A person who dies in an unnatural way has no right to count on peace in the other world. Statistics show: in Russia, for every 100,000 people there are 25 suicides every year. Psychologists believe that the main motive for suicide is the desire to break the cursed knot of problems and torment once and for all, to find peace in oblivion...

But does it exist, this non-existence? And is there long-awaited peace in it? Alas, everyone who hopes to find it through suicide instead of peace falls into the trap of even greater moral torment.

The other world is not a complete and eternal loss of consciousness, not oblivion of everything and everyone, as many people imagine. After the death of the physical body, consciousness not only continues its rational existence, but also reaps the karma of earthly life, that is, it enters the world of posthumous consequences of earthly thoughts and actions. A person burdened with difficult life circumstances will also be tormented in his posthumous existence by problems that he could not solve on Earth. Those who have passed into another world will feel their earthly problems there with even greater acuteness. But, unlike the physical plane, in the other world he will have practically no opportunity to correct anything - only an emotional reaction to the scenes passing before his eyes will remain. This is precisely what is expressed in the incomprehensible words of the Gospels: “Whatever you untie on Earth will be untied in heaven.”

It is possible to untie the knots of difficult karmic circumstances only on the physical plane!

If, instead of an outcome, a person leaves this plane for another world of his own free will, this means that the untied knots will torment him even more in the afterlife, tormenting the soul with memories-hallucinations, which are perceived and experienced as acutely as the real events of earthly life .

The horror of suicide lies not only in the fact that the problems that led to such an end remain just as acute and torment the consciousness even more painfully. Suicide, in addition, is associated with a violation of the most important karmic laws - a person’s life purpose and the duration of his life on Earth.

Prisoners of the astral hell.

Each person is born on Earth with a specific mission concerning his personal spiritual development, and if this spirit is talented and great, the mission can cover not only himself, but also many other people. The soul of a person, even before his incarnation on Earth, knows what this highest spiritual purpose is. But when it takes on a body, physical matter obscures the knowledge of the soul and the purpose of life is forgotten.

To fulfill his destiny, a person is given a certain period of life on Earth and a corresponding amount of vital energy by karma itself. If someone leaves the physical world before the time allotted to him, he accordingly does not fulfill his destiny. The potential of the energy given to him also remains unrealized.

This means that the undone vital energy will attract the soul of the suicide to the physical plane for as many years as he was destined to live on Earth.

The soul (or, in modern scientific language, the energy complex) of a person who has died a natural death easily and painlessly breaks away from the physical plane and rises to the astral plane, full of enchanting music and bright colors. Evidence of this is the experiences of people who have experienced a state of clinical death.

But with an unnaturally interrupted life, the human energy complex, due to unspent energy potential, turns out to be tied to the lower layers of the astral world, close to the physical world and - alas! - filled with heavy, negative energy.

It is in the lower, dark layers of the astral plane that, according to esoteric teachings, the souls of sinners live. In religions, these layers of the parallel world are called hell. Even if the suicide was not a bad person, he will not be able to escape the attraction of the lower, hellish layers. And therefore, if a person was destined to live, say, 70 years, and he committed suicide at twenty, then for the remaining half century he will be a prisoner of the astral hell, doomed to a painful, painful wandering between this and another world.

Even in ancient times, it was noted that posthumous ghosts, apparitions and other phenomena, as a rule, are consequences of suicide. It is also known that the astral bodies of suicides, together with their souls forcibly chained to the Earth, not being able to go to higher layers of the astral plane, often appear in the form of ghosts in those corners of the Earth where they made a fatal decision.

Another proof of the inadmissibility of suicide as an attempt to resolve a difficult life situation is the testimony of clairvoyants. Many clairvoyants can determine whether a person is alive or dead from his photograph. But in the case of suicide, clairvoyants claim that they “do not see” the person either among the living or among the dead.

How painful this condition is is evidenced by people who experienced clinical death as a result of an unsuccessful suicide attempt and were brought back to life. It turns out that even such a short-term opportunity to look into another world, which is provided to a person’s consciousness during clinical death, can already provide a lot of knowledge about otherworldly existence. And this is convincingly evidenced by modern research into death and the posthumous existence of consciousness, conducted by Dr. R. Moody from the USA.

One of Moody's patients, who found himself in a comatose state as a result of a suicide attempt, said: "When I was there, I felt that two things were completely forbidden to me: killing myself or killing another person. If I committed suicide, I would throw it in God's face gift. By killing someone, I will break the commandment of God." And here are the words of a woman who was brought back to life after taking a lethal dose of sleeping pills: “I had a clear feeling that I had done something bad. Not according to the norms of society, but according to the highest commandments. I was so sure of this that I desperately wanted to return to body and live."

As British researchers A. Landsberg and C. Faye note, Dr. Moody established: the post-mortem sensations of patients show that natural death is characterized by a feeling of calm and a feeling: “Everything is right, this is the completion of my destiny.” While suicide is characterized by mixed feelings, anxiety and a certain feeling that "this is wrong, I should go back and wait for my death."

And the soul rushes about in fear.

Dr. Moody's conclusions are also confirmed by the research of a Russian scientist from St. Petersburg, K. Korotkov, who studies the phenomenon of death using the Kirlian effect, which allows one to observe the energetic state of the human body in the first hours and days after his death.According to Korotkov’s observations, the posthumous states of people who died a natural death from old age and an unnatural death as a result of suicide have different energetic natures. The scientist, for example, identified three types of glow in the fingers of people who died from different causes.

This glow was recorded using high-frequency photography.

First type of glow, characteristic of natural death, has a small amplitude of energy fluctuations. After a rise in energy in the first hours after death, a smooth and calm decline occurs.

Second type of glow, characteristic of “sudden” death as a result of accidents, also has a small amplitude of energy fluctuations with the presence of one pronounced peak.

Third type of glow characteristic of death resulting from a combination of circumstances that could have been avoided under more favorable conditions.

This type of glow is characterized by a large amplitude of energy fluctuations that occur over a long period of time. It is precisely this state of energy that is characteristic of death resulting from suicide.

According to the St. Petersburg researcher, sharp rises and falls in energy in the body of a person who committed suicide are due to the state of his energy double - the astral (or subtle) body, which prematurely lost its physical shell, was forcibly “pushed” from the physical plane into another world and has no opportunity begin a natural existence in the latter. In other words, the subtle body of a suicide literally rushes between the discarded physical shell and the astral plane, without finding a way out.

There is another terrible secret in the phenomenon of suicide that has to do with the other world. Many people who tried to commit suicide, but were saved by doctors, assured that the decision to commit suicide was suggested to them by certain “voices” from the other world, in which they often recognized the voices of their deceased relatives.

This phenomenon serves as an indirect, and in some cases, a direct cause of suicide much more often than some believe. The voices of another world, processing the consciousness or subconscious of future suicides, of course, have nothing to do with deceased relatives and the light forces of the astral plane. They belong to a very dangerous, harmful class of creatures, which the great medieval physician Paracelsus called elementals, or primary spirits.

Among them there are positive, and there are also harmful creatures. The latter hunt for people's vital energy, preferring not to extract energy themselves, but to steal it. For at the moment of a person’s death, a huge amount of psychic energy is released into space, which can become the desired food for extramaterial vampires. It is with the goal of getting it that elementals often attach themselves to the aura of people who are in a stressed or depressed state and begin their mental processing, provoking the victim to commit suicide.

Psychics can often identify similar channels of communication with astral vampires in a person’s aura, calling these channels “bindings,” “connections,” and “settlers.” Sometimes the processing of potential suicides is carried out more subtly, on a subconscious level. In such cases, suicide is incited not by voices, but by obsessive thoughts with the same program of self-destruction. And, as a rule, people take these thoughts inspired from outside as their own desire.

The debate about whether a person has the right to arbitrarily dispose of his life has a fairly ancient origin.

The ardent, ardent Romans, for example, considered themselves to have the right to dispose of the divine gift - life. But this was the right of ignorance - nothing more. Of course, a person’s free will can decide: “To be or not to be.” But in another world, no one will free someone who has decided to end his life from the natural consequences of a wrong decision.

Roman aristocrats considered the act of suicide a sign of a strong will - and they were deeply mistaken in this.

True aristocracy of spirit lies not in the desire to avoid mental suffering, but in the ability to courageously accept and endure it in order to appear in the arena of the harsh struggle of life as a warrior, and not as a victim. In addition, ancient wisdom says: every person experiences in life exactly as much suffering as he can endure - no more.

There are no circumstances that the will and mind of a person cannot overcome.

But for this we need to realize the power hidden in the human spirit.

For his will and mind are truly a divine gift.

To dispose of it fairly is the task of each of us, and especially those who find themselves faced with a difficult interweaving of life’s problems.

Natalia Kovaleva, candidate of philosophical sciences.

http://ufo.kulichki.com/anomaly_dn_039.htm

This topic sounded like a response to the phrase of my friend from Donetsk: “We are left with a daughter and a baby for 10 months. How can we live now? I don’t want to live...” She wrote this after the death of a loved one in their family.

At the request of many guys, we will again talk about the souls of those who themselves decided to end their journey in a violent way.

People who seek help often either scroll through the idea of ​​committing suicide in their heads or have already attempted to do so.

They are basically young girls and women.

I don’t have statistical data, but they are the ones who come to me. The processes are the same, but the after-death itself is far from the same as during an ordinary death..

Let's look at this issue in more detail.

So let's take an example. Young girl, 22 years old. Unhappy love. The young man left her with the child. The child is four years old. They live with their parents. There is another small child in the family of about the same age. Her little brother. The children are very friendly with each other. But then a tragedy happens. The world has collapsed. The guy left. He is also very young and was not yet ready for adulthood. The girl climbs to the 12th floor and stands on the edge.

But at the last second, when she almost physically felt the flight and felt her body hitting the asphalt and internal organs bursting and bones breaking, she retreated.

The girl came to me. And we began to figure it out with her, what would happen to her after she left her body. After all, how she thought. Now bang on the ground. I’ll crash and all my problems will instantly disappear.

But the fact is that they are just beginning at this moment. The person has no idea what he will have to go through.

I showed her that if you lose your body, in which you can still fix everything, you will become a spiritual entity with the same problems.

But imagine what it will be like for you to see and feel every second the suffering that you will inflict on your loved ones and children.

Your son will scream MOM, and you will stand nearby, unable to convey to him that you are nearby.

This is where the true suffering will begin.

There is no physical body in the spiritual world. You can't relieve the tension there with tears. Everything is exposed. Man himself becomes pain.

In a state of suicide, a person’s path usually lies in the lower layers of the spiritual world. But before going down there, a person will wander as a restless soul next to his loved ones.

As long as a person is remembered, and therefore nourished. In order to be nearby, our soul in this state needs energy. And whether she wants it or not, she will take this energy from her loved ones.

The worst thing is that a person thinks once and that’s it. But everything will remain the same. You will think, sense, feel, only without a dense body. And without it you can’t change anything. When a person dies, he goes into a different state, without a dense body.

At the same time, everything that he felt, sensed, loved, hated, that is, his essence, remains exactly the same as during life.

Isn't this hell?

To wander around as a restless soul and watch as your loved ones mourn you. Shout to them that he is alive and that he is not dead.

But no one hears.

The human soul in suffering and pain walks to places of attachment. Visiting the places that were dear to her during her life. There are a huge number of such restless souls.

It is with such souls that all spiritualists, white noise, etc. are associated. In the normal course of events, that is, death from old age, the person is met. And very often, a few days before death, a person already partially sees the spiritual world. He sees dead friends and relatives. And he wonders how others don’t see them. This is very common. I've encountered this many times.

Many restless souls DO NOT WANT TO LEAVE because they know that they will have to go through the so-called purgatory.

Purgatory is the level to which one or another soul falls in accordance with its subconscious programs. This is the world of our fears, thoughts, actions.

A simple example.

Killer maniac. What's on his mind? It's clear: blood. And also crying and fear. Fear of your victims. And so he dies and ends up in the subtle world. Where every thought immediately materializes.

So imagine what this means for him.

Your consciousness forms, so to speak, the place where you end up at the moment of death. Although all these places are only the subjective reality of each individual in a bundle of his programs.

It’s not for nothing that all religions teach to think about God and have pure thoughts, and repentance before death is important..

If a person committed suicide, this in any case means that he had serious problems that he could not process. These problems will not go away after his departure.

They will materialize. And he will be in the world of his fears.

When the girl realized that she had just nearly done something that would have taken a very long time to correct, she was hysterical. But it was liberating. Now everything is improving very quickly.

Knowledge and information comes from those who KNOW. From spiritual guides or guardian angels.

http://ok.ru/profile/519684838733/statuses/65069538956621

I took the material from different sites. I know that the topic can cause a strong reaction, but it seems to me that the time has come to remind us of what awaits a suicide in that other world.

Of course, it is difficult to give any advice to people who have experienced such grief, because none of our words, no matter how affectionate, warm, and heartfelt they may be, can make up for this terrible loss. It's grief when your loved one passes away. The worst thing is if this happens to a child. And it is probably impossible to survive to the end, to understand, to accept this. This is pain that a person will have to live with for the rest of his life.

Often those around us try to avoid this topic. And not at all because they are afraid of shaking their mental balance or ruining their mood, but out of fear of once again hurting and opening the wound.

I am sure that a person should never be left alone, without attention, if he himself does not seek loneliness. Most of the main problems of modern life are precisely from a lack of communication and attention to each other. We turned out to be completely unable to pay attention to each other and live with the pain and misfortune of another person. And this is our sadness. We have completely forgotten one of the main principles of the first Christian community, where there were no strangers, where everyone was relatives to each other and the pain and joy of everyone was the pain and joy of the entire community. Nowadays we sometimes don’t even know the name of the person who stands and prays next to us in the temple (the only thing we know about him is that he has a red jacket, which is annoying).

People who have experienced the grief and pain of losing a loved one need to be shown ten times more love, attention, and care than anyone else. This will help, God willing, to smooth out the pain at least a little.

And, of course, we must pray for each other. If this happened to loved ones, you need to pray for them! If the person with whom this misfortune happened is not a stranger to you, you need to pray for him! Because prayer is what connects us with each other. If we refuse to pray for a person, then we are thereby saying that he is a stranger to us, that we do not love him. Then all our expressions of sympathy are hypocrisy. No one and nothing can stop us from praying.

Of course, there may be some guidelines - traditions, established practices, prohibitions from the clergy - that limit one or another type of liturgical commemoration. But it's not that simple. Thank God, there is now a discussion on this issue. In principle, there cannot be any cliches here. There can be no final laws or dogmas regulating human prayer.

During a disaster, those who cannot help themselves are rescued first of all: children, the elderly, and the disabled. But in the Church it turns out that funeral services are held for Christians, but suicides are left without church commemoration.

I will express my personal point of view, as a priest, as a Christian: in my firm conviction, the tradition that has developed in the Russian Orthodox Church, refusing funeral services and limiting church commemoration in the event a person has committed suicide, is a practice that has evolved in the pre-revolutionary period and was determined solely by pedagogical considerations. At that time, the man knew that if he committed suicide, he would be deprived of a church funeral service, would be buried behind the fence of the cemetery, and his loved ones would never be able to pray for him.

All these factors had a very strong psychological impact, which stopped, if not all, then most people who were thinking about or taking this step. It was a powerful pedagogical argument that did its job.

Today, I must say honestly, all this stops few people. People in such a state are not primarily concerned with church commemoration. Therefore, I believe that we should perform funeral services for suicides if relatives request it and if the person was a Christian.

Formally, we refer to the 14th rule of Timothy of Alexandria, which says that suicides cannot have a funeral service. I must say that nowadays we treat the canons very loosely, we leave some things, we don’t leave others. And we can easily find a canon to justify or confirm this or that judgment or action. We often say that in canon law there are the concepts of “oikonomia” and “akrivia”. I believe that allowing funeral services for suicides is exactly the path of mercy and economy that we should follow. There are many examples when we perform funeral services for people who were only formally Christians, who died a natural death, but who during their lifetime were blasphemers and atheists. Their moral and moral life is in big question, but we sing “rest with the saints,” and nothing torments our soul. This is also completely wrong.

There are many known cases when people committed suicide, committed this terrible sin, a terrible crime towards their soul and, of course, towards those around them too - but at the same time they were Christians. We don’t know what’s going on in the soul of every person who decides to do this. It's a secret. In the burial order there are wonderful words: death is a sacrament. The Lord alone will judge the soul of man.

Paradox: on the other hand, we perform funeral services for a lot of people who, perhaps, do not want to have funeral services at all...

I believe that this is a matter within the sphere of pastoral responsibility, which cannot be approached simply in a formal way. If you bring proof of the suicide's mental illness, they will allow the funeral service. “Allow me to perform the funeral service for my son who committed suicide.” - “Bring us a certificate from the psychiatric hospital that he was sick, then we will give him a drink.” This happens very often.

Recently a man came to see me whose son had committed suicide. He couldn’t find a place for himself, he followed me day and night. He turned to the clergy. They told him: bring a certificate from the psychiatric hospital. And he refused to bring a certificate because his son was mentally healthy. He considered that this lie would also be a betrayal - like everything that happened to his son, he considered it to be a consequence of betrayal towards him. I think this is correct.

They held the funeral service for Marina Tsvetaeva, and they also held the funeral service for many other people. This means we can hold a funeral service for someone. If you intercede for someone, it is no longer considered a sin to them. If a high-ranking person, either bring a certificate from a psychiatrist, or come to an agreement with the bishop... But if you can’t get through to the bishop, if you live in Siberia and in general in the countryside and don’t know what to do, then your son or daughter will not be punished...

Each case must be looked at separately, because sudden death does not fall under any rules. It is important that the priest takes the death of each person very personally. If he wants to enter into the pain of the person who came to him, I think he will be able to make the right decision.

Thank God that we now have the “Rite of prayerful consolation for relatives of those who have died without permission.” In my opinion, it is short, not fully understandable, leaving a slightly strange impression, but thank God that it exists as a kind of beginning. This is already some kind of consolation for relatives, because prayer for repose is needed both by the soul of the person who committed suicide and, above all, by relatives. Because when your child leaves, there is nothing left in life that could make up for this loss. And prayer can support, can prevent other suicides. She is able to heal the souls of these people, turn them to God, and encourage them to rethink their lives.

If earlier suicides were not held funeral services for pedagogical reasons, now it would be necessary to hold funeral services - also for pedagogical reasons (in relation to their relatives). I repeat once again that this is my personal opinion.

Where should relatives look for hope and consolation if they were not given permission for a church commemoration?

I believe that every effort must be made to ensure that the funeral service takes place. This is within the power of the relatives. You need to pester the priest and the hierarchy with requests, not give up, never despair. When we need something, we can move mountains. And if we need something, we have to talk about it day and night, shout, ask, demand, walk, something else. And if we don’t pray, if we don’t ask, then we don’t need it.

If the funeral service does not happen for some reason (or, on the contrary, it happens), then again you need to understand that the funeral service itself is not an amnesty, just as its absence is not a sentence. This is not the only thing that can change a person’s life in the future, it is not the final verdict. There are a million examples of desert monks who were not inveterate. There are many saints whose bodies were treated very blasphemously after death. I am not comparing suicides with ascetic monks, but I am saying that the funeral service does not decide a person’s life in eternity.

Ultimately, what is a funeral service? In this case, the priest himself does not perform any sacred action. On behalf of the gathered community, he pronounces the words of prayer to God out loud. And if he didn’t say them out loud, let’s all get together and say these words ourselves. Yes, of course, I do not equate cell prayer with church services, not at all. But there is no need to shift everything to the priest, thereby solving the problem. You must pray yourself. You must remember this all your life. It’s not that my soul was sick, then they finally performed the funeral service, blessed the land, took it to the cemetery, poured it out there, and the stone was lifted from my soul. Nothing like this. You will need to pray for a person all your life.

But no one can forbid us to pray personally. Prayer is something for which there is no time, no space, or any other boundaries. If we feel a connection with a loved one, then we should pray for him every day and hour. Pray that the Lord would forgive him everything for which he himself did not have time to ask for forgiveness in this life. To pray that the Lord would forgive him this sin, that He would have mercy on him, that the Lord would make us wise, how to act so that we could somehow help the people whom the Lord placed on this earth next to us. Human strength lies only in prayer. Prayer is what connects people with each other. Nothing else can restore this connection.

Of course we cry. Because we feel sorry... first of all for ourselves. This is a natural human quality. But if we are not indifferent to the fate of the soul of a departed person, then we must pray for him.

We believe that through the prayers of the living, the Lord changes the fate of the dead. The Church speaks very clearly about this in its worship. On the day of Holy Pentecost, Trinity, in our kneeling prayers we pray “for those who are kept in hell.” This means that we have firm confidence that through the prayers of the community the Lord is able to change the fate of these people. So why do we anticipate God's judgment by saying that this is impossible? Moreover, we must pray for suicides, submitting their soul, like the soul of every person, to the judgment of God.

There is a common belief that praying for suicides means possibly harming yourself. It is a myth?

Of course this is a myth. To get into the water and save a person is also to harm yourself. People who saved others in Krymsk harmed themselves. At best, it’s pneumonia, and at worst, we know examples of people dying while saving others. You can harm yourself with anything if you treat yourself very carefully. We often carry ourselves very carefully, we are afraid to “spill ourselves”. If you take an ink pen, you’ll put a stain on your pants, and you’ll also harm yourself. Therefore, what can we say about prayer... Praying for people means shedding blood, as the Monk Silouan said. If it’s hard to burden yourself with anything, including prayer, then forget it and don’t think about it, take care of your health.

What is prayer? First of all, a conversation with God. How can you do harm by talking to God?

Bring something on yourself...

If only we consider God as some kind of formidable judge who will give us a slap on the head for what we asked for someone. How can you harm yourself if you ask God for forgiveness for another person? Not for yourself - this is very important. We ask for ourselves too often. If we ask for another, how can we harm ourselves? This is what God is waiting for. This prayer is ten times closer to God than prayer for ourselves. Because she is selfless, because she is for those who can no longer ask for themselves. Maybe the Lord tolerates us on earth just so that we can pray for another person.

Elder Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov says: “Every day, and whenever you can, repeat to yourself: “Lord, have mercy on all who stand before you today.” For at every hour and every moment, thousands of people leave their life on this earth and their souls stand before the Lord - and how many of them parted with the earth in isolation, no one knows, in sadness and anguish, that no one will regret them and doesn’t even know about them at all: whether they lived or not.”

We should all remember this commandment. Every day and hour, pray for the one whom the Lord called from the earth.

What were the reasons for leaving - let's leave it in God's hands. There are a lot of surprises awaiting us in the next world. We will meet there someone whom we absolutely do not expect to meet, and we will not meet, perhaps, someone whose afterlife fate we had no doubt about. Therefore, we will leave this to God’s judgment. And the Lord judges with love.

We don't have enough love. We talk too often about justice and truth. Justice and truth are empty words without love. Moreover, our understanding of both justice and truth is distorted without love. God's judgment is very different from human judgment.

We have heard stories many times when the Lord saved a suicide at the last minute - the rope broke or someone suddenly came to visit. And the relatives of those who did commit suicide are perplexed: why does the Lord save some, but not others?

There can be no answer why the Lord acts this way and not otherwise. Why does the Lord take people at a certain moment, some earlier, some later. Why does the Lord allow pain and suffering on this earth. We can, of course, say: this probably happened to us, because this is how it is. I probably slipped and fell today, because I was rushing to work this morning and didn’t get the old lady across the street. We can find some explanations, although they will all be very, very far-fetched. Of course, thank God that we are starting to delve into ourselves and look for answers...

The only correct answer to everything that happens is the will of God. If we could explain God’s decisions, we ourselves would stand on the same level with God - “I know everything, I can interpret the will of God.” We can't know her.

In a completely incomprehensible, inexplicable way for the human mind and understanding, and sometimes difficult for the heart to accept, the Lord leads people to salvation and arranges it so that everything is for the good of the soul. And we need to trust God, entrust our lives to God: “Lord, I can’t understand, I can’t understand, I don’t understand, it’s very hard to come to terms with, but I believe You, I trust You.” You need to trust God and accept everything that happens with trust in God. With gratitude if we can offer it, but above all with trust.

It is inexplicable why the Lord does this. We understand some things after some time, some things we don’t understand on earth, but we will understand in eternal life, but such is God’s providence for each of us. You don’t always need to delve into the mechanics of life. All our falls come from the fact that we do not trust God.

What does “we don’t trust” mean?

We always want to correct Him; we do not accept in our hearts what is happening to us.

Trust does not mean going with the flow. It often happens that we Orthodox say: “This is the will of God. So, God blessed it this way,” and we happily wash our hands. Especially if it affects our ideas about how we should have acted.

But you need, without giving up participation in your life, to accept everything that happens - both sorrow and joy - firmly believing that it is from God. “I accept it, Lord. I accept without complaint. I ask, please help me to survive this, to live with it, to act within the framework, in the direction that You have outlined.” This is trust in God.

Many relatives of suicides are gnawing at the feeling of guilt that they did not manage to stop it in time, did not see that something terrible was happening to the person. How can you get rid of this feeling of guilt?

No way. And there is no need to seek relief from feelings of guilt. Or forget this person, erase him from your heart. If we feel guilty, it is our fault, and there is no need to brush it off. The Lord himself will heal and soften this pain. Somehow the wound will heal, the Lord will give consolation. But trying to figure out how we can forget this is wrong, because if this happened to a person, then it is the fault of each of us.

Nothing happens for nothing. It's not someone else's fault. We are to blame - those who lived next to this man. At the root of the tragedy of suicide there is always a betrayal committed by loved ones. We didn’t hear it, we didn’t want to hear it, we didn’t see it, we didn’t want to see it, we didn’t look back, we didn’t look, we didn’t ask, we weren’t there, we didn’t ask again, we refused love, we refused attention. Any refusal of attention to a loved one is a betrayal towards him. Because we are all called to give each other love, to take care of each other. The Lord came to earth in the form of a man, He always answers through a man and comes to us through a man.

We betray each other very often. Everyone experiences betrayal differently. Sometimes we wiped it off and forgot, sometimes we didn’t pay attention, sometimes our heart ached and the relationship was restored. And sometimes something happens that cannot be changed. Life, unfortunately, cannot be written down as a draft and then rewritten completely. There are things - if we did them today, we will not be able to undo them tomorrow. Or vice versa - if we haven’t done something today, we will never be able to do it again.

Therefore, you will have to live with guilt all your life. And we must live and ask God for forgiveness for ourselves and for the departed person all our lives. It is very important to remember this responsibility.

What else can relatives of a suicide do for their loved one who committed suicide?

Definitely good deeds. The Lord took some of us, but left us on earth. This is also not just for us to walk around and smoke the sky. What is the purpose of man? And our purpose is to love and give our love to other people. Therefore, we must give love to those who remain with us in this world. Help those we can help. And very often our help, completely insignificant, meaning nothing to us, can make it easier, and sometimes radically change the life of another person. For us, some amount of money is a trifle, but for someone this money will save their life today.

Unfortunately, not everything can be solved with money. You need to give something global of yourself, both materially and morally. In moral and physical. My personal opinion is that the Lord will have mercy on the deceased all the more, seeing our good deeds and our help. It’s not for nothing that we hold funeral services, invite the poor and sick, and feed them in memory of the departed. This mercy of ours is not needed by God, it is by the human soul. The Lord accepts this sacrifice.

Let us remember the feat of Saint Blessed Xenia of Petersburg, how she took upon herself foolishness after the death of her husband. For what? In order to alleviate the posthumous fate of a spouse who suddenly died without repentance. And she achieved this goal through acts of mercy, acts of prayer, and dedicating herself entirely to God.

Sometimes it is advised to give alms and mentally tell God what kind of person this is.

The Lord himself will sort it out. Alms should be given not for someone, but to someone, because this person is in need. You need to give it to him, and the Lord will count it. He will put it into our account, into the account of the deceased - God has his own accounts. If you see someone in need, take it out and give it.

Without thinking about whether this is a real needy person?

A very difficult question to which I do not have my own definite answer. We have a lot of scammers who also take advantage of children. Of course, you need to have some reasoning. It’s not easy to give a ruble and thereby pay off, to remove sin from your soul. Of course, you need to somehow give to those who really need it.

But it’s better to make a mistake in the other direction than not to give at all. You know, we give and give so rarely that our understanding that we have given to the wrong person is such deceit, such a lie! We have gone through a hundred times and have not given to someone we know exactly needs.

It is not for nothing that in our cities - near the walls of churches, near escalators, near metro stations - there are such a large number of needy, poor, wretched, crippled people. This is one of the signs of our life. The Lord knocks on our heart like this.

The topic of suicide is not a pleasant one. Most of us, even when faced with it face to face, prefer to silently live it inside, asking many questions and trying to understand what it really is: manifestation of human free will or terrible sin.

Someone himself faced a similar choice in the darkest moments of his life’s journey, trying to make a painful choice. And someone lost friends or loved ones, experiencing pain, despair, powerlessness, misunderstanding, and maybe even guilt...

I propose to lift the veil of this phenomenon a little and look at it not from the position of modern society, but from the point of view of your immortal soul. How does she evaluate such a decision? What happens to the soul after suicide? Will she face punishment and renunciation?

Suicide in history and religion

Attitudes towards suicide in different eras and in different cultures are very ambiguous. It is categorically condemned like this world religions like Islam, Judaism, Christianity.

In some places, suicides are not even buried with all the people in a common cemetery; they rest behind a fence. Christian scriptures prophesy the most terrible punishments for those who voluntarily renounce life. You cannot pray for them and light candles. They seem to have been crossed out of the lists of existence.

Whereas in Eastern culture suicide is more ritual character and is an act of honor. For example, samurai in Japan committed seppuku to avoid being captured by the enemy or to atone for guilt.

In India, old people, in order not to burden their family with their infirmity, committed an act of self-immolation, just like wives left with their dead husbands, performing the ancient ritual of sati.

The ancient Celts and Danish warriors believed it is a shame for a warrior to live to old age and infirmity. And they left this world of their own free will, throwing themselves off the “rock of their ancestors.”

There are also many rituals in history sacrificing oneself in the name of the gods. As a rule, this is preceded by long preparation and ideological education, awareness of one’s sacrifice.

Thus, you can see that even among people there is no unanimous understanding of self-death. There are different attitudes to the value of life itself. But how does the soul relate to this?

What Kryon says about suicide

In our time, we also have the opportunity to communicate with spiritual beings from more subtle planes, not embodied on Earth, but helping people go through a difficult period in our history.

One of such groups of Spiritual teachers is Kryon, who was asked the question about suicide.

Question: People who commit suicide are usually said to be "stuck" in a very dark place in heaven. Are these descriptions true or are they embellished by personal beliefs? And what about those who commit suicide not because of depression and the inability to continue living, but “for the sake of a higher goal,” like ideological terrorists? Or people who deliberately choose to be killed because they have terminal cancer and the pain becomes unbearable?

Answer: The energy of suicide is a test for those who are left alive, not for those who performed the act. In fact, a Human Being has very strong survival instincts to keep him from committing suicide, but there is no stigma or punishment for those who do it. And they don't get stuck anywhere. Usually, the possibility of suicide is provided for in the contract from the very beginning, so often people around are left with the impression that “this has been a long time coming.”

Question: What if a person really believed that his physical life was over, and truly wanted to leave it, experiencing the joy of leaving the earthly plane and returning home? Will he end up in hell?

Answer: No! That beautiful soul who has agreed to bring the potential of this energy to their family receives exactly the same welcome on the other side of the veil as one who has gone all the way to natural death. Read the parable of the Prodigal Son in your scripture. That's exactly what she's talking about.

Thus, Spiritual beings tell us that there is no condemnation or punishment on the other side. Now I invite you to read the stories of those who have personally gone through similar experiences.

How does the soul feel about suicide?

In the space of the Institute of Reincarnation, we explored this topic. Students recalled their past lives when they ended them by committing suicide.

But the most interesting thing was after the soul left the body, when she herself analyzed the decision made and discussed it with her Mentors. It becomes clear whether the suicide was planned or whether it was a momentary decision, weakness, or a violation of the plan.

And also from personal experience, the participants saw where souls end up after suicide, whether they face terrible punishment or renunciation.

Walked around the incarnation with planned suicide. This was an agreement between souls before incarnation. I'm a boy. Until I was 5 years old, there was complete happiness through my mother, who loved me, and in her rays life was filled with light.

At the age of 5, the mother dies. They hide this fact from me, but I feel that something is wrong. Over time, I withdraw and try to prove to my aunt that I have “replaced” my mother, that I am good, that I am ready to love her and be loved. But, being a prim and indifferent person, she cannot show warm feelings, and I keep trying and trying to prove my love to her...

As a result, at the age of 18, I decide to cut my wrists to prove that I am worthy of love. And the last moment before leaving the body, I see her face and eyes filled with tears... This is EXACTLY what I needed to evoke in her - her love!!! At that moment I myself was filled with love and a sense of accomplishment in this incarnation.

The mentors welcomed me warmly and after the incarnation, they said that everyone has a red emergency button to exit the incarnation if circumstances have become so thick that it is impossible to do anything else for the soul. This is how fortitude is tested, because there is a way out of any situation.

Often suicide - escape. And in the world of souls it is not a punishable sin. Everything is always done for the soul that is best for it at the moment. And since all souls go through different experiences, there are different decisions for everyone in actions and actions.

Marina A.

Good or bad, this is human understanding, I didn’t feel any condemnation there, only one understanding and love, understanding why I did it...at the moment of leaving, I felt a huge relief.

Polina S.

Japan. Harakiri was made at the age of about 40 years. And all because he did not want to serve the new emperor. It was difficult to leave and leave my wife and children. I felt like I had pierced myself with a sword in the house while no one was there in the chest area just above the heart.

And after leaving and communicating with mentors, I learned that he would not have ruled for long, since I had the opportunity within a year or two to gather people and overthrow him. I have not received any punishment and will not receive any, since there were only 3 such departures from life before. For 3-5 consecutive treatments out of life prematurely sent for a kind of “treatment” of the soul.

And so there are no more “punishments”. There were also 2 suicides. One shot himself, and the second fell off a cliff. But they were not planned, all because I rushed to conclusions.

Maxim S.

I saw a girl, grew up with a feeling of uselessness and dislike by her parents. In her early youth, she became strongly attached to a man, she was afraid of losing him, she wanted to be needed by him. When it turned out the other way around, she took poison, killing herself and her unborn child.

The soul later regretted the choice. The mentors said that she did not go through the experience, she chose the option of weakness and avoidance of responsibility. In the world of souls there is no condemnation of suicides, but it is not encouraged there, if the soul thereby escapes responsibility.

Marina Zh.

I received a notification from the Mentors that LESS EXIT forces us to make such a way out of life.
Actually we should know that THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY OUT. Limited beliefs prevent us from seeing it. Fear, shame, disappointment, guilt, regret, and so on.

Ira F.

I saw a girl, a merchant's daughter. My father traveled all the time. And there was some kind of dark story with my father, all sorts of rumors circulated, and the family began to be “persecuted.” Pointing fingers, shouting some nasty things after him. As a result, the girl (me) hanged herself in the barn.

The girl needed these persecutions to gain wisdom. Over time, she would become an influential woman, she would have a family. Mentors say that in most cases no need for suicide When necessary, death comes on its own.

Olga A.

I'm the boy Hans, from Denmark. Throughout my childhood, I was beaten and humiliated by my parents and other people. When I was 15, I fell in love with a rich and beautiful girl in fur. And on the street I was humiliated in her presence. I couldn’t stand the humiliation, her loud laughter at me. He sobbed in the closet and drank a bottle of poison that he stole somewhere.

Coming out of my body I feel confused. In the World of Souls, I am embarrassed and feel embarrassed because I could not control myself and gave in. There was a plan that I would get stronger from difficulties and become a strong guy. There was a plan to create a relationship with a girl and a partnership with an entrepreneur friend.

They found him another character for a couple, from those who initially planned a regular incarnation. And for the girl, they gave birth to another guy in retrospect))) This was a surprise for me, I’ve never seen anything like this before.

In total, I had 28 suicides, only a few of them were planned. In the World of Souls there is no condemnation, only an attempt to understand why one did not have the courage to endure these trials. No punishment, special places.

Natalya G.

From the stories described, you can see that sometimes the soul plans such an exit from incarnation itself and in advance. But more often than not, this is an “emergency exit” and no one sees a sin or tragedy in this.

Another thing is that the soul had certain plans and tasks for embodiment, and the person, unable to “cope with control,” violated them.

And now the soul will again have to plan a similar incarnation, be born and grow again in a new body and go through everything from the very beginning.

Are you sure this is the best option?

What to do when it's really hard

Suicides occur because a person feels lonely, abandoned, unwanted, and there is no strength to cope with the difficulties that arise. Sometimes the severity and suffering are so unbearable that I am ready to do anything just to stop it. There is no point in further life. What to do?

• Just remember that we are always given challenges and the strength to get through them. Sometimes, the unfortunate person “runs away” at the very last moment, after which relief already looms. But he won't know this anymore.
• There are practices and meditations that give understanding and the feeling that we are not alone, that there is support from Mentors, angels, the Higher Self. You just need to ask them for help and support in difficult times and you will immediately feel warmth and calmness spreading throughout your body. and relief.
• And only after that you can ask them for help in finding a way out and understanding the situation, answers to your questions or advice on what to do.
• A good exercise when it’s difficult and painful is to simultaneously look at yourself from the outside while living it. It looks like the “Matryoshka” exercise from the course by Maris Dreshmanis. It helps reduce pain and assess the situation more soberly.
• It is also important to remind yourself that this is only temporary pain. Right now, yes, it’s unbearable. But if you wait until the morning, it will be easier! Exactly! Checked! You just have to endure the most difficult moment.
• And of course, remember, it’s better to strain yourself and go through this path to the end, than to then start again from the first steps doing the same thing, or even worse.

Our life is valuable and amazing in itself! Our own world exists only as long as we exist. And every experience is valuable and unique, remember this and focus on the beauty that is in it!

And if you are interested in exploring your own experience of suicide, the meditation of Māris Dreshmanis will help you with this.

While the souls of people naturally experience relief and even joy in that world, the souls of suicides, on the contrary, once in that world, experience confusion and suffering there. One expert in the field of suicide expressed this fact with the following apt phrase: “If you part with life with a restless soul, then you will go into the next world with a restless soul.” Suicides commit suicide in order to “end everything,” but it turns out that this is where everything is just beginning for them.

Here are a few contemporary stories that illustrate the otherworldly state of suicide. One man who loved his wife dearly committed suicide when she died. He hoped to be united with her forever. However, it turned out to be completely different. When the doctor managed to resuscitate him, he said: “I ended up in a completely different place from where she was... It was some kind of terrible place... And I immediately realized that I had made a huge mistake” (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 143).

Hieronymus Bosch. Fragment of the triptych "The Last Judgment" - right wing "Hell", 1504

Some suicides who were brought back to life described that after death they found themselves in some kind of dungeon and felt that they would remain here for a very long time. They realized that this was their punishment for violating the established law, according to which every person must endure a certain share of sorrows. Having voluntarily thrown off the burden placed on them, they must bear even more in the other world.

One man who experienced temporary death said: “When I got there, I realized that two things are absolutely forbidden: killing yourself and killing another person. If I decided to commit suicide, it would mean throwing in the face of God what He has now given gift. To take the life of another person would be to violate God's plan for him" (Raymond A. Moody, MD, Life after Life, Bantam Books, NY 1978, p. 144).

The general impression of resuscitation doctors is that suicide is very severely punished. Dr. Bruce Grayson, a psychiatrist at the University of Connecticut Emergency Department who has studied this issue extensively, testifies that no one who experiences temporary death wants to hasten the end of their life (Raymond A. Moody, MD, The Light Beyond , Bantam Books, NY 1990, p. 99). Although that world is incomparably better than ours, life here has a very important preparatory value. Only God decides when a person is ripe enough for eternity.

Forty-seven-year-old Beverly talked about how happy she was to be alive. As a child, she suffered a lot of grief from her cruel parents, who abused her daily. Already in adulthood, she could not talk about her childhood without emotion. One day, at the age of seven, driven to despair by her parents, she threw herself headfirst and smashed her head on the cement. During clinical death, her soul saw familiar children surrounding her. her lifeless body. Suddenly a bright light shone around Beverly, from which an unknown voice said to her: “You made a mistake. Your life does not belong to you, and you must return.” To this Beverly objected: “But no one loves me and no one wants to take care of me.” “It’s true,” the voice answered, “and in the future no one will take care of you. Therefore, learn to take care of yourself.” After these words, Beverly saw snow and dry wood around her. But then from somewhere there was a whiff of warmth, the snow melted, and the dry branches of the tree were covered with leaves and ripe apples. Approaching the tree, she began to pick apples and eat them with pleasure. Then she realized that both in nature and in every life there are periods of winter and summer, which form a single whole in the Creator’s plan. When Beverly came to life, she began to approach life in a new way. As an adult, she married a good man, had children and was happy (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back", 1993, p. 184).

Heaven and Hell

What is Heaven? Where is it? In colloquial speech, people refer to Heaven as “above” and hell as “below”. People who saw the state of hell during their clinical death invariably described the approach to it as precisely a descent. Although, of course, “up” and “down” are conventional concepts, it would still be wrong to consider Heaven and Hell as only different states: they are two different places, although they cannot be described geographically. Angels and souls of the dead can only be in one specific place, be it Heaven, hell or earth. We cannot designate the location of the spiritual world, because it is located outside the “coordinates” of our space-time system. That space of a different kind, which, starting here, extends in a new direction, imperceptible to us.

Numerous cases from the lives of saints show how this other kind of space “breaks through” into the space of our world. Thus, the inhabitants of the island of Elovy saw the soul of Saint Herman of Alaska ascending in a pillar of fire, and the elder Seraphim of Glinsky saw the ascending soul of Seraphim of Sarov. The prophet Elisha saw how the prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a chariot of fire. No matter how much we want to penetrate “there” with our thoughts, it is limited by the fact that those “places” are outside our three-dimensional space.

Most modern stories of people who have experienced clinical death describe places and states “close” to our world, even on this side of the “border”. However, there are also descriptions of places reminiscent of heaven or hell, which the Holy Scripture speaks of.

For example, in the messages of Dr. Georg Ritchie, Betty Maltz, the Rawling Matrix and others, hell also appears - “snakes, reptiles, an unbearable stench, demons.” In his book "Return from Tomorrow" Dr. Ritchie talks about what happened to him in 1943, when he saw images of hell. There the sinners' attachment to earthly desires was insatiable. He saw killers who seemed to be chained to their victims. The murderers cried and asked those they had killed for forgiveness, but they did not hear them. These were useless tears and requests.

Thomas Welch tells how, while working at a sawmill in Portland, Oregon, he slipped, fell into a river and was crushed by huge logs. It took workers more than an hour to find his body and remove it from under the logs. Seeing no signs of life in him, they considered him dead. Thomas himself, in a state of temporary death, found himself on the shore of an immense fiery ocean. The sight of rushing waves of burning sulfur left him dumbfounded in horror. It was fiery Gehenna, which there are no human words to describe. Right there, on the shores of fiery Gehenna, he recognized several familiar faces who had died before him. They all stood in a daze of horror, looking at the rolling shafts of fire. Thomas understood that there was no way to leave here. He began to regret that he had previously cared little about his salvation. Oh, if he knew what awaited him, he would live completely differently.

At this time he noticed someone walking in the distance. The stranger's face displayed great strength and kindness. Thomas immediately realized that it was the Lord and that only He could save his soul, doomed to Gehenna. Thomas began to hope that the Lord would notice him. But the Lord walked past, looking somewhere into the distance, “He’s about to disappear, and then everything will end,” Thomas thought. Suddenly the Lord turned His face and looked at Thomas. That's all it took - just one glance from the Lord! In an instant, Thomas was in his body and came to life. Before he even had time to open his eyes, he clearly heard the prayers of the workers standing around. Many years later, Thomas remembered everything he saw “there” in every detail. This incident was impossible to forget (he described his case in the book "Oregon's Amazing Miracle", Christ tor the Nations, Inc., 1976).

Pastor Kenneth E. Hagin recalls how in April 1933, while living in McKinney, Texas, his heart stopped beating and his soul left his body. “After that, I began to descend lower and lower, and the further I descended, the darker and hotter it became. Then, even deeper, I began to notice on the walls of the caves the flickering of some ominous lights - obviously hellish. Finally, a large flame broke out and pulled me. Many years have passed since this happened, and I still see this hellish flame in front of me as if in reality.

Having reached the bottom of the abyss, I felt the presence of some spirit near me, which began to guide me. At this time, a powerful Voice sounded over the hellish darkness. I did not understand what he said, but I felt that it was the voice of God. The power of this voice made the entire underworld tremble, like the leaves on an autumn tree when the wind blows. Immediately the spirit that had been pushing me released me, and the whirlwind carried me back up. Gradually the earthly light began to shine again. I found myself back in my room and jumped into my body, like a man jumps into his trousers. Then I saw my grandmother, who began to tell me: “Son, I thought you were dead.”

After some time, Kenneth became the pastor of one of the Protestant churches and dedicated his life to God. He described this incident in the brochure “My Testimony.”

Dr. Rawlings devotes an entire chapter in his book to stories of people who have been to hell. Some, for example, saw a huge field there, on which sinners, in combat without rest, maimed, killed and raped each other. The air there is filled with unbearable screams, curses and curses. Others describe places of useless labor, where cruel demons oppress the souls of sinners by carrying burdens from one place to another.

The unbearability of hellish torment is further illustrated by the following two stories from Orthodox books. One paralytic, having suffered for many years, finally prayed to the Lord asking him to stop his suffering. An Angel appeared to him and said: “Your sins require cleansing. The Lord offers you, instead of one year of suffering on earth, with which you would be cleansed, to experience three hours of torment in hell. Choose.” The sufferer thought and chose three hours in hell. After this, the Angel carried his soul to the underworld of hell. Everywhere there was darkness, cramped conditions, everywhere there were spirits of evil, the cries of sinners, everywhere there was only suffering. The soul of the paralytic fell into inexpressible fear and languor; his cries were answered only by the echo of hell and the bubbling of the flames of hell. No one paid attention to his groans and roars; all the sinners were busy with their own torment. It seemed to the sufferer that entire centuries had already passed and that the Angel had forgotten about him.

But finally an Angel appeared and asked: “How do you feel, brother?” “You deceived me!” exclaimed the sufferer. “Not for three hours, but for many years I have been here in unspeakable torment!” “What years?!” the Angel asked, “only one hour has passed, and you still have to suffer for two more hours.” Then the sufferer began to beg the Angel to return him to earth, where he agreed to suffer for as many years as he wanted, just to leave this place of horrors. “Okay,” answered the Angel, “God will show His great mercy to you.”

Finding himself again on his painful bed, the sufferer from that time on endured his suffering with meekness, remembering the hellish horrors where it was incomparably worse (from the letters of Svyatogorets, p. 183, letter 15, 1883).

Here is a story about two friends, one of whom went to a monastery and led a holy lifestyle there, while the other remained in the world and lived a sinful life. When a friend who lived sinfully died suddenly, his monk friend began to pray to God to reveal to him the fate of his comrade. One day, a dead friend appeared to him in a dream and began to talk about his unbearable torment and how a never-ending worm was gnawing at him. Having said this, he lifted his clothes to his knee and showed his leg, which was completely covered with a terrible worm that had eaten it. Such a terrible stench came from the wounds on his leg that the monk immediately woke up. He jumped out of the cells, leaving the door open, and the stench from the cells spread throughout the monastery. Since the stench did not decrease over time, all the monks had to move to another place. And the monk, who saw the hellish prisoner, could not get rid of the stench that clung to him all his life (from the book “Eternal Secrets of the Afterlife,” published by the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos).

In contrast to these pictures of horror, descriptions of Heaven are always bright and joyful. For example, Thomas N., a world-famous scientist, drowned in a swimming pool when he was five years old. Fortunately, one of his relatives noticed him, pulled him out of the water and took him to the hospital. When the rest of the relatives gathered at the hospital, the doctor announced to them that Thomas had died. But unexpectedly for everyone, Thomas came to life. “When I found myself under water,” Thomas later said, “I felt that I was flying through a long tunnel. At the other end of the tunnel I saw a Light that was so bright that I could touch it. There I saw God on the throne and people below or, probably, the angels surrounding the throne. As I approached God, He told me that my time had not yet come. I wanted to stay, but suddenly I found myself in my body." Thomas claims that this vision helped him find the right path in life. He wanted to become a scientist in order to better understand the world created by God. He certainly made great strides in this direction (Melvin Morse, MD, Closer to the Light Ivy Books, published by Ballantine Books, 1990. "To Hell and Back," 1993, p. 167).

Betty Maltz, in her 1977 book I Saw Forever, describes how immediately after her death she found herself on a wonderful green hill. She was surprised that, despite having three surgical wounds, she stood and walked freely and without pain. There is a bright blue sky above her. There is no sun, but light is everywhere. Under her bare feet there is grass of such a bright color that she has never seen on earth; every blade of grass is as if it were alive. The hill was steep, but my legs moved easily, without effort. Bright flowers, bushes, trees. To her left is a male figure in a robe. Betty thought: “Isn’t this an Angel?” They walked without talking, but she realized that he was not a stranger and that he knew her. She felt young, healthy and happy. “I felt like I had everything I had ever wanted, was everything I had ever wanted to be, was going to where I had always dreamed of being.” Then her whole life passed before her eyes. She saw her selfishness and was ashamed, but she felt care and love around her. She and her companion approached a wonderful silver palace, “but there were no towers.” Music, singing. She heard the word "Jesus". Wall of precious stones; gate made of pearls. When the gate opened for a moment, she saw the street in golden light. She did not see anyone in this light, but she realized that it was Jesus. She wanted to enter the palace, but remembered her father and returned to her body. This experience brought her closer to God. She loves people now.

Saint Salvius of Albia, a sixth-century Gallic hierarch, came back to life after being dead for most of the day and told his friend Gregory of Tours the following; “When my cell shook four days ago and you saw me dead, I was lifted up by two angels and carried to the highest peak of Heaven, and then under my feet it seemed that not only this miserable earth was visible, but also the sun, the moon and the stars. Then I was led through a gate that shone brighter than the sun and was led into a building where all the floors glittered with gold and silver. The light is impossible to describe. The place was filled with people and stretched so far in all directions that there was no end in sight. The angels cleared in front of me was a path through this crowd, and we entered the place to which our gaze was directed even when we were not far away. Above this place hovered a light cloud that was lighter than the sun, and from it I heard a voice like the voice of the waters many.

Then I was greeted by certain beings, some of whom were dressed in priestly robes, and others in ordinary dress. My escorts explained to me that these were martyrs and other saints. While I stood, such a pleasant fragrance enveloped me that, as if imbued with it, I did not feel the need for either food or drink.

Then a voice from the cloud said: “Let this man return to earth, for the Church needs him.” And I fell prostrate on the ground and cried. “Alas, alas, Lord,” I said. “Why did you show me all this only to take it away from me again?” But the voice answered: “Go in peace. I will look after you until I return you to this place again.” Then I went back crying through the gate through which I had entered."

Another remarkable vision of Heaven is described by Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ, a Slav who lived in Constantinople in the ninth century. Once during a harsh winter, Saint Andrew lay on the street and died from the cold. Suddenly he felt an extraordinary warmth within himself and saw a beautiful young man with a face glowing like the sun. This young man led him to heaven, to the third Heaven. That's what St. Andrei said, returning to earth:

“By Divine will, I remained for two weeks in a sweet vision... I saw myself in paradise, and here I marveled at the indescribable charm of this beautiful and wondrous place. There were many gardens filled with tall trees, which, swaying with their tops, cheered my sight, and a pleasant fragrance emanated from their branches... These trees cannot be compared in beauty to any earthly tree, In those gardens there were countless birds with golden, snow-white and multi-colored wings. They sat on the branches of the heavenly trees and sang so beautifully that I couldn't remember myself from their sweet-sounding singing...

After that, it seemed to me that I was standing at the top of the firmament, and in front of me was walking some young man with a face as bright as the sun, dressed in purple... When I followed him, I saw a tall and beautiful cross like a rainbow, and all around him were fire-like singers who sang and praised the Lord, crucified on the cross for us. The young man walking in front of me, approaching the cross, kissed it and gave a sign for me to do the same... Kissing the cross, I was filled with unspeakable joy and felt the fragrance stronger than before.

Walking further, I looked down and saw below me what looked like an abyss of the sea. The young man turned to me and said: “Don’t be afraid, for we need to rise even higher,” and gave me his hand. When I grabbed it, we were already above the second firmament. There I saw wondrous men, their joy indescribable in human language... And so we rose above the third heaven, where I saw and heard many heavenly powers singing and praising God. We approached some kind of curtain shining like lightning, in front of which stood young men who looked like flames... And the young man who led me said to me: “When the curtain opens, you will see the Lord Christ. Then bow to the throne of His glory.” ... And then some fiery hand opened the curtain, and I, like the prophet Isaiah, saw the Lord Himself sitting on a high and exalted throne, and seraphim flew around Him. He was dressed in a scarlet robe; His face shone, and He looked at me with love. Seeing this, I fell on my face before Him, bowing to the Most Bright One and the Throne of His glory.

The joy that overwhelmed me at the contemplation of His face cannot be expressed in words; Even now, when I remember that vision, I am filled with indescribable joy. I lay in awe before my Master. After this, the entire heavenly army sang a wondrous and indescribable song, and then - I myself don’t understand how I found myself in paradise again.”

(It is interesting to add that when Saint Andrew, not seeing the Virgin Mary, asked where She was, the Angel explained to him: “Did you think to see the Queen here? She is not here. She descended into a distressed world - to help people and console the mourning. I would show you Her holy place, but now there is no time, for you must return.")

So, according to the lives of saints and stories in Orthodox books, the soul goes to heaven after it has left this world and passed through the space between this world and Heaven. Often this passage is accompanied by intrigues on the part of demons. At the same time, Angels always lead the soul to Heaven, and it never gets there on its own. St. John Chrysostom also wrote about this: “Then the angels took Lazarus away... for the soul does not by itself go to that life, which is impossible for it. If we, moving from city to city, have a need for a leader, then all the more will we need in the guidebooks the soul is torn from the body and presented to a future life." Obviously, modern stories about light and places of wondrous beauty do not convey actual visits to these places, but only “visions” and “anticipations” of them at a distance.

A genuine visit to Heaven is always accompanied by obvious signs of Divine grace: sometimes a wondrous fragrance, accompanied by a miraculous strengthening of all a person’s powers. For example, the fragrance nourished Saint Savely so much that he did not need food or drink for more than three days, and only when he told about it did the fragrance disappear. The profound experience of visiting Heaven is accompanied by a sense of reverence for the greatness of God and a consciousness of one's unworthiness. At the same time, the personal experience of Heaven is inaccessible to an accurate description, because “the eye did not see, the ear did not hear, and the thing that God prepared for those who love Him did not enter the mind of man” and “now we see as if through a dark glass, fortune-telling, then but we see face to face" (1 Cor. 2:9 and 13:12).

Alexander Mileant,
From the book "On the threshold of life and death."

Choose life with Christ!

"For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16)

“Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and cleave to Him; for in this is your life and the length of your days...” (Deut. 30:19-20)

According to church canons, suicides (this also includes those killed in a duel, criminals killed during a robbery, people who insisted on euthanasia) and even those suspected of suicide (it is not customary to hold a funeral service for those who drowned under unknown circumstances) cannot be buried in church or commemorated in church prayer during the Liturgy and at funeral services. Suicides are not buried in cemeteries near churches. There are opinions that the dead “lovers” of extreme “sports” can be classified as suicides, because they, really realizing the mortal danger of such activities, still risked their lives for the sake of empty joy. In fact, drug addicts, substance abusers and alcoholics are suicides.

However, in the well-known pre-revolutionary manual for clergy S.V. Bulgakov, with reference to the resolution of the Holy Synod of July 10, 1881, states that those who died from heavy drinking (unless it is proven that they drank with the aim of poisoning themselves with alcohol) are not considered suicides, on the basis that "...for death from heavy drinking is preceded by a clouding of reason, which does not happen when using other means of conscious suicide...". Although, obviously, almost all drunkards are aware that excessive alcohol consumption is fatal to health. Not everything is simple in cases of death of drug addicts from an overdose, since immediately before taking the drug the drug addict is conscious, unlike a binge alcoholic who takes the last already fatal portions of alcohol in a clearly insane state.

Exception is done only for suicides suffering from obvious mental pathology and who are on official psychiatric registration. In such cases, it is necessary to provide the ruling bishop of your diocese with a certificate from the psychiatric institution that once supervised this unfortunate person, and write a corresponding petition asking him to bless the church commemoration of such a person. Almost always such a blessing is given...

Who are we deceiving, ourselves or God?

However, as practice shows, our people, especially those of little faith and church “goers,” attach excessive and false importance to the church funeral service, as to some kind of magical action, after which the deceased automatically goes to heaven.

Meanwhile, according to the teachings of the Church, the human soul goes through terrible ordeals on the third day after death. At this time, the soul of the deceased has a great need for the prayerful help of relatives and the Church. To facilitate the transition of the soul to another life, the canon and psalter are read over the coffin by the relatives, and the funeral service is performed in the church. The primary importance of this service is comfort of the soul of the deceased, and only then asking the Lord for mercy for the soul, asking for sins, which, alas, are not automatically forgiven in absolutely all cases.

It’s hard to see with what simply maniacal persistence parents almost extort from the clergy a blessing for the funeral service of their suicidal children, who have never suffered from mental disorders. Who are we deceiving? The priest, turning to the Lord, sings: “...rest with the saints...”. Who will you rest with the saints?! Suicide?! Who, moreover, despised the Church of Christ for years, just like his parents, who began to be baptized only when a terrible thunder struck?

Saint Innocent of Irkutsk, according to, among other things, apostolic rules, asked relatives who brought the dead to the church for the funeral service: "When was the last time he was on duty?" - “About six months ago.” - “Take the coffin. We have no right to perform a funeral service for such people.”

The Church prays only for its members, but almost always people who have long ago arbitrarily cut themselves off from the body of the Church end up committing suicide. The Lord said: “I am the vine, and you are the branches; whoever abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in Me will be cast out like a branch and wither; and such branches They are collected and thrown into the fire, and they are burned."(John 15:5-6) - they contain both great consolation for faithful Christians and a terrible warning for those of little faith and apostates.

Here are two letters from Archimandrite John Krestyankin, confessor of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery:

“Dear A. in the Lord! You cannot remember and pray for your mother in church, because there are canons that cannot be disobeyed. Disobedience will entail terrible consequences for the disobedient. He will give himself over to the power of the enemy. But what is possible - he writes about this Bishop Benjamin. And we send you the Canon about someone who died without permission. Read this canon at home for 40 days every day, and read the prayer of Leo of Optina for your mother all your life. Also give alms for your mother to those in need. Nothing more can be done. Even if someone gives you permission to pray in church, it will be to the detriment of both your mother and you., for no one can cancel the canons of the Church. And obedience to them will bend the Lord to mercy on you and your mother. God bless you!".

“Servant of God V.! You cannot violate church canons with impunity. You cannot pray for your brother in church. You were fussing about his funeral service, now at least stop collecting the wrath of God on your head. You can only pray for suicides at home, and not at all report them in church, neither at the Liturgy nor at the memorial service. The Lord is their judge, and you suffer for disobedience."

The manic persistence of relatives of suicides is often driven by a subconscious desire to shift all responsibility for the future fate of their murdered child to the Church. Meanwhile, the greatest blame lies, first of all, with parents who live in unbelief and who did not give their child the proper faith from a young age, which he could easily rely on in difficult times.

Therefore, it is more correct to take responsibility ourselves, and privately (at home) take upon ourselves the feat of prayer (but not arbitrarily, but blessings and under certain conditions), with faith that the Lord will give some relief to the soul of a suicide.

However, everything is not so simple here...

Pray, but carefully

Over the past few years, several brochures have been circulating, which contain a commemoration at home prayer about suicides with the canon “O those who died without permission” and the prayer of St. Leo, the Elder of Optina. This is a publication of a certain Moscow parish (by the way, printed without the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch); publication of the Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersk Monastery (also without the archpastoral blessing); this canon and prayer were included in the book published by the Sretensky Monastery - “Prayers for the Dead” (I have not personally seen the publication, and I don’t know whether it was blessed by His Holiness the Patriarch). A small book, “How to Pray for Suicides,” which is a copy of the first two with a number of additions, was published in 2004 with the blessing of Archbishop Nikon of Ufa and Sterlitamak.

Despite the fact that the creator of the canon, Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) was a remarkable ascetic of Orthodoxy of the 20th century, in the report of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II at the Council of Bishops in 1997 http://www.sedmitza.ru/index.html? sid=50&did=40 they say “More control is needed over the publication and introduction of new liturgical texts in order to avoid such misunderstandings as the publication by one Moscow parish of the theologically and canonically dubious “Canon of those who died without permission.” Indeed, it is noteworthy that all the prayers about suicides, which are now recommended, with certain reservations, for private (home) reading, relate only to the last century. In the detailed pre-revolutionary manual for clergy of the same S.V. Bulgakov, unfortunately, there is no explanation of how home commemoration of suicides should be carried out, except perhaps:

"... By the Samara spiritual consistory in 1894, the refusal of one of the clergy to bury according to the Orthodox rite a woman who had hanged herself while drunk, was recognized as correct; and the local Eminence on this resolution of the consistory put forward the following resolution regarding the said woman: “I only allow perform commemoration, with alms in her memory, but I don’t dare allow her funeral service according to the Orthodox rite."

A single conciliar church opinion on PURPOSE prayer cell (home) commemoration of the souls of suicides,
to alleviate their condition in hell, or even save them from hellNO

One of the brochures, which discussed the possibility of commemorating suicides, cited one pre-revolutionary story.

“In the city of Buzuluki, near Orenburg, at one time there lived a rich man. He had a beloved son. At that time, they found him a bride, and she was not to his liking. They wanted to marry him, and he hanged himself out of resentment. For his parents, it was terrible blow. They are believers, they applied to many churches and monasteries - they asked to pray. And everyone refused. We went to the holy city of Jerusalem, and there they refused. Holy Mount Athos refused... They found one recluse who advised them to cast a bell at his own expense at a bell factory. the largest bell and donate it to the church. And so they did. When the bishop began to consecrate the bell, he struck it 12 times, as required, the sound came out heavy, mournful, and the bishop said: “You can’t ring them either on holidays or during fasting, but only when they take out the deceased." The walls of the bell tower often fogged up, from this moisture the floor in the bell tower constantly rotted and was often replaced. And then a letter came from the Holy Mountain, in which it was written: we tried to pray for the suicide, but the Lord does not accept our prayers, He does not even accept the ringing of a bell... The bell was taken down and buried in the ground.”

The young man who committed suicide was young, baptized, I think, like everyone else then, he attended divine services much more often than modern Christians of little faith, took Holy Communion, fasted, confessed his sins to the priest, and, judging by the morals of that time, it is unlikely that he sinned gravely. And why was this young man pardoned? It is, alas, that now young people, by the age of twenty, go through all the circles of hell: unbelief, hatred of parents, adultery, abortion, envy, lies, drugs, foul language, passion for the occult... But from a human point of view, even such incredible zeal of parents - try In the 19th century, to travel all over Europe would seem to deserve the attention and condescension of God. However, the Lord will judge whatever he finds you doing...

On the other hand, Archimandrite John (Peasant), confessor of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, wrote in one of his letters to a mother whose son committed suicide: “But you really cannot pray for your son in church - this is the definition of the Holy Councils of the Holy Fathers, this is the canon. Praying at home, with all your sorrowful and wounded soul facing God, is absolutely necessary. But the answer is the work of God, we cannot predict it and decide for We cannot God. Having maintained obedience to the Church, leave in your soul the hope of God's mercy in your mother's prayer. Read the Canon for the one who arbitrarily interrupted his life(written by Metropolitan Benjamin - approx. MS),if possible and willingly. For the first time, try to read 40 days daily. And let the prayer that is in the canon console you every day, and it will help your son. It is good to give alms to those in need for your son. hope and faith are lamps in our life. And the Lord is mercy and love. That's what we hope for."

All these commemorations collected in this brochure are only the private opinion of individual members of the Church. Their righteousness and holiness, alas, is not a guarantee of the correctness of their advice or consistency with God's will. Unfortunately, we are now full of people who blindly identify the opinion of a pious elder or ascetic with the opinion of God himself, like “the words of the elder are the words of God.”

Hieronymus Bosch. Fragment of the triptych "The Last Judgment" - right wing "Hell", 1504

Not every black soul can be whitened by God's mercy and grace

The Holy Apostle John, the apostle of “love,” as he is sometimes called in the Church, commanded: “If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin that does not lead to death, let him pray, and God will give him life, that is, he who sins a sin that does not lead to death...” however, he warned immediately "...there is a sin leading to death: I do not mean that he should pray"(1 John 5:16), that is, people who are in such a fallen state that any prayer for their salvation futile.

Or here - "Whoever does not love the Lord Jesus Christ is anathema, maran-afa"(1 Cor. 16:22). Terrible words!

The Gospel Scriptures and the Apostolic Epistles do not give reason to believe that Christ can save people by force, and the Lord can hardly cleanse the soul of a person who did not take care to cleanse it himself during his lifetime through repentance and faith in Christ, even if relatives fervently pray for it.

Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) gives this story:

“The Lord does not want the sinner to die, and whoever turns to Him is saved. He calls everyone to repentance, He loves everyone and wants not a single soul to perish. It is not for nothing that the Lord Himself took on human flesh, came down to earth and suffered for us. This means that He suffered for everyone, no matter how many people there were, are and will be in the world.

But man is given free will - to repent, to accept the living Christ, or to reject Him.

When I served in the Transfiguration Cathedral, I often had to go to services around the city. One day I went on a call; I enter the apartment, they greet me and say: “Father, there is a man here - he is 51 years old, his name is Anatoly - he should be given unction and communion.” I went in and looked: after the operation, there was a patient lying there; his intestines had been removed into his stomach. Next to it is a bottle of water with a pacifier on it. His lips are constantly dry, he keeps this pacifier in his mouth. I ask:

-Anatoly, when did you confess?

- Never.

- Do you want to confess and receive communion?

- But I have nothing to repent of!

- Well, how about it? You never went to church in your life, you didn’t pray to God, you cursed, you drank, you smoked, you fought, you lived unmarried with your wife. All life is pure sin.

- I don’t want to repent of this!

And the women standing nearby said:

- Anatoly, how?! After all, you agreed to call the priest. You need to repent - your soul will immediately feel good.

- I don’t want to repent.

I talked to him, spent 20 minutes, and said:

- Now - imagine - Christ Himself has come to you in the Holy Mysteries, waiting for your repentance. If you do not repent and take communion, you will die - evil spirits will take your soul. And I would be glad to repent later, I would be glad to improve - but you will no longer have such an opportunity. We must repent while we are alive.

- I’ll get what I deserve! - speaks.

I finished talking and started getting dressed. And the women (neighbors) began to convince him, saying: “Anatoly, come to your senses - what are you saying! After all, it is so important for every person (especially the sick) to repent before death!” And he tells them:

- Don't try to persuade me.

I got dressed:

- Well, goodbye. If he wants to confess, let him know, we will come.

And one of them is suitable:

- Father, talk to him for the last time: maybe he will agree. I walked up and sat down next to him:

- Well, Anatoly, do you want to repent or not?

He is silent. I look, and his eyes glaze over. I speak:

- Yes, he is dying.

Women:

- How? He felt good!

“He’s dying,” I see: he sighed three times - and his soul came out. Of course, demons took this unrepentant soul. That's where the fear, horror is! After all, man has left this world for Eternity. Billions of years of suffering in the fire will pass - this is just the beginning, there will never be an end. And this was such a wonderful opportunity to repent! Not all people are worthy to have a priest come to them and bring the Holy Mysteries - the Body and Blood of Christ... These are the terrible deaths that happen.”

Can God save such a person who does not want to be saved? And who can guarantee that the suicide at the time of death did not have the same attitude towards God and His Church?

Some may reasonably note that there is demagoguery here - whether it is useful or not useful to pray with home prayer for suicides; according to Christian mercy and compassion, it is imperative to pray for such, and the Lord will judge. At first impression, such judgments seem justified. However...

When praying, prepare for serious temptations

Real prayer is not ecstatic meditation, it is work, but prayer for suicides, unbaptized people and great sinners is hard work! During which you will encounter strong spiritual temptations and deteriorating health of not only the prayer booker himself, but possibly all members of his family.

There is reason to believe that, perceiving the memory of the soul of the deceased, the person praying at the same time becomes, as it were, a companion of his spiritual state, enters the area of ​​his spiritual yearnings, comes into contact with his sins, unpurified by repentance.

If the deceased was an Orthodox Christian and once in earthly life turned to God with a prayer request for mercy and forgiveness, then the one praying for him with the same prayers bows to him God's mercy and forgiveness. What if the soul passed into another world in a mood hostile to the Church? How can one, praying for an unbaptized person or a baptized person who has departed from the faith, allow oneself to come into some contact with that atheistic mood with which their soul was infected? How to accept into your soul all those ridicule, blasphemy, crazy speeches and thoughts with which their souls were full? Doesn't this mean exposing your soul to the danger of being infected by such sentiments? Those who reproach the Church for lack of mercy should think about all this.

An indicative case is from the life of the holy Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, he said that he managed to beg some great sinner, and after that, he, a great righteous man, a monk, was seriously ill for several months.

What awaits Christians who are not as righteous as St. Seraphim of Sarov, who undertook with his prayers to “save” a dear relative who killed himself?! Great temptations and health problems.

Experience shows that with the beginning of a private prayer commemoration not even about a suicide, but about an unbaptized parent who died, alas, in unbelief, almost immediately the disease almost immediately spread to the person praying, then to the wife (husband), and then to the children. Lord have mercy! I know a woman who prayed earnestly for her unbaptized father during pregnancy - it ended in a miscarriage.

One of the Ufa priests told me a case when, in the already distant Soviet years, a young man who began to zealously go to church, due to his excessive zeal, decided to save the souls of the dead, whose bodies lie in the Demskoye cemetery near the city of Ufa. There he compiled a large list with the names of the deceased, and prayed for the repose of everyone. Wild scandals began in the family between him and his wife, it came to divorce, his already adult children committed all serious sins; Of course, illnesses appeared, and the spiritual life of this person changed not for the better. The holy venerable Moses of Ufa, to whom this Christian then turned for advice, first of all asked him for whom he was praying. When he spoke about his prayerful “feat”, the first words of the monk were not at all biblical: “Are you a fool?!”, and then strictly forbade him to do this, pointing out that there were many serious sinners there: suicides, atheists, drunkards and etc.

Praying for relatives who have not been baptized in Orthodoxy is also not easy.

The conversation about unbaptized people was not started by chance. In practice, it turns out that a person is not only a suicide, but also a non-Christian.

The canon to St. is well known. Martyr Uar for unbaptized people. However, few people carefully read the story accompanying this canon about how, through the prayers of this righteous man, one unbaptized young man was pardoned, and interpreted what was told into life.

This young man, firstly, was a young man, pardon the pun, which means that, due to his age, he did not have time to sin many and seriously; secondly, apparently, he was pious; thirdly, he had a very pious Christian mother (you agree, this is important); fourthly, he knew about Christ, and, apparently, was preparing to receive Holy Baptism, but did not have time (before, Christians went to the catechumens not for a week or two, but for months, or even years); fifthly, those who were catechumens in those days necessarily sincerely repented of their sins, even without a priest’s confession, so who can object to me that such sincere repentance of sins is not spiritually beneficial and useless? What exactly am I leading to? Such a pious young man, the son of a pious Christian mother, already well-disposed towards Christ, was not worth the trouble of begging Saint Huar before God.

Now let’s imagine, for example, a woman who died at an advanced age, who lived in unbelief, blasphemed, fornicated, had abortions, stole (who didn’t steal in Soviet times?), etc., in short, with a great variety of all kinds of unrepentant sins. What can one hope for when trying to pray for her salvation to the holy intercessor Uar?!

However, the souls of relatives are still troubled in despair; is it really impossible to save or improve the situation of suicides, as well as unbaptized relatives?

If your spouse is pregnant, if there are infants and small children in the family, STRICTLY REFRAIN from praying at home for suicides and unbaptized people, especially for unbaptized suicides, in order to avoid health problems for small family members, pregnant and lactating women.

If all of the above conditions do not apply to you, of course, you can try to dare this home prayer feat. However NECESSARILY take a blessing from the priest, and if he refuses, do not act outrageously - this will not end well, and remember “obedience is greater than fasting and prayer.”

It is better to begin your prayer feat by imposing a fast on yourself (necessarily with a blessing!) or during multi-day fasts, if forty days after death no one privately prayed for such dead people. The Monk Nektary of Optina advised at least three Christians to pray together at once. Before and while you pray, confess and receive Holy Communion often, preferably even weekly (again, with blessing). Eat a piece of prosphora and holy water every day. Order a magpie about the health of yourself and close family members. Remember, prayer for suicides and great sinners is a great spiritual feat, do not do it casually, from time to time. I repeat, it is quite possible that, perceiving the memory of the soul of the deceased, the person praying at the same time becomes, as it were, a companion of his spiritual state, enters the area of ​​his spiritual yearnings, comes into contact with his sins, unpurified by repentance. Naturally, nothing good can be expected from this. Even such a great ascetic as Seraphim of Sarov found it difficult to pray for some grave sinner.

There is another, I think, very pious and correct way of receiving mercy from God for a person. Read, along with prayers, the Gospel for the salvation of his soul, one or two chapters a day - “Faith therefore comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”(Rom. 10:17). Where will saving faith in Christ come from for a deceased unbaptized and suicide suicider of little faith if he does not know "words of God"? Alas, this is our common misfortune - many Orthodox Christians, even grandmothers who participate in divine services almost every day, do not read, or read little of the Holy Scriptures.

If you began to pray, and you, your loved ones, children began to have serious health problems, immediately give up your efforts and simply resign yourself, trusting in God’s mercy about the fate of this person’s soul.

“The justice of God will not make mistakes, and with this, reassure yourself, as much as possible.” - the already mentioned archimandrite wisely wrote John (Peasant).

Resigned with the fact of the suicide of a person close to you, live a worthy, righteous Christian life with faith in Christ the Savior, so that your soul is reunited with the Lord after death in paradise, and there directly from Him Himself find out the Divine will for this case. If there is a certain benefit from your prayers to a suicide, pray fervently while already in the Kingdom of God. Christians ask for righteous prayers from the saints of God, now standing before Him in paradise, for themselves and their deceased relatives. So what prevents a Christian who finds himself in heaven from praying for his relatives who are in hell?

Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved - do not forget these words of St. Seraphim of Sarov.

Lord, have mercy and save us!

Maxim Stepanenko, supervisor

Missionary Department of the Ufa Diocese

Russian Orthodox Church

Ufa Diocesan Gazette, No. 2-3, 2006. –P. 8-9.

Choose life with Christ!

"For God so loved the world,

that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16)

“Choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and cleave to Him; for in this is your life and the length of your days...” (Deut. 30:19-20)