, here is the Lord... He says: bring to Me the chosen vessel of the desert.” And immediately he gave up his spirit and became bright as lightning. The whole cell was filled with fragrance. Memorable Tales.

When the time came for the death of Abba Agathon, he was without breath for three days, with his eyes open, directed in one direction. The brothers asked him: “Abba! where are you?” He answered: “I stand before the Judgment of God.” The brothers said to him: “Father, are you really afraid?” He answered: “Although I tried my best to fulfill God’s commandments, I am a man and I don’t know whether my deeds are pleasing to God.” The brothers said: “Are you not sure that your deeds are pleasing to God?” The elder said: “It is impossible for me to be sure of this before I appear before God, because there is another Judgment of God and another of man.” When the brethren wanted to ask another question, he told them: “Show love, don’t talk to me, because I’m busy.” Having said this, he joyfully betrayed his spirit. The brethren saw that he died, as if greeting his beloved friends. Otechnik.

When Abba John departed from this life, he departed in joy, as if returning to his homeland, the humble brethren surrounded his bed. They began to earnestly ask him to leave them as a spiritual inheritance some particularly important instruction that would assist them on the path to Christian perfection. He sighed and said: “I have never done my will and never taught anything that I myself had not done before.” Otechnik.

In his dying vision, the Monk Nikon of Radonezh was shown the place of his future resting place together with the Monk Sergius. Before his death, he said to himself: “Come out, soul, to where your place is prepared, go with joy, Christ will look after you.” Moscow Paterik.

The hieroschemamonk, who served the elder hieroschemamonk Jesus in illness, secretly, through the slightly open door, looked at the sick man and saw that, having escorted the monks from the cell, the elder stood up from his bed, knelt down in the middle of the cell and prayed with tears to God and the Most Holy Theotokos, calling on the saints as well. saints, and often commemorated the holy monastery and brethren whom he had arranged. After prayer, he lay down on the bed and crossed himself. A few minutes later he got up from his bed again and on his knees prayed to the Lord with raised hands. When he lay down again, his face shone with inexplicable calm and joy. He was already motionless, in silence, but as if he was having a spiritual conversation with someone. Suddenly he broke his silence with an exclamation: “Blessed is God our father! If so, then I am no longer afraid, but in joy I depart from this world!” At these words, an extraordinary light appeared in the cell, a wondrous fragrance spread, and the sweet voices of those singing the psalm began to be heard: “I... entered... into the house of God with the voice of joy and praise of the celebrating host” (Ps. 41:5). At that moment, the blessed one on his bed completely turned his face up, folded his hands crosswise on his chest, and his soul flew off to the heavenly abodes, where he constantly strove during his earthly journey. Solovetsky Patericon.

Father Israel of blessed memory, a monk of the Chernigov monastery, which is near the Sergius Lavra, during his true monastic life was honored with a blessed heavenly death, as the brethren of the monastery hospital tell about it. Just before his death, he calls the hospital minister and s. with an enthusiastic face he says: “Oh, what I see, dear brother Vasily! Here the saints enter the chamber, and behind them a great many monks. And how bright and beautiful they all are! They are about to approach me. Oh, what joy! Oh , what happiness! " Brother Vasily answered: “Father! I don’t see anyone.” When he and everyone present looked at Father Israel, he was already dead. At the moment of his death, he was honored with a visit to all those saints and saints to whom he had resorted in prayer all his life, prayerfully calling on them for help. Trinity flowers.

The hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Father Manuel, who served at the church of the Trinity Metochion, said: “Once I was called to give a farewell to a sick elder. His face was bright and pleasant, and he was all breathing with pious devotion to the will of God. After confession, I hastened to commune him, since he He was very weak, and he had been unctioned earlier. After receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ, he made a sign for me to come up to him. His face shone with the light of joy. When I bowed my ear to his lips, he quietly asked me, pointing into the distance: “Father. ! Do you see a bright Angel, shining like lightning? “I said that I don’t see anything. He made the sign of the cross and died.” Trinity flowers.

When Elder Schemamonk Evfimy Glinsky was approaching his death, he asked to be guided with the Holy Mysteries. They performed the Sacrament of Anointing and Holy Communion. After receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, he sat on his bed, peacefully awaiting his transfer to another world. He smiled brightly, but tears were falling from his eyes. One of the brethren, in his simplicity, asked the departing elder: “Father, why are you crying? Are you also afraid to die?” The elder looked at him with a pleasant smile and said: “What should I be afraid of? Go to the Heavenly Father and be afraid! No, brother, I, by the goodness of God, am not afraid. These are tears of joy: for how many years my soul has been striving for the Lord, and now I will see Him." Glinsky Patericon.

Two hermits lived near the monastery of Abba Theodosius in Skopele. The elder died, and his disciple, having prayed, buried him in grief. Several days passed. The student went down the mountain and, passing by a village, met a man working in his field. “Reverend old man,” the student told him, “do me a favor, take your spade and spade and come with me.” The farmer immediately followed him. We climbed the mountain. The hermit pointed the peasant to the grave of his elder and said: “Dig here!” When he dug the grave, the hermit began to pray. Having finished it, he went down to the grave, lay down over his elder and gave his soul to God. The layman, having buried the grave, offered thanks to God. Coming down from the mountain, he said to himself: “I should have accepted a blessing from the saints!” But when he returned, he could no longer find their grave. Spiritual meadow.

This is what they told about Abba Pambo. At the hour of his death, he said to the holy men standing near him: “From the time I built myself a cell in this desert and settled in it, I don’t remember that I ever ate other bread than what I earned with my own hands, and I never I repented of the words that I spoke. And now I am going to God as if I had not yet begun to serve Him.” Memorable Tales.

Don't be afraid of death, but prepare for it

Do not fear death, but prepare for it by living a holy life. If you are ready for death, you will stop being afraid of it. If you love the Lord with all your heart, you yourself will wish for death. Saint Demetrius of Rostov.

Stop crying about death and cry about your sins in order to atone for them and enter into Eternal Life. Saint John Chrysostom.

(Christian), you are a warrior and constantly stand in the ranks, and a warrior who is afraid of death will never do anything valiant. Saint John Chrysostom.

Let us begin to tremble not before death, but before sin; It was not death that gave birth to sin, but sin that produced death, and death became the healing of sin. Saint John Chrysostom.

It is not death that causes sorrow, but a bad conscience. Therefore, stop sinning and death will become desirable for you. Saint John Chrysostom.

Let's stop grieving over death, and let's take on the sadness of repentance, take care of good deeds and a better life. Let us think about the ashes and the dead in order to remember that we too are mortal. With such a memory, it is difficult for us to neglect our salvation. While there is time, while it is still possible, let us better bear fruit, or correct ourselves if we have sinned out of ignorance, so that if the day of death overtakes us by chance, we will not have to look for time for repentance, and no longer find it, ask for mercy and the opportunity to make amends sins, but not getting what you want. Saint John Chrysostom.

Be prepared for the fact that the Lord may claim your soul every day. Don’t do it in such a way as to repent today and forget about it tomorrow, cry today and dance tomorrow, fast today and drink wine tomorrow. Saint John Chrysostom.

Let those who come to take our soul not find us like the merry rich man, dwelling in the night of intemperance, in the darkness of wickedness, in the darkness of covetousness. But may they find us on the day of fasting, on the day of holiness, on the day of brotherly love, in the light of piety, in the morning of faith, alms and prayer. May they find us sons of the day and lead us to the Sun of Truth, not as those who erected barns (Luke 12:18), but as those who generously emptied them and renewed ourselves with fasting and repentance, the grace of Christ. Saint John Chrysostom.

Always expect, but do not fear death, both are the true characteristics of wisdom. Saint John Chrysostom.

Come, mortals, let us pay attention to our race, which is destroyed and destroyed by the hand of the murderers of death. Let us ask our Lord for bounties while we are still here, in the land of the repentant, because there is no longer room for repentance there. Venerable Ephraim the Syrian.

You see that the wound clock is constantly moving, and whether we are sleeping or awake, doing or not doing, it is constantly moving and approaching its limit. This is also our life: from birth to death it constantly flows and diminishes; whether we rest or work, whether we are awake or asleep, whether we talk or are silent, it continually continues its course and approaches the end, and has already become closer to the end today than it was yesterday and the day before, at this hour than in the past. Our life is so imperceptibly shortened, hours and minutes pass by! And when the chain ends and the pendulum stops striking, we don’t know. The providence of God hid this from us so that we would always be ready to leave whenever our Lord God called us to him. “Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds watching” (Luke 12:37). Damned are those whom He finds immersed in a sinful sleep.

This example and reasoning teach you, Christian, that the time of our life is constantly running out; that it is impossible to return the past tense; that the past and the future are not ours, and only the time that we now have belongs to us; that our death is unknown to us; therefore, always, for every hour, for every minute, we must be prepared for the outcome if we want to die blissfully; hence it follows that a Christian must be in constant repentance, the feat of faith and piety; what someone wants to be at the end, he should try to be like that at every time of his life, because no one knows in the morning whether he will wait for the evening, and in the evening whether he will wait until the morning. We see that those who were healthy in the morning lie lifeless on their deathbeds in the evening; and those who fall asleep in the evening will not get up in the morning and will sleep until the trumpet of the Archangel. And what happens to others, the same thing can happen to you and me. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk.

Pilate mixed the blood of the Galileans with their sacrifices The Lord said: “unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way”; The pillar of Siloam fell and killed eighteen people. The Lord also said: “Unless you repent, you will all perish in the same way” (Luke 13:3,5). This makes it clear that when misfortune befalls others, we need to talk not about why and why this happened, but quickly turn to ourselves and see if we have any sins worthy of temporary punishment to admonish others, and hasten to blot out their repentance. Repentance cleanses sin and removes the cause that attracts trouble. While a person is in sin, the ax lies at the root of his life, ready to cut him off. It doesn’t flog because repentance is expected. Repent and the ax will be taken away, and your life will flow to the end in a natural order; If you don’t repent, wait for the beating. Who knows whether you will live to see next year. The parable of the barren fig tree shows that the Savior prays to the truth of God to spare every sinner in the hope that he will repent and bear good fruit (1 Tim. 2:4). But it happens that the truth of God no longer listens to petitions and does anyone agree to let anyone live for another year. Are you sure, sinner, that you are not living your last year, not your last month, day and hour? Bishop Theophan the Recluse.

The Holy Church now transfers our attention beyond the boundaries of this life, to our departed fathers and brothers, hoping by a reminder of their condition, which we cannot escape, to position us for the proper passage of Cheese Week and the Great Lent that follows it. Let us listen to the mother of our Church and, remembering our fathers and brothers, let us take care to prepare ourselves for the transition to the next world. Let us remember our sins and pay for them, committing ourselves further to keep ourselves clean from all filth. For nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God, and at the Judgment none of the unclean will be justified. After death, do not wait for purification. No matter what you go through, you will remain the same. This cleansing must be prepared here. Let us hasten, for who can predict longevity for himself? Life can end at this hour. How to appear in the next world unclean? With what eyes will we look at our fathers and brothers who will meet us? How will we answer their questions: “What is wrong with you? What is this? And what is this?” What disgrace and shame will cover us! Let us hasten to correct everything that is faulty in order to emerge into the next world at least somewhat tolerable and tolerant. Bishop Theophan the Recluse.

He who is daily prepared for death dies daily; whoever has trampled all sins and all sinful desires, whose thought has moved from here to Heaven and remains there, dies daily. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

(Solitude. Ed.) this is a peaceful death before death, which is the indispensable lot of every person, which for sinners, for the slaves of the world is fierce. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

All earthly bonds, the closest bonds, bonds imposed by nature and law, are mercilessly broken by death. Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov).

There lived two brothers who had many children. They taught children to be especially hard-working. One day one of the brothers called the children of another brother to him and told them: “Your father knows a day on which, having worked, you can become rich forever and then live without labor. I myself experienced this myself, but now I have forgotten what day it is. And therefore go to your father, he will tell you about this day." The children happily went to their father and asked him about this day. The father answered: “I myself, children, have forgotten this day. But work hard for a year; during this time, perhaps you yourself will learn about the day that gives a sad life.” The children worked for a whole year, but did not find such a day and told their father about it. The father gave them credit for their work and said: “You do this: now divide the year into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter, work and you will find this day.” The children worked like this and then said to their father: “And again we did not find the day you indicated. And since we were tired, and at the same time we acquired the means to live for ourselves, we will not work any more.” The father answered: “The day that I named you is the day of death. It will befall us when we don’t think about it at all. And therefore we need to work in the same way to save the soul all our lives, day and night, and prepare to death." Prologue in teachings

Same. T. 4. Ascetic preaching and letters to the laity. 3rd ed. St. Petersburg, 1905, p. 450.

Same. T. 5. Offering to modern monasticism. 3rd ed. St. Petersburg, 1905, p. 450.

Prologue in teachings. Guryev. M., 1912, pp. 339-340.

The tradition of commemorating the dead has existed in the Christian Church since its very foundation. Proof of this is contained in the ancient liturgies and the testimonies of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church. St. Dionysius the Areopagite: “The priest says a prayer over the deceased and, through prayer, kisses him, and then all those present; in prayer they ask for the infinite goodness of God, that God may forgive the deceased all sins committed through human weakness, and may he rest in the light and land of the living, in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in a place from which all illness, sorrow and sighing are removed ...” And further: “About the mentioned prayer, which the clergyman pronounces over the deceased, the tradition that came to us from our inspired mentors must be stated.”

Saint Athanasius the Great: “The God-speaking apostles, sanctified teachers and spiritual fathers, according to their dignity, being filled with the Divine Spirit and, to the extent of their capacity, having received His power that filled them with delight, with God-inspired lips, in a godly manner, established liturgies, prayers and psalmody and annual remembrances of the departed, which is the custom by the grace of the God who loves mankind, even to this day it intensifies and spreads from the east of the sun to the west, in the north and south, to the honor and glory of the Lord of lords and the King of kings.”

Saint Gregory of Nyssa: “Nothing without reasoning, nothing useless has been transmitted from Christ’s preachers and disciples and has not been accepted everywhere by the Church of God, but this is a very God-pleasing and useful thing - at the Divine and Glorious Sacrament to commemorate the dead in the right faith” (ibid., by Saint John of Damascus).

Saint John Chrysostom: “It was not in vain that the apostles legitimized the remembrance of the dead before the Terrible Mysteries: they knew that this would bring great benefit to the dead, a great deed” (discourse 3 on the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Philippians). “Offerings for the dead are not in vain, prayers are not in vain, alms are not in vain: the Holy Spirit established all this, wanting us to benefit through each other” (Discourse 21 on the Acts of the Apostles).

Why is commemoration beneficial for the deceased?

This is what St. writes about the commemoration of the dead. John of Kronstadt: “Some say: why remember the names of the dead or the living when praying for them? God, as omniscient, himself knows these names, and also knows the needs of everyone. But those who say this forget or do not know the importance of prayer, do not know how important the word spoken from the heart is - they forget that the justice of God and the mercy of God are bowed down by our heartfelt prayer, which the Lord, in His goodness, credits as if to the dead or living themselves as merit as members of the single body of the Church. - Such do not know that the Church of the firstborn, written in heaven [Heb. 12:23], out of his love, constantly prays to God for us - and specifically mentions before God the names of those people who pray to them - equal for equal. We remembered them, they remembered us. And whoever does not remember his neighbors in prayer out of love will not be remembered and will not be worthy of commemoration. - One word of faith and love means a lot in prayer. The prayer of a righteous man avails much [Jas. 5, 16]" (My life in Christ. Volume 2. Entry 1229)

In the writings of the ancient fathers and teachers of the church, we find explanations for why our prayers can be saving for our deceased brothers.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem: “I want to assure you with an example, for I know that many say: what is the benefit of a soul departing from this world with or without sins, if it is remembered in prayer? But what if some king sent those who had annoyed him into exile, and their neighbors then, weaving a crown, brought it to him for those suffering punishment, then wouldn’t he lighten their punishment? Thus, we, too, for the departed, even if they are sinners, when we offer prayers to God, we do not weave a crown, but we offer Christ, who was slain for our sins, propitiating for them and for us the Lover of God.”

Saint John Chrysostom: “When all the people and the sacred cathedral stand with their hands stretched out to Heaven and when the Terrible Sacrifice is presented, how can we not appease God by praying for them (the dead)? But this is only about those who died in faith.”

And in another place: “There is still, truly there is an opportunity if we want to ease the punishment of a deceased sinner. If we make frequent prayers for him and give alms, then even if he was unworthy in himself, God will hear us. If for the sake of the Apostle Paul He saved others and for the sake of some He spared others, then how can He not do the same for us?

St. Augustine: “There should be no doubt that the prayers of the Holy Church, the Saving Sacrifice and alms performed for the souls of the dead will help them so that the Lord will be more merciful to them than what they deserve for their sins. For the whole Church observes this, as handed down from the fathers, to pray for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are remembered in due time at the Sacrifice itself, and to express that the Sacrifice is offered for them. Who can also doubt that acts of mercy performed to propitiate them bring benefit to those for whom prayers are not sent to God in vain?

Saint Theophan, the Recluse: “The fate of those who have departed is not considered decided until the general judgment. Until then, we cannot consider anyone completely condemned; and on this basis we pray, strengthened by the hope of God’s immeasurable mercy. Those who have departed soon begin the feat of crossing through the ordeal. She (soul) needs help here! Stand then in this thought, and you will hear its cry to you: “Help!” - this is where you should direct all your attention and all your love for her. I think the most real testimony of love will be if, from the moment your soul departs, you, leaving the worries about the body to others, step away yourself and, secluded where possible, immerse yourself in prayer for it in its new state and new unexpected needs. Having started this way, be in a constant cry to God for help for six weeks, and beyond...”

Radonitsa

The fact that prayerful communication is possible and the remembrance of some people by others is beneficial speaks about the very attitude of the Creator to his creation. If one who remembers someone who is already beyond life desires salvation, then all the more does the Lord, our loving Father, desire it. In Old Testament history, there are known cases of remembering the dead and making sacrifices to God for their souls.

It is no coincidence that one of the days of remembrance of the dead is called Radonitsa. It is celebrated on Tuesday of the second week after Easter. Easter is a time of joy for all Christians, a holiday of victory over death and over all sorrow and sadness. On this day we remember that the Lord, by His death and Resurrection, brought down hell. That is why, so that the connection of living communication of love is not interrupted, it is possible to remember those who have passed into this world, praying to God for the best fate after death for them. This is what he says about the commemoration of St. John of Kronstadt:

Days of special remembrance of the dead

Saturday is traditionally dedicated in the Church to the commemoration of saints and the dead. There are days primarily dedicated to commemorating the dead.

• Ecumenical Parental Saturday (A week before Lent)

• Parents' Saturday of the 2nd week of Lent.

• Parents' Saturday of the 3rd week of Lent.

• Parents' Saturday of the 4th week of Lent.

• Radonitsa. Tuesday of the second week after Easter.

• Trinity Parents' Saturday, the day before St. Trinity. The Feast of the Holy Trinity, or Pentecost, is the day of the formation of the Church of Christ, a community of faithful who, in mutual love, can provide each other with prayerful assistance not only during life, but also after death.

In addition to generally accepted days of remembrance, there are also days of remembrance of local significance, for example, the day of the Battle of Kulikovo, otherwise called Dimitrievskaya Parental Saturday. It is celebrated on the eve of the day of Demetrius of Thessalonica and was originally dedicated to the day of the battle on the Kulikovo Field. Initially, on this day they commemorated all those who fell in the Battle of Kulikovo, but later it became the day of remembrance of all those who died in the faith.

There is also an ancient Christian custom of specially remembering the deceased on:

The third day. The commemoration of the deceased on the third day after death is performed in honor of the three-day resurrection of Jesus Christ and in honor of the Holy Trinity.

Ninth day. The commemoration of the deceased on this day is in honor of the nine ranks of angels, who petition for pardon for the deceased.

Fortieth day. This is also a significant number in the Church history of the Old and New Testaments. The forty-day period is very significant in the history and tradition of the Church as the time necessary for preparation and acceptance of the special Divine gift of the gracious help of the Heavenly Father. The Prophet Moses was honored to talk with God on Mount Sinai and receive the tablets of the law from Him only after a forty-day fast. The Israelites reached the promised land after forty years of wandering. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself ascended into heaven on the fortieth day after His resurrection. Taking all this as a basis, the Church established commemoration on the fortieth day after death, so that the soul of the deceased would ascend the holy mountain of Heavenly Sinai, be rewarded with the sight of God, achieve the bliss promised to it and settle in the heavenly villages with the righteous.

“The deceased do not suddenly get used to their new life. Even saints retain an earthiness for some time. Until it wears off, it will take more or less time, judging by the degree of earthiness and attachment to the earthly. Tretiny (the third day after death), devyatiny (ninth day) and sorochiny (fortieth day) indicate the degree of purification from earthiness” St. Theophan the Recluse.

It is also customary to mark the anniversary of death. On such days, alms for him and prayer in the temple are considered good help for the deceased.

Ways to remember dead Christians

The commemoration of a person begins with his funeral service, on the third day after death. A funeral service is a specific set of prayers and chants in which the soul of a person who has passed into eternity is remembered. The Church offers prayers for him, begging God for the best fate for the person, asking for forgiveness of his sins and for his soul to be placed in places where it will be calm and joyful, where it can have communion with God and the saints.

“With the saints, O Christ, rest the soul of Thy servant, where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless Life” (from the hymns of the requiem, funeral service).

The funeral service is not the only service that is intended to commemorate the dead. There are also prayer services at which one can remember deceased loved ones, and, most importantly, commemoration during the liturgy, when for each person remembered a piece is taken from the prosphora and washed with the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the hope that the Lord will give relief and joy of salvation to all those remembered.

Many holy fathers spoke about the need for commemoration in church. “As long as you, mother, are alive, you can still do a lot for your child. Pray, give liturgy and alms for him. God has no dead, everyone is alive,” said Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) to one of his spiritual daughters.

Memorial of the Innocents

A special funeral service is performed for infants who died in Holy Baptism, as if they were blameless and sinless. The Church does not pray for the forgiveness of the sins of the dead, but only asks that they be honored with the Kingdom of Heaven. The infants themselves did not do anything to deserve the Kingdom of Heaven, but in Holy Baptism they were cleansed from their ancestral sin; became blameless and heirs of the Kingdom of God. For this reason, they must be remembered not by praying for the forgiveness of their sins, but rather for the mother’s own consolation, maintaining a living prayer connection with the child, remembering him in temple and personal prayer.

Commemoration of those who did not die a natural death

In the hymns of Trinity Parental Saturday there are words in which the Church asks that the Lord bestow His mercy on those who have committed suicide, but at the same time there is no commemoration of them by name in the church. For suicides, you can pray to your relatives yourself at home prayer, asking the Lord to show mercy to sinners.

For those who died a violent death, there are also a number of special prayers in which the soul of a person is especially remembered, asking the Lord to forgive his sins, for which he may not have had time to repent, since his life was untimely interrupted.

“There are difficult moments in a funeral service. We need to gather all our faith and all our determination to begin this service with the words: “Blessed is our God!...” Sometimes this is the ultimate test for our faith. “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord,” said Job. But this is not easy to say when we are heartbroken to see the one we love most lying dead before our eyes. And then come prayers full of faith and a sense of reality, and prayers of human fragility; prayers of faith accompany the soul of the deceased and are offered before the face of God as evidence of love. Because all prayers for the deceased are precisely evidence before God that this person did not live in vain. No matter how sinful or weak this person was, he left a memory full of love: everything else will decay, but love will survive everything. Faith will pass, and hope will pass, when faith becomes a vision and hope a possession, but love will never pass away” (Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, “Death.”)

Once, a group of scientists conducted a study: what the famous atheists Nietzsche and M. Monroe, Lenin and Voltaire said before their death. What the engineer who built the Titanic “joked” about, and what rock music idol John Lennon was sure of. The results were interesting...

In the West, there are a number of publications about the last, dying words of famous people. Often these are some kind of made-up expressions, often nonsense. In any case, it is very difficult to establish the authenticity of these words.

It so happened that about 10 years ago I came across the dying words of one ascetic of the Orthodox faith. I wrote them out. Since then, whenever I can read the true words of a dying person in a book, trustworthy or written by contemporaries, I write them down.

Gradually, a trend became obvious: a righteous person, dying, goes to God, and his words are permeated with light and love. An evil man, an unbeliever, dies hard, and the last words that fall from his lips are terrible words. Just from these dying words alone one can reconstruct the spiritual world of a person and see what he is like.

During the service, we ask God for a painless, shameless and peaceful death. This is our wish, but by no means a requirement. How can we dare to demand anything from the Master of the world and the Lord?..

Sometimes, according to the remark of Schemamonk Paisius the Holy Mountain, the Lord gives a deliberately painful, painful, and even outwardly tempting death in order to humble the ascetic even more and in order to elevate him through this humility.

Once upon a time a modern Athonite ascetic, Elder Paisius, asked: what is the reason for a person’s torment before death, is it only in the sinfulness of the dying person? The elder replied: “No, it’s not unconditional. It is also not certain that if a person’s soul leaves him quietly and calmly, then he was in good condition. Even if people suffer and suffer in the last moments of life, this does not necessarily mean that they have many sins. Some people, out of great humility, earnestly ask God to give them a bad end - so that after death they remain in obscurity. Or someone may have a bad end in order to spiritually pay off a small debt. For example, during his lifetime a person was praised more than he deserved, so God allowed him to behave somehow strangely at the hour of death in order to fall in the eyes of people. In other cases, God allows some to suffer at the hour of death, so that those who are nearby understand how difficult it is for the soul there, in hell, if it does not put itself in order here ... "

This may be because we all consist of soul and body. And the body can suffer from various diseases. And gradually, in suffering, it can die according to the physical laws of the course of the disease. The Lord can ease a person’s suffering, but he can also allow him to drink the whole cup of suffering to the end. According to the thoughts of the holy fathers, in this case we can say that by giving a person physical suffering, the Lord, who wants every soul to be saved, gives it to atone for sins.

Only a person who is completely far from God, who believes that he knows better than God what and how it should be, can be embarrassed by this. The ascetics also died painfully and painfully, as their last words were about. Let us at least remember the Savior, who took upon Himself the entire burden of the sins of the world. His last words: “Eli, Eli! Lama Savakhthani? My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me?”, “I thirst,” “Father! into Your hands I commend My spirit,” “It is finished”!

Sometimes the Lord allowed the ascetic to be freed from suffering and torment before death, and such a person passed on to the other world calmly. Their last words even became a posthumous testament to us remaining in this world. But the ascetics of the faith never died miserably. Even though their physical suffering was extreme, their souls lived with the anticipation of a new life. There, into blissful eternity, she departed. Sometimes, in the last words of dying believers, we can touch the secret that was the content of their earthly life, or the one that was revealed to them on the border of this and other worlds.

The last words spoken to people Holy Patriarch Hermogenes: « May there be mercy on them from the Lord God and blessing from our humility.” After these words, the Poles stopped bringing food to him in prison, and after some time, on February 17, 1617, he died.

Here are the words of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, Confessor of Russia:“Glory to Thee, Lord, Glory to Thee, Lord, Glory to Thee, Lord!”

When the Divine Liturgy begins, the royal doors open and the priest solemnly says: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...”

This very moment Russian religious philosopher Prince Evgeny Trubetskoy I remembered when I was dying. His last words were: “The Royal Doors are opening. The Great Liturgy begins."

Father John Krestyankin says: “The professor of the Petrograd Theological Academy was dying in full and clear consciousness Vasily Vasilievich Bolotov, a famous scientist, a man with colossal knowledge and with humble faith in his heart. He was dying, guided into eternity by Confession and Communion, and his last words on earth were the delight of his soul before the bliss revealed to his spiritual gaze: “How beautiful the last minutes are... how good it is to die... I’m going to the Cross... Christ is coming... God is coming...”.”

Hieromartyr Hilarion (Trinity): “It’s good, now we are far from...” And he gave up his spirit to God.

Dying words Bishop-Ascetic Athanasius (Sakharov)(died in 1962) were: “Prayer will save you all.”

Last words spoken on July 22, 1992 Protopresbyter John Meyendorff:Eucharist's icon(Russian translation: “Icon of the Eucharist”). “What was he talking about. John? Maybe about his love for the Eucharist, which was the center of everything for him - both theology and spiritual life. Or he imagined his favorite fresco from the altar of the seminary church, in front of which he prayed so much (at the request of Father John, an icon was painted in the Byzantine style - Christ giving communion to the Apostles). Or maybe he has already contemplated with his spiritual gaze the heavenly Eucharist, the eternal Liturgy, celebrated unceasingly in the Kingdom of God?(Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev))

And this is how he died Protopresbyter of the Russian Army and Navy Evgeniy Akvilonov, professor at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, author of remarkable theological works. Father Evgeniy was dying of sarcoma; he was 49 years old. Feeling the approach of death, Fr. Eugene picked up a lit candle and began to read to himself the Sequence on the exodus of the soul from the body. With words: “Rest, O Lord, the soul of Your servant, Protopresbyter Eugene” he passed away into eternity.

And here are the words with which the 20th century ascetic father gave up his spirit to God Seraphim Vyritsky:“Save, Lord, and have mercy on the whole world.” These are not just words, this is the credo of the great shepherd, who gave all his strength, to the last drop, to pray for the world. During the years of the Bolshevik bacchanalia, during the war years, Rev. Seraphim spent many hours in prayer on the stone to which he was led, and sometimes carried and from which he was removed, exhausted.

But detractors of the faith die pitifully. Something is revealed to them on this side of life, this and that, maybe they see demons gathered at the bedside, maybe they feel the stench and heat of the hellish abysses ready to accept them.

Voltaire All my life I struggled with religion, with God. However, the last night of his life was terrible. He begged the doctor: “I conjure you, help me, I will give you half of my property if you extend my life by at least six months, if not, then I will go to hell and you will follow there.” He wanted to invite a priest, but his free-thinking friends did not allow this. Voltaire, dying, shouted: “I am abandoned by God and people. I'm going to hell. Oh Christ! Oh, Jesus Christ."

American atheist writer Thomas Paine said on his deathbed: “I would give worlds, if I had them, so that my book, The Age of Reason, would never be published. Christ, help me, be with me!

Genrikh Yagoda, People's Commissar of the NKVD: “There must be a God. He is punishing me for my sins."

Nietzsche. Gone crazy. Died barking in an iron cage

David Hume is an atheist. Before his death he constantly shouted: "I'm on fire!" His despair was terrible...

Charles IX:“I died. I am clearly aware of this."

Hobbes - English philosopher:“I stand before a terrible leap into darkness.”

Goethe:"More light!"

Lenin. He died with his mind darkened. He asked the table and chairs for forgiveness for his sins... How strange this is for a man who was a leader and ideal for millions of people...

Zinoviev- Lenin's comrade-in-arms, shot by order of Stalin: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God.”, - these are the last words of one of the leaders of the atheistic state.

Winston Churchill- English Prime Minister during World War II: “What a madman I am!”

John Lennon (The Beatles): at the peak of his fame (in 1966), during an interview with a leading American magazine, he said: “Christianity will end soon, it will simply disappear, I don’t even want to argue about it. I'm just sure of it. Jesus was OK, but his ideas were too simple. Today we are more famous than HE!». After he declared that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, he died tragically. One psychopath shot him six times at point-blank range. It is noteworthy that the killer did this in order to take away his popularity and become famous throughout the world as the killer of the famous singer.

Brazilian politician Tancredo de Ameido Neves during his presidential election campaign he publicly said: “If I get 500,000 votes from my party, then even God himself will not be able to remove me from the presidency!” Of course, he gained these votes, but suddenly fell ill and died suddenly one day before becoming president.

The engineer who built the Titanic After completing construction work, when asked by reporters how safe his miracle ship would be, he answered with irony in his voice: “ Now even God can’t drown it!”. Surely everyone knows what happened to the unsinkable Titanic.

Famous actress Marilyn Monroe During the presentation of her show, evangelist Billy Graham visited. He said that the Spirit of God sent him to preach to her. After listening to the preacher, she replied: “I don’t need your Jesus!”. Just a week later she was found dead in her apartment.

In 2005, in the city of Campinas, Brazil, a group of drunken friends came to pick up their girlfriend from her home for further entertainment. This girl's mother, very worried about them, walked her to the car and, holding her daughter by the hand, said with trepidation: “My daughter, go with God, and may He protect you”, to which she boldly replied: “There is no longer room for Him in our car, unless He climbs in and rides in the trunk...”. A few hours later, the mother was informed that this car had been in a terrible car accident and everyone had died! The car itself was mutilated beyond recognition, but the police reported that, despite the fact that the entire car was completely destroyed so that it was impossible to even recognize its make, the trunk remained completely undamaged, which is completely contrary to common sense. Imagine everyone’s surprise when the trunk easily opened and a tray of eggs was found in it, and not a single one of them broke or even cracked!

“Don’t be deceived, God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Bible, Galatians 6:7)

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