Pray for each other to be healed. About praying for each other
It is difficult to imagine a person who would never dream of having a faithful and devoted friend. Indeed, true friendship is a rare and precious gift from God in our time. Orthodox Christian He trusts in the Lord in everything, therefore, in search of like-minded people, he can also turn to Him. So what should prayer be like for friends and loved ones?
When should you pray for friends?
True friendship requires great affection and warmth between people. It is quite natural that the fate and life of a loved one will be of concern to any believer. This is why Orthodox Christians are called to pray for those whom they consider their friends.
Icon of Her Seven Shots
You can turn to God with a prayer for friendship and loneliness in the following cases:
- in the absence of close friends, loneliness in life;
- if you want or need to strengthen relationships;
- during times of discord, quarrels and disorder;
- if loved ones have problems and difficulties.
Where can Christian believers find friends? Friendly relationships presuppose a commonality of interests between people, so the first place to look for new friends should be a temple. Of course, it is unacceptable to go there solely for the purpose of making new acquaintances. But with regular attendance at services and participation in church and parish life, new connections will appear on their own. Especially if you combine active church life with prayer to the Lord for the gift of friends.
Read about prayer for loved ones:
Unfortunately, there are often situations when close friends in life for some reason lose their trusting relationship. This is very unfortunate, because finding a loved one in our time is very difficult. You need to really value the existing relationships and try to maintain and strengthen them. And if any conflict or quarrel has occurred, you can safely turn to the heavenly powers for help.
What does prayer for friends do?
One should not think that prayer is a type of spell or a magical action. Simply reading the text and waiting for your wish to come true is not worth it; this is a misunderstanding of the meaning of prayer and the foundations of the Orthodox faith.
Gospel
By praying for friends, a believer, first of all, shows God his disposition for another, his readiness to somehow participate in his life.
Important! From the Gospel we know that love for one's neighbor is the beginning of the path to love for God.
Prayer for a friend is also useful for the person praying - it attunes a person’s heart to care not about himself, but about another. Very often, all of us, and even Christian believers, are too fixated on ourselves and do not want or even cannot see the problems and needs of the people around us. Therefore, if our friends need prayer support, this is an excellent reason to practice fighting our own selfishness.
Interesting! Many holy fathers consider true friendship, like true love, to be a gift from God.
If you are lucky enough to find a person who can sincerely be called a good friend, you need to take great care of him and heartily pray for him. If, on the contrary, you suffer from loneliness, the Lord will definitely send a loved one along the path of life if it is good for the soul.
What to do in a quarrel with a friend
A situation in which there is misunderstanding or even outright hostility between once close people deserves special attention. Unfortunately, in modern world with his temptations it is very difficult to maintain sincere close relationships. It is easier for believers to do this, because they can call on spiritual forces for help.
What to do in a quarrel with a friend
The first thing you need to start with when hostility arises is to find your own fault in what is happening. It is extremely rare that there are situations when a long and close friendship is spoiled by one person. As a rule, both people are to blame to one degree or another for breaking contact. Sometimes it is enough to simply admit your guilt, and the conflict will be resolved.
But even in a situation where the other party does not agree to reconciliation and in the event of an admission of guilt, awareness of one’s mistakes will allow one to treat the situation calmly. If a person admits that he was wrong and sincerely seeks reconciliation, the Lord will definitely help him.
Important! In any quarrel, you need to look for compromises and make concessions, because close relationships are much more important than proudly proving your own rightness.
It will be much easier for a believer to meet a friend halfway in a quarrel, because Orthodox faith always calls for humility and forgiveness of offenses. However, this does not mean at all that you cannot defend your own interests if a friend has turned into an outright offender and do not strive in any way to correct the situation. If you have done everything possible on your part for reconciliation, and in response you receive only continuous negativity, all that remains is to pray to the Lord to admonish the offender and restore good relations.
What prayers do you pray for friends?
It is not of fundamental importance which text to choose in order to appeal to the Heavenly powers with a request for friendship. This could be a prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, His Most Pure Mother or some saints.
Jesus Christ - Lord Almighty
Important! The main condition for effective prayer is the heartfelt attitude of the person praying, a sincere desire to take the path of Christian life and a willingness to follow God’s Providence.
Kontakion
To the chosen Virgin Mary, above all the daughters of the earth, the Mother of the Son of God, who gave Him the salvation of the world, we cry with tenderness: look at our many-sorrowful life, remember the sorrows and illnesses that you endured, like our earthly-born, and do with us according to Your mercy, let's call you T:
Rejoice, much-sorrowful Mother of God, transforming our sorrow into joy.
Prayer
O long-suffering Mother of God, Higher than all the daughters of the earth, in Your purity and in the multitude of sufferings You have endured on earth, accept our much-painful sighs and keep us under the shelter of Your mercy. You know of no other refuge and warm intercession, but, as you have boldness in the One who was born of You, help and save us with Your prayers, so that, apart from all the saints, we will sing praises in the Trinity to the one God, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.
According to the testimony of Christian believers, such an appeal to the Most Pure One can quench the most ardent enmity and give friendship even to irreconcilable enemies in the past.
As for the saints, it is customary to pray to the holy princes Boris and Gleb for reconciliation and mitigation of hostility. If there is any other revered saint in your family, then you can safely turn to him with any requests for friendship. The main thing is not to forget that everything is God’s will and to entrust your life to the Lord.
Prayers for others
Is there any connection between Christians still living on earth and those who have already died?
We, Christians still living on earth, have the closest connection with our brothers who have migrated to the Lord: deigned “to unite all things heavenly and earthly under the head of Christ”(). Thus, we and the dead are one family, and the Head of our family is Christ.
Isn't there a big difference between living and dead Christians?
The Apostle Paul answers this: “None of us lives for ourselves, and none of us dies for ourselves; and whether we live, we live for the Lord; Whether we die, we die for the Lord: and therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”(). This means that in Christ there is no difference between the dead and the living: all Christians constitute the body of Christ, they are all brothers, obligated to love each other and take care of each other.
How should the love of Christians for each other be expressed?
Mainly in prayer. "Pray for each other", says Ap. Jacob (). And Ap. Paul instructs: “Pray with all prayer and supplication at all times... for all the saints”(), i.e. about all Christians.
But perhaps this is talking about prayer to God only for such Christians who still live on earth?
The Lord has no such division, because God “not to eat the dead, but the living, for with God all are alive” ().
Do dead Christians need the Church of Christ to offer prayers to God for them?
Undoubtedly they need it.
What causes this need of theirs?
It is caused by the fact that they are people, and, like people, are not free from shortcomings () and none of them, dying, could say: “I have cleansed my heart, I am clean from my sin”(, cf. ; ).
What basis can there be for God’s propitiation for the sins of the dead?
Ap. John explains that Christ “There is atonement for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.”(). It is to this propitiator, the Coming Judge, that Christians turn with prayers for the forgiveness of the sins of their brothers in faith.
Can you think that these Christian prayers will be heard?
It is possible, for the Savior Himself said that Christians “one must always pray and not lose heart”(). The Savior also says to true believers: “If you abide in Me, and My words remain in you, then whatever you desire, ask, and it will be done for you.” ().
But perhaps Christ does not have the power to alleviate the lot of sinful () Christians who have moved to the afterlife?
The Lord has full opportunity and authority to do this, because He Himself said about Himself: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”(). If so, then the Savior has the power to alleviate the lot of those who have sinned with immortal sins.
Do sectarians reason correctly when they prove that it is impossible to change a person’s fate in the afterlife and refer to the words of the Lord in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
No, that's not right. In the given parable about the rich man and Lazarus, it is indeed said that there is no transition from hell to heaven, but this is said not about the New Testament, but about the Old Testament people, about what happened before, but has now been abolished.
What time does the parable of the rich man and Lazarus refer to?
About the Old Testament time, i.e. about the time before Christ the Savior completed redemption.
Where can you see this?
From the words of the Lord it is clear that the law of Moses and the prophets were in effect at that time: “with them,” i.e. among the people of that time, says the Savior, “there are Moses and the prophets; let them listen"(). The Savior Himself explained in the same 16th chapter of Ev. Luke, what "the law and the prophets until John (Baptist), and from now on, those. after John, The Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone enters it with effort.”(). That it is not the Mosaic law that now reigns, this is also said in the Gospel. Joanna: “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”(). The Mosaic Law was "a teacher to Christ" () "and the end of the law is Christ" ().
How can we explain the words of the Lord that a great abyss has been established between hell and heaven, so that those who want to go from “hell to heaven” cannot do so ()?
These words of the Lord are quite fair: there was no transition from hell to heaven until our Savior Himself crossed this abyss. The Lord in the Apocalypse speaks about Himself: "I have the keys of hell and death"(). With His own on the cross He crushed the eternal faiths (barns) containing the bound, i.e. opened the doors of hell. “Christ,” says Apostle Peter, “ in order to lead us to God, he once suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unjust, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, by which(i.e. by His Divine spirit) He also went down and preached to the spirits in prison who were once disobedient to God’s long-suffering that awaited them, in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved from the water.” ().
What are these disobedient spirits to whom Christ preached?
These are contemporaries of the patriarch Noah. Before the flood people became very corrupt, so “Every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.”(). The Lord commanded the righteous Noah to call them to repentance () for one hundred and twenty years, and to build the ark himself. And since people did not repent of their corruption, the Lord commanded Noah to enter the ark that was built with his family, and brought a flood on everyone. None of the disobedient people remained alive on earth; everyone died in the water. But when the water flooded them, then they remembered Noah’s sermon and repented, however, it was no longer possible to avoid punishment, and they could not bear the fruits of repentance. They were in a hellish prison and were awaiting God's mercy. It was to them that the Savior came “by His spirit” at a time when his flesh, mortified on the cross, lay in the tomb. Our Church sings about this event in such a way that Christ was “carnally in the grave, but in hell with his soul, like God”...
Did the Savior really lead from hell into the heavenly life of God the spirits who were in prison and were waiting for Him with faith?
Yes, he brought it out, “for,” says Apostle Peter, “ For this reason the gospel was preached also to the dead, so that they, being judged by man in the flesh, those. This means that having died carnally, like all people, they lived (further) according to God in spirit" (). Therefore, Ap. Paul says about the Old Testament people that “They did not achieve perfection without us”(). So, the transition from hellish life to heavenly life (according to God) is possible. And the sectarians, if they reject him, it is only because “they do not know the Scriptures or the power of God” ().
Is it possible to prove that the Lord really came down to those in hellish life?
The Apostle Paul convincingly proves this when he says that Christ “He ascended on high, took captivity captive and gave gifts to men. What does “ascended” mean?, - says the Apostle in question and answer, - if not that He (the Savior) and first descended into the underworlds of the earth!” ().
What do sectarians think about the condition of the dead?
They believe that all those who die immediately after death receive full reward for their life.
Is it possible to think in a sectarian way that the souls of departed people are now receiving full and final reward for their life on earth?
Such a concept is unreasonable and unfounded. If the afterlife of people was finally determined immediately after their death, then the Last Judgment, which the Lord predicted, would be completely unnecessary. But the Savior said that the Last Judgment will certainly happen, and then everyone will be given their due: sinners will go to “Eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” ().
Should all people appear at the Last Judgment, or maybe believers will not go to the judgment?
All people, every single one, will be at the Last Judgment, for, says the Apostle, all of us “must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive according to what he did while living in the body, whether good or bad” ().
Why do the sectarians say that they will not be judged, because it is said: "He who believes in Him(Son of God) is not judged, but the unbeliever is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God.” ()?
Cultists “they are mistaken, not knowing the Scripture or the power of God”(). In the given place from Ev. John the Savior says that those who sincerely believe in Him will not be punished, while those who do not believe in His Divinity will be condemned. And that judgment will be the same for both the righteous and sinners, this is clear from the words of Ap. Petra: “It’s time for judgment to begin at the house of God”(i.e. from the Church of Christ, which is the house of God ()), “if first,” says the Apostle, “ it starts with us, then what is the end of those who disobey the Gospel of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, then where will the wicked and sinful appear?”(). Let the sectarians not think that after death they will immediately go to heaven; there will be judgment on them too!
If the Savior does not reject prayers for the dead with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, then what is its true meaning?
The main idea of the Lord in the parable is that if people on earth do not want to listen to God’s law, then nothing can correct them: even if the dead are resurrected, they will not believe it.
How can you prove that this is the main idea of the parable?
To prove it, you need to consider the parable itself and some of the events that happened after its utterance. The Pharisees did not want to believe Christ, although everything He said and did was in accordance with the Law of Moses and the predictions of the prophets about the Messiah. The Pharisees wanted to recognize only what they liked, and therefore they lived not according to the Mosaic Law, but according to their own whims. So the Savior says in a parable that nothing will change such people: if they do not listen to the law of God, then even if the dead are resurrected, they will not believe. In the parable, the Lord shows the wicked rich and the pious beggar. He did not call the rich man by any name, but gave the name to the poor man - Lazarus. Then the Lord depicts the afterlife fate of both. The rich man, in agony, learned that there was no help for him, and feeling sorry for his brothers who still lived on earth, he began to ask Abraham to send Lazarus as a messenger to them to admonish them. But Abraham responded to this request like this: “with them (the brothers of the rich man on earth) there is Moses and the prophets; let them listen... If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, then if someone were to rise from the dead, they would not believe it.”(). Then many said that they would only believe the resurrected dead, and now many repeat the same; Also, some sectarians say that they do not want to pray for the dead, and that, perhaps, they would begin to pray if someone from the other world said that it would be useful for the dead. But the Savior directly explains that whoever does not listen to the Scriptures will not even believe the one raised from the dead. And so that no one doubts the words of the Lord, Christ proved this in practice. In the parable, He called the beggar man Lazarus, and after some time He raised Lazarus from Bethany.
Well, did the enemies of Christ begin to believe in Him after He raised a four-day-old man?
No, they didn't believe it. Having learned about the resurrection of Lazarus, the enemies of the Lord, having consulted among themselves (), "they decided to kill him"(Gentlemen) (). Thus, the Savior explained and predicted with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that whoever does not listen to the Scriptures will not even recognize the risen man as a reliable witness and will not believe him. The Lord says nothing here against prayers for the dead.
What should we ask the Lord in our prayers for the dead?
The same thing we ask in our prayers for the living: we must ask for the mercy of the Lord for the dead and the grace of God, purifying their souls and giving them a blissful state.
Have believers in the true God prayed for the dead?
Prayers for the dead were still in Old Testament. From the life of the people of Israel we learn that after one battle, Judas Maccabee, on behalf of the entire community of God, prayed for the fallen soldiers: “The next day those who were with Judas went, as duty required, to transfer the bodies of the fallen... And they found from each of the dead under their tunics things dedicated to the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbade the Jews... and they turned to prayer, asking that it be the sin committed was completely blotted out... Having made a collection according to the number of men up to two thousand drachmas of silver, he(Judas Maccabee) sent to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice for sin, and acted very well and piously, thinking about the resurrection; for if he did not hope that those killed in battle would rise again, then it would be unnecessary and in vain to pray for the dead. But he thought that an excellent reward was in store for those who died in piety - what a holy and pious thought! Therefore he offered a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead, that they might be freed from sin.” ().
Likewise, the wise Sirach says: “Let the mercy of giving be to everyone who lives, but do not withhold mercy from the dead” ().
What should the sectarians answer if they say that they do not believe the books of Maccabees because they are non-canonical books?
We need to ask the sectarians where in the word of God it is said that the Books of Maccabees are not good? – And the fact that they are called non-canonical is what the ancient Orthodox Church called them, when the devil did not invent modern sectarian nonsense. But the Church has always recognized the books of the Maccabees as correct books, telling about the life of the Jews far before the coming of the Lord, and the 85th rule of St. The Apostles are commanded to recognize the books of the Maccabees.
What does the word “apocrypha” mean, as sectarians like to call the Maccabees and other non-canonical books?
The name: “apocryphal books,” translated from Greek, means: “hidden books.” The ancient heretics gave this name to the forged books compiled in their midst, in order to better convince others that these books were not newly compiled, but were only unknown, as if they were hidden.
Our non-canonical books are not apocrypha at all, because all false books, such as Ev. Petra, Ev. Thomas, the dream of the Virgin Mary, etc. are rejected.
Is it possible to find confirmation of prayers for the dead in the canonical books?
There are such confirmations.
In the book. Deuteronomy, 26 ch. Verse 14 says: “I did not eat from it (the tithe, dedicated to God)in my sorrow... and did not give out of it for the dead" (). Consequently, from the remaining property it was possible to allocate for the commemoration of the dead.
Did they pray for the dead Sts. Apostles?
Yes, we prayed. Ap. Paul, in gratitude to his disciple Onesiphorus, who served him faithfully, prayed for his family while it was still alive: "May the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus"(). We see that the Apostle does not remember Onesiphorus himself; after a few words Ap. Paul also prays for Onesiphorus himself, apparently already dead: “May the Lord grant him to find favor with the Lord on that day.” ().
In exactly the same way, the Orthodox Church now prays for the dead, asking them “for the mercy of God from Christ, our immortal King and God.”
From the first days of the existence of the Church of Christ, did Christians remember the dead in Church services?
Undoubtedly it was. In the liturgy of St. James, which is still celebrated annually in Jerusalem on the day of remembrance of this Apostle of the Lord, October 22; this liturgy contains prayers for the dead; in the same way in the Liturgies of Basil the Great and John Chrysostom, which are celebrated constantly in our country.
Ap. James taught Christians to pray for the dead this way: “Lord God of spirits and all flesh, remember the Orthodox whom we have remembered, from righteous Abel to this day; Give them rest yourself.... In Thy Kingdom, in the pleasures of paradise, in the bowels of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our holy fathers, from where sickness, sorrow and sighing have departed, where the light of Thy face is seen, and the unceasing light shines.” Prayers of St. John Chrysostom and Basil the Great are very similar to the above.
What other evidence do we have that Christians have always had prayers for the dead?
This is proven to us by the monuments of the first centuries of Christianity. In the Roman catacombs, where Christians have buried their dead since the first days of Christianity, there are inscriptions over their coffins in which Christians express their prayers to God for the dead. Here are the inscriptions there: “Lord, may the soul of Venus never be darkened. Antonia sweet soul, may God refresh you. May God refresh your soul! Lord, I ask You that he may see the light of Paradise. Rest in peace. Eternal light to you, Timothy in Christ." The following inscription was made to those who were martyrically burned: “May He, to whom all things are possible, refresh and cool us.” These are the inscriptions on the tombs, proving that Christians have always had prayers for the dead.
Here is another proof from history. In Hieropolis a stone is kept to this day, miraculously transferred from Rome at the request of Equal-to-the-Apostles Averky, who died around 167. Equal-apus is buried under this stone. Averky, and the words of the saint are engraved on the stone, in which he asks the entire synod to pray for him. If Christians did not have prayers for the dead, then the Equal-to-the-Apostles Bishop would not have bequeathed them.
First of all, this is not about prayer, but about deliverance from death. As the further words of the psalm make clear: “The price of the redemption of their soul is dear, and there will never be one who will live forever and not see the grave.”(). Indeed, no one has delivered man from death except the God-man Jesus.
Then, if the sectarians understand the words of the psalm - “A man will never redeem his brother, neither will he give God a ransom for him.”- in the sense that it is impossible to pray for the dead, then let them not pray for the living, because it is impossible for a person and the living to atone. However, sectarians pray for the living, and if so, then one cannot see in the words of the psalm a denial of prayer for the dead.
What questions can be used to persuade sectarians to recognize the need to pray for the dead?
First of all, sectarians should be asked about their relationship to their brothers living on earth: “Do you love your brothers living in this world?” They will say: “We love you.” - “How is love for them expressed?” They will say: “We wish our brothers well, we help when we can, and we pray to God for them.” If the sectarians love their brothers who are still living here so much, then let them say: do they continue to love them who have departed to the afterlife? They will say they love you. Then the sectarians should ask: how is your love for the deceased expressed? Now they don’t eat bread, and they don’t need money, they don’t need your financial help. How do you express your love for your departed? The sectarians have nothing to answer, because they cannot express goodwill towards their dead brothers without prayer, and they also do not want to pray, which means that the love of the sectarians for their brothers, with the death of the latter, ceases.
From this it is clear that the sectarians do not have the faith of Christ, nor the Christian concept of relations with the dead. The Word of God says that Christian "Love never ends"(), it will never stop, “though prophecy shall cease, and tongues shall be silent, and knowledge shall be abolished.”(). This means that for Christians, love for brothers can never end, even if these brothers go to the afterlife. And indeed, in our Orthodox Church, love never ceases: when our brothers live here, we express our love for them in benevolence and prayer for them; We, without interrupting our love for them, continue to wish well and pray for them even after their departure to the next world. Among sectarians, love is not Christian, not according to the word of God: it is interrupted for them at the hour when those they love die. This is bad, worthless love.
Remembering the Saints glorified by God, we bring upon ourselves their help and intercession. All those who have died in faith and hope for eternal life pray for us, just as prayer is expected from us, especially during the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice. Out of their love, they constantly pray to God for us - and they specifically mention before God the names of those people who pray to them - equal for equal. We remembered them, they remembered us. And whoever does not remember his neighbors in prayer out of love will not be remembered and will not be worthy of commemoration.Prayer offered in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is always pleasing to God (cf. John 14:14). But our prayer turns out to be even more effective when it is combined with the liturgical prayer of the Church.
Ap. James writes: “Pray for one another” (James 5:16). And the more sincere and ardent our prayer for the forgiveness of sins, for the pardon of those whom we remember, the more they are cleansed by the Lord from their sins. Likewise, with the daily commemoration of those who died without repentance, doomed by God to suffer for their sins, those commemorated are given relief from the severity of torment, since day after day the Holy Blood of Christ cleanses souls from their sins. At the same time, wicked sinners are becoming more and more cleansed from the darkness of sin, and pious ones are becoming even more enlightened and illuminated.
A certain invisible connection is established between the persons performing the commemoration and those commemorated in prayer. Thus, during commemoration, both the first and the last receive great benefit. He who makes remembrance of others in prayer does not himself remain without a reward from God for his love for those remembered.
St. Macarius the Great even prayed for a dead pagan. Some of the saints, who prayed not only for the faithful, but also for the wicked, were heard and with their prayers rescued them from eternal torment, such as the Great Martyr Thekla and St. Gregory the Dvoeslov. There is great benefit for one who creates a prayerful remembrance before God for those people for whom there is no one to pray... Here, first of all, one sees the material selflessness of the one praying (after all, no one will pay him anything for their remembrance!) and his fulfillment of the following commandments of the Savior: “Yes love each other"; “And in everything you want people to do to you, do so to them” (John 13:34; Matthew 7:12).
Some say: “Why remember the dead or the living when praying for them? God, as omniscient, himself knows these names, and also knows the needs of everyone.” But those who say this forget that God’s justice and God’s mercy are bowed down by our heartfelt prayer, which the Lord, in His goodness, credits as if to the dead or living themselves as merit, as members of the one body of the Church.
Christian! Pray and do good for the deceased. And when you pray for the deceased, prepare yourself for your own dormition. Pray for the deceased at home, pray in church with the clergy; fast, cleanse your sins in the sacrament of repentance, unite yourself with Christ in the communion of His most pure Body and Blood. Therefore, if you want your prayer to be completely beneficial for the one being remembered and saving for you, then give it wings: fasting and alms. And, undoubtedly, know: “your prayer will reach the Lord God and your neighbor will receive God’s mercy, and you yourself will be blessed by the Lord for your love.
We ourselves, in order to make our good deeds, performed for the benefit of our neighbors, effective, should ask the Lord God, first of all, for mercy on ourselves; we must pray for the forgiveness of our sins. In other words, whoever prays to God for mercy on his neighbors must first find mercy from God himself.
Schema-abbot Savva. Collection of works and letters.
Brothers and sisters!
On our website www.blagie.ru you can familiarize yourself with other materials, as well as order prayer help for yourself and your loved ones.
The letter of James says: "" Is any of you sick? Let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."" (James 5:14).How many times a week does this happen in our prayer life? Are you praying for someone? Are you supporting someone, not yourself, but someone?
We pray for our enemies, so that God will bless them, give them wisdom, so that something will reach them and they will not be so cruel, so irritable, their life will become better and they will calm down. And if you think:"" May God calm them down in the psychiatric hospital"" , this is not a prayer, you have"" cop"" conscience. Paul wrote to Timothy:"" First of all, pray for others, for all people, and then remember about yourself"" . This way we will avoid the poison of envy and rejection.
When we start praying for rich people, for presidents, we pray that more buildings will be built in the city, that everyone will be blessed, that everyone will be at peace. And if we say:"" Lord bless them, may all the money of sinners go to us"" - these are envious prayers.
What can you do with an envious character! If you are a church leader, you should not pray for yourself. Leaders pray for the church. You are a leader to give, to intercede, to support. You can take any leadership position with Christ, but only when you support other people.
The book of Romans says:""
God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that I constantly remember you, always asking in my prayers that the will of God may one day make me come to you.""
(Rom.1:9-10).If I were to pray for God's blessings on people so that they would have enough money to pay for my travel to preach in Belarus, it would be a selfish prayer.
If I know that I am the embodiment of goodness, someone needs mine""
good""
or not, what do you think? In the second letter to the Corinthians it is written:""
We pray to God that you do no evil, not to appear to us as what you ought to be; but that you do good, even if we seem not to be what we should be""
(2 Cor. 13:7). They pray for the Corinthian church without being there, and the main purpose of their prayer is to remove the punishment that may threaten someone.
We pray to revive churches, to revive people, to deliver someone from danger, for someone to be healed. We pray that God will give someone the ability to lead, manage, we pray for someone to grow spiritually. We pray for the salvation of someone's soul, we pray for the forgiveness of sins. We must constantly practice prayer not only for the needs of our family and even the church, but to go beyond intercession for our needs. You need to pray for your people and even for your enemies. Think about yourself. If you are filled with bitter envy, your prayers will not work. If you don’t care and the main thing for you is to find your place in the sun, then you are driven by envy. It will corrupt you from the inside, as it is said: you envy and do not achieve, you desire and do not have.
I'm happy for the people who ride"" Hummer"" . This is a serious car. If the Lord wills, I will also ride one. People have built everything, many of them prosper in this life."" If only we could divide everything, said Judas, and give it to the poor."" . Judas did not realize that he was driven by envy of Jesus as a leader; he did not rejoice at His success.
May there never be any envy among us, this is the root of all evil, do not envy anyone, neither your girlfriends, nor your acquaintances. Be happy for them and say:"" It's good that you bought this, I say that so as not to envy you, I'm working on myself"" . Don't be afraid to look weird if you really want to conquer yourself.
We sometimes think that God wants us to perform religious acts, intercessions. He came up with this whole game to heal us. I keep thinking about the hidden meaning of the word: pray for each other. There are words in the Bible that we do not understand at all.
God knows what you need even before you pray. He knows what we need, so the question arises, why pray if God already knows everything? It turns out that we still need to pray in order to have the right heart attitude. Moreover, pray not for yourself first of all, but for others.
To abide in Christ, one must conform to His quality. We don't need to come to Christ with any mantras or other magical rituals, that’s not how they enter into Christ. You must conform, you must become truly a man like Christ. Tim
To unsubscribe from another user's news, click on the settings icon in this event and select the desired option.
Spiritual wisdom. (In pictures), IN VIDEOS AND AUDIO.
community-post.html
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER (James 5:16)
Holy Right John of Kronstadt writes about this: “Why does our sincere prayer for each other have great power on others? Because I cleave to God during prayer, I become one spirit with Him, and those for whom I pray , I unite with myself by faith and love, because the Spirit of God, working in me, works at the same time in them, as “fulfilling all things,” since “we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of one bread” (1 Cor. 10, 17; Eph. 4, 4).
INTERCESSIVE PRAYER – PRAYER FOR OTHERS.
You need to pray not only for yourself, but also for others. “Prayer for oneself, taken separately from prayer for others, as the fruit of spiritual self-interest, cannot constitute pure Christian virtue,” says Saint Philaret of Moscow. A Christian must pray for everyone, as for himself, so that God will grant them success in faith and spiritual reason, and freedom from sins and passions.
But the question is: is there any instruction in the word of God that we pray for each other?
Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave us all one prayer, not each for himself, but each and every one for all, commanding us to ask our Heavenly Father for the whole earth - for all of us: the action of His will, daily bread, forgiveness of debts, deliverance from temptations and other things.
The holy apostles commanded even more directly to pray for each other (James 5:16). The Holy Apostle Paul repeatedly attributed his successes and his safety to the prayers of his many disciples for him (2 Cor. 1:10-11). This supreme apostle needed the prayerful help of his children (Heb. 13:18), and begged them by our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the All-Holy Spirit to strive with him in prayers for him to God (Rom. 15:30). The Apostle of Christ most often asked to pray for him so that God would open the door for him to “spread the mystery of Christ” (Col. 4:3), “so that the word of the Lord (preached by him - K.S.) may flow and be glorified” (2 Thess. . 3:1). If the apostolic works required human prayerful help, then all the more so we, so imperfect in spiritual life and burdened with everyday worries, have the need to turn in our needs to our brothers, so that they assist us in praying for us to the Lord. As we need others to pray for us, we, in turn, must pray for them. This duty of ours stems from Christian love, which sees in all Christians its members and the members of Christ God, the common Savior of all, and desires for them the same as for itself, just as it strives by all means to do for them the same as for itself. “Pray for one another,” teaches Saint Tikhon, “for all the faithful, scattered throughout the world, are one spiritual body, having one blessed Head - Christ, and enlightened and instructed by the one Spirit of God (Rom. 12:5).” Even if our prayer is weak and unworthy, we still must pray for others with faith that by doing this we will benefit them. And this will be the most reliable and effective help for them.
Remarkable in this regard is the story from the lives of the saints, to which N. Motovilova drew attention Venerable Seraphim in his conversation with him about the purpose of the Christian life.
One harlot met a woman who was in despair over the death of her only son. In her terrible grief, the mother began to beg the harlot to pray for the resurrection of her son. Knowing her unworthiness, the harlot was horrified in her soul by this mother’s request, but seeing the latter’s despair and her faith, and being unable to see her grief, she cried out to the Lord: “Not for my sake, a damned sinner, but tears for the sake of a mother grieving for her son.” and firmly confident in Your mercy and omnipotence, O Christ God, raise up, O Lord, her son!” “And the Lord raised him up.”
1. On prayer for those in secular power; for spiritual leaders; for family members, relatives and benefactors
First of all, we must pray for persons vested with temporal and spiritual power, as well as for those close and dear to us: family members, relatives and benefactors.
Prayer for those in secular power.
Prayer for those in power is one of our most important responsibilities. Peace and silence, security from internal and external enemies depend on the decision of the authorities. Improvement and order, industry, trade, etc. find their basis in the wise leadership of secular leaders. In order for these responsible official duties to be fulfilled with due success, a Christian must offer up his prayers to the Lord, especially since all power comes from God (Rom. 13:1).
Even in the Old Testament, the chosen people prayed for their rulers. But even after he fell under the yoke of foreign kings, he did not stop his prayers for the new rulers: “...pray to the Lord for you (that is, the country to which God resettled the Jews - K.S.), wrote the prophet Jeremiah to your captive countrymen, for in their peace there will be peace for you” (Jer. 29:7). The Jews also prayed for the lives of the Roman emperors when they were conquered by the Romans.
The Christian Church from the very beginning of its existence has prayed for supreme power. The Savior recognized the legitimate power of the Roman Caesar and commanded that all due respect be given to him, which corresponded to his high position and great importance in the state (Luke 20:25).
Faithful to the Savior’s covenants, the holy apostles only revealed His teaching when they commanded their followers to pray for those in power (1 Tim. 2:2).
The commandment of the apostles was holyly fulfilled by Christians. In the early times of its life, the Church of Christ suffered many persecutions from the Roman emperors. The Roman authorities of that time tried all sorts of methods of torture on Christians. Innocent Christian blood flowed in a wide stream throughout the Greco-Roman Empire. At the same time, Christians suffered from the Roman authorities the most severe moral suffering: ridicule, contempt, deprivation good name And so on. It seemed that who in such a situation could resist the desire for revenge and the curse of the persecutors?! And yet ancient church, animated by feelings of Christian all-encompassing and all-forgiving love, steadily followed the commandments of the Holy Gospel.
How vividly the first Christians were imbued with the spirit of evangelical patriotism is evidenced by many ancient church writers. “We,” says one of them, on behalf of the Christians of his time, the Carthaginian presbyter Tertullian, “raising our eyes to heaven, stretching out our arms freely,...baring our heads...having no need for compulsion... - we ask God to the emperors longevity, a peaceful reign, the safety of their home, the courage of the army, the loyalty of the Senate, the good behavior of the people, the peace of the whole world and everything that is desirable for man and the emperor." “So,” Tertullian concludes his fiery speech, “while we pray in this way, tear our body, if you wish, with iron claws; nail us to the cross; cast into fire; draw your sword against us; throw us to be devoured by wild beasts: a praying Christian is ready to endure anything. Hasten, zealous rulers, to snatch life from those people who spend it in prayer for the emperor.” Other Christian writers and apologists speak similarly: Athenagoras, Saint Theophilus of Antioch, Saint Justin the Philosopher, historian Eusebius and others.
The holy fathers of the “golden age” also spoke about prayer for the authorities. Thus, Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, in his defensive speech before the Emperor Constantius, says that for him (Constance) everyone brings zealous prayers, which will provide him with the necessary assistance in the affairs he is undertaking. Saint John Chrysostom speaks of prayer for rulers as a well-known Christian duty.
And at the present time, the Church of Christ prayerfully asks the Lord for all blessings to the authorities of its Fatherland.
Thus, the Church has always prayed and prays for secular power, and therefore, whoever lives with her in real union, fulfills the commands of her shepherds, and assimilates her teachings to his heart, must be imbued with the spirit of prayerful good wishes to his superiors.
Prayer for spiritual leaders.
Persons vested with spiritual authority: shepherds and clergy are in great need of God's grace-filled help. These persons have a great and sacred duty to educate people in a religious and moral spirit, both through the word of the Gospel and through their lives.
A shepherd, according to the words of the Holy Apostle Paul, must be an example for his flock in word, life, love, spirit, faith and purity (1 Tim. 4:12). Like every person, a shepherd has his weaknesses and shortcomings. So that the Lord would help him to zealously fulfill his official duty, so that the grace of the priesthood would not remain idle, but would always burn in him with faith, hope and love, so that the Lord Himself would be a Teacher for him, He Himself would direct his feet on the path of truth, righteousness and peace, He Himself would for him with light, eyes and lips - we must pray tearfully and fervently.
“Pray,” teaches Saint Tikhon, “for preachers of the word of God, shepherds and teachers, “so that the word of the Lord may flow and be glorified” (2 Thess. 3:1); Yes, in their life and in their rank they will be correct and blameless, and they will teach what is right, and what they teach, they will show in their image.”
Pastors, in turn, pray for the people and, in particular, for their parishioners. This mutual sincere prayer firmly connects and brings together shepherds and their flock. And with such prayerful unity, it becomes easy to glorify and chant the most honorable and magnificent name of our Heavenly Father.
Prayer for family members, relatives and benefactors.
Our prayers should also embrace the people most dear to us - family members: fathers, mothers, children, everyone living in our house, all relatives and benefactors. Wishing the best for them from the bottom of our hearts, we must ask the Lord to send His Divine blessing upon them, to preserve them with His almighty hand from all evil and to grant them everything necessary for temporary and eternal life.
2. On prayer for the mourning, the needy and those susceptible to spiritual illnesses.
Among other people, all those who grieve and suffer deserve our special attention and prayer. Earthly life is often a complete sadness, darkness and cramped prison for a person. In such a state, a person is not pleased with God’s light; he is ready to fall into despair and destroy himself. Our christian love demands that we ask the Lord to grant them the strength and strength to graciously endure the trials they are sent, to deliver them from everyday troubles and evils, to pour joy and tranquility into their hearts; to fill the hearts of the rich with pity and mercy towards them and powerful of the world This instilled in them a good zeal for the abundant and willing giving of alms, for intercession and assistance to their younger brothers. To those who labor and are burdened, whom the Lord destined to pass on from this life, He sent a Christian death - painless, shameless, peaceful, after the communion of the holy and life-giving Sacraments.
Among the unfortunate who need our prayers we must include those who are susceptible to spiritual ailments, that is, those who have fallen away from true faith and Christian life. We also need to pray for these people, so that the Lord will enlighten their minds to the understanding of the truth of Christ’s teaching, to the knowledge of His Divine power, revealed in the exploits of the saints and in the destinies of the holy Church, so that they all believe in the true Son of God - God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3 :16), who came into the world to save the human race.
About people who have forgotten their purpose, who have forgotten Christian life and those who love the present age most of all must ask the Gracious Giver to make them understand how fickle earthly goods are and how insignificant the carnal pleasures they serve are. We must pray to the Lord to soften the hearts of these people, give them tearful repentance and contrition for their sins, and instill in their hearts love for Divine Word, indicating the true path of salvation; strengthened weak forces to overcome passions and succeed in good deeds. So that they, having experienced the vanity of the world, would think more about death, the Last Judgment and the future life, which will have no end.
So, every time in a church a clergyman calls to pray “for those who sail, travel, those who are sick, those who suffer, those who are captive” or “for every soul of Christians who is grieving, embittered, in need of God’s mercy and help,” (petitions of the Great and Litany), a Christian must be mentally transported to them and with all my heart pray to the Lord that He would have mercy on them and make them partakers of His heavenly abodes.
3. About prayer for your enemies.
Prayer reaches its highest manifestation not when we pray for people close to us, for our benefactors or for those who treat us indifferently, but when we pray for our enemies, forgiving them all the insults caused to us.
An example of such prayer was shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who prayed for His crucifiers (Luke 23:34) and commanded us to pray for our enemies in order to be sons of the Father, “Who is in heaven, as His sun shines on evil and good, and it will rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45).
And the holy apostles taught that Christians should not repay evil for evil, or insult for insult, but should bless, since they are called to inherit a blessing (1 Pet. 3:9).
The Monk Zinon, who labored in Sinai, once talking about the meaning of prayer, said: “Whoever wants God to quickly hear his prayer, when he stands before God and stretches out his hands to Him, first of all, even before praying for his soul, he must pray with all your heart for your enemies. For this good deed, God will hear him, no matter what he prays for.”
According to the Monk Mark the Ascetic, with our prayer for those who offend us we “do good to their souls.” This is understandable. Even our most fierce enemy, knowing that we do not wish him harm, but on the contrary, pray for his well-being, will naturally change his bad attitude towards us to a good one. When praying for enemies, according to the teaching of St. John Chrysostom, one should not complain to God about them. He even considers requests for punishment of enemies to be insane. The unkind feelings that arise in our soul when remembering our enemies must be opposed by the memory of our sins and the fear of future punishment.
For us, prayer for enemies has a very great importance, since, according to the conclusion of St. John Chrysostom, it likens us not only to Angels or Archangels, but to the Heavenly King Himself.
4. About prayer for all people..
Finally, we need to pray for all people in general, so that the Lord would put in the heart of each and every one love for the holy Gospel law and zeal for its fulfillment, so that he would strengthen mental and physical strength for good, honest activity, so that he would have mercy on everyone and lead them to salvation known to Him alone. ways.
This teaching about prayer for everyone is based on the words of the holy Apostle Paul (1 Tim. 2:1) and is required by the very nature of all-embracing Christian love. “Let us expand our hearts with prayer, and embrace all people with it,” teaches Saint Philaret (Drozdov). – In it, let both the distant become close, ... the high and the low equal before the face of the Almighty. In her, let enmity fade away, and let love ignite with a stronger and purer flame.” Prayer for all people is accepted with great favor by the all-good Heavenly Father, with whom there is no partiality (Rom. 2:11), nor a shadow of change (James 1:17), who is boundless Love, embracing and preserving all creatures.
5. On prayer for all deceased Orthodox Christians.
In addition to praying for the living, Christianity teaches that we must also pray for the dead.
“God... is not God of the dead, but of the living,” says the Savior (Matthew 22:26). Before God, everyone is alive, both those living in this world and those who have departed to another world constitute one family with the Heavenly Father, one living body, one holy Church. And just as in a living body the exchange of life-sustaining elements between different parts of the body does not cease, and just as in a good family lively communication and mutual help between family members are always maintained, so in the Church of Christ the mutual connection and help between its members who remain in this world and passed on to another world (1 Cor. 12:26). This connection and mutual spiritual assistance is expressed in prayer. We pray for each other continuously - death does not stop prayer. We pray for those we love while they are here with us, and we do not stop praying when they leave us, for “love no longer falls away” (1 Cor. 13:8), it cannot be torn out of the heart, nailed into a coffin and buried in the ground . Christianity teaches us to pray not because God supposedly, without our requests, would not have done everything possible for those for whom we want to ask, but because the Heavenly Father, with love for children, undoubtedly wants to see the mutual love of children who remember each other, caring for each other, asking for each other (Ex. 5:18). It commands us to pray not with arrogant claims - as if to change God’s decrees for the fate of the deceased - but with living hope that God has ordained everything for our good from eternity - everything, and that, by the way, that should depend on our mutual love one another, intercede for one another.
We don't know the secrets the afterlife, the fate of the dead, but Christianity calls us to believe that prayers for departed brethren have a saving significance for them. This especially needs to be said about prayer connected with the Bloodless Sacrifice. “When all the people and the sacred face stand with their hands stretched out to heaven,” says St. John Chrysostom, “and when a terrible sacrifice is presented, how can we not beg God, asking for the dead.” Other fathers also testify to the importance of commemorating the dead at the liturgy: St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Augustine and others.
IN church history There are numerous stories about how important the prayers of the living for the dead are for them. At the same time, with fervent prayer for the dead, the latter themselves become intercessors before God for the living.
One can recall a well-known incident from the life of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow.
A document was submitted to the saint for signature prohibiting one priest who abused wine from serving in the priesthood. For some reason, Saint Philaret was slow to sign this paper. At night he sees a dream that some strange, ragged and unhappy people surrounded him and asked him for the guilty priest, calling him their benefactor. This dream was repeated three times a night. In the morning, the saint called the culprit and began to question him about his life, and asked for whom he was praying. “There is nothing worthy in me, sir,” the priest humbly answered. “The only thing that lies on my heart is a prayer for all those who accidentally died, drowned, died without burial and are homeless. When I serve, I try to pray diligently for such persons as I know.” “Well, thank them,” Saint Philaret said to the guilty one and, tearing up the paper prohibiting service to the guilty priest, he released him only with an admonition to leave his weakness.
6. The question of prayer for those who died without faith in the Lord, those guilty of mortal sin, suicides, and for those who died outside the fence of the Holy Orthodox Church.
But the saint does not pray for all dead people. Orthodox Church. She commands to pray only for those who died with faith in God, with repentance and hope in God’s mercy, died in union with the Church and are its members beyond the grave. The Orthodox Church does not pray for the dead without faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, for whoever did not have faith during life, according to the word of the Savior, cannot see the Kingdom of God, will not be saved, but will be condemned - “whoever does not have faith will be condemned "(Mark 16:16).
She does not pray for those guilty of mortal sin, that is, for those persons who not only did not believe in God, but even blasphemed Him and directed all their strength to oppose the Gospel faith. This sin, for which repentance is impossible due to the very essence of the sinner, cannot be forgiven either in this age or in the future (Matt. 12:32; Heb. 6:4-6, 10, 26-31). Priest A. Nikolsky considers prayer for such sinners not only useless, but even offensive to God, since with it “we would require God to forcibly take into communion with Him those who have stubbornly renounced Him and, in their internal state, are completely incapable to life in communion with Him."
The Holy Scripture also indicates that the Kingdom of God will not be inherited by “neither the harlot, nor the idolater, nor the adulterer, (nor the defiler), nor the wicked (indulging in secret vice - K.S.), nor the sodomite, nor the covetous, nor the thieves, nor drunkards , neither a molester nor a predator” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). But the Church prays for these sinners, because repentance before death is still possible for them and because their sins are a consequence of weak human nature, and not opposition to God through blasphemy against Him.
The Holy Church does not offer prayers for suicides either. “The Kingdom of Heaven is in need,” the Savior teaches, “and the needy women delight it” (Matthew 11:12). Human life must represent a series of efforts to achieve this Kingdom. On this path, a person can fall and get up many times until the Lord interrupts him. But to stop life without permission means not to desire the Kingdom of Heaven, not to make any effort to admire it. Therefore, the Church, while helping the weak, does not pray for free suicides. She does not refuse her prayer only to those suicides who took their own lives in mental disorder and madness.
Finally, the Holy Orthodox Church does not perform funeral services for non-Orthodox Christians in its full rite. By decree of the Holy Synod of 1797 Orthodox priest had the right only in church vestments to accompany the body of the deceased to the cemetery and lower it into the ground while singing “Holy God.”
Currently, according to the order His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, who blissfully reposed on April 17, 1970, the funeral service for non-Orthodox people is performed, omitting only those hymns of the rite in which on behalf of the deceased his rightful faith is confessed, or on behalf of the Church he is promised repose with the saints and eternal memory.
But if the Church, in the person of its clergy, as the closest executors of its law, does not offer public prayer for all the dead, then for Christian love, for the human heart there is no law, no prohibition. Christ Himself prayed for His crucifiers with the thought that they did not know what they were doing (Luke 23:34). This is what the first Christians did when they were stoned (Acts 7:60). Therefore, there can be no prohibition for a Christian’s private prayer for all the deceased and even for free suicides. Optina Elder Hieromonk Leonid (in schema Leo) in response to a student’s question: “How to pray for suicides?” answered: “According to the spirit of the virtuous and wise: “Seek, O Lord, the lost soul, if it is possible, have mercy!” Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not make this my prayer a sin for me. But Thy holy will be done.” The heart of a Christian should be calmed by the thought that praying for all people, according to the apostle, “is good and pleasant in the sight of our Savior God, Who desires for all man to be saved and to come to the understanding of truth. For there is one God and one mediator for God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2:1-6).
Thus, in terms of content, prayer can be laudatory, petitionary, repentant, grateful and intercessory. However, none of these types can be thought of completely separately. All of them are closely related to each other, which is, of course, quite natural. If a Christian glorifies God for His wondrous deeds, then at the same time he asks Him for help, for he can receive this help only from Him alone. And since the main obstacle to the outpouring of God’s gifts is our sins, then, asking the Lord for His great mercies, a person at the same time offers a prayer of repentance. Having received assistance from the Lord, he cannot help but thank Him for his ineffable bounties. And since every Christian is a member of the great church body, he always combines prayer for himself with prayer for others. All these types of prayer find excellent expression in church hymns: “The Great Doxology” and in the hymn of St. Ambrose of Milan “We praise God to Thee.”
Both one Christian and an entire community led by a clergyman can turn to God with the specified content of prayers. Hence prayer can be private and public.
(Source "ABC of Faith" -