The division of the layers of the Subtle World does not coincide with the conventional classes of the earthly plane. In the Subtle World it is possible to find yourself in a very unexpected neighborhood. This surprise can only threaten those who come with a load of earthly remnants. Whoever has refined spiritual measures will find the fulfillment of his premonitions.

On the Subtle Plane, a certain order of thoughts attracts people of similar thinking against the wishes of the one who allows these thoughts. Thoughts are a bridge that connects equally thinking people. This applies to all thoughts. If you change your thinking, the unwanted neighborhood will disappear. However, if the thoughts are familiar and firmly established, then this is not as easy to do as it might seem.

Hate is as magnetic as love. But on the earthly plane, while hating, it is possible to completely avoid meeting the object of hatred; there, hatred will attract the hater to the one he hates and will keep him close until the energy of hatred has completely exhausted itself.

One should not speak ill of those who have passed into the Subtle World. Don't even remember thin man. He has already taken on his face. But if someone calls him a bad word, he may call upon him a harmful enemy. ...It’s better to wish him, the bad one, to quickly free himself from the terrible image - that way he will be wiser.

Forgiving enemies in the physical world is liberation from enemies on the Subtle Plane.

If we talk about the dead... well, then we can involve a friend. It is even possible to strike up a “friendship” or “acquaintance.” You can install new ones good relations from earlier stranger and subsequently, during the transition to the Subtle World, to meet a new friend there. Sympathies and antipathies that appear in relation to those who have already passed on to another world have great importance for above-ground stay. Just don't make enemies. You simply need to fence yourself off from unwanted entities. But those who are attractive and attracted to you and arouse sympathy, respect or love can be retained by mentally sending them good thoughts and feelings.

One might think about establishing such connections, since many innocently persecuted, tortured and killed people leave the physical world. And so few know who exactly from Earth could help them. And such help is quite real and significant. The words “pray for my peace” contain a deep meaning. If praise or condemnation of the deceased can have such a strong influence on the relationships of people, then good remembrance of the deceased will be a blessing for them. They rejoice at every good memory of them. Radonitsa, a day dedicated to the dead, is also not without significance. Essentially speaking, there are those who have passed on to another world, but there are no dead ones. The spirit does not die, and looking at those who have departed as continuing to live in the spirit will be an indicator of knowledge of the Fundamentals (Cosmic Life).

If you could remember the delight of a liberated spirit without malice, You would rejoice and not cry! A spirit heavy with anger cannot rise, but freed kindness flies into the radiance of Light.

…Enmity, so insoluble in the physical world, itself dissolves among the ethereal, purified rays. Not only in the Higher Spheres, but already in the middle strata of the Subtle World, the feeling of enmity fades as unnecessary. We need to understand these laws of ray distributions. One awareness of them will already weaken the anger of hostility even here. We should not forget that enmity unbalances the body, giving it over to various diseases and obsessions. Therefore, attention should be paid to hostility from a prevention point of view. Why get sick, infect others and rage when one effort of spirit will protect the integrity of the body.

If in the material world people need some kind of weapon, then other world psychic energy is the only weapon possible and available for use by those who have it, that is, who have accumulated this energy during their lives in physical body. This circumstance is very important, because a person who has wasted his fiery power returns to the Subtle World absolutely defenseless. True, the guardians of the spatial spheres and the servants of the Hierarchy of Light protect the disembodied, but only within certain limits determined by the Law, and by layers. But you can meet the enemy there too, and you need to defend yourself. The dark ones are also active in the Supermundane World, and fiery energy will be the only protection against them.

In the physical world, a person is very dependent on people, their position, home, wealth and many other different circumstances. There all this loses its meaning to a very strong extent. Wealth is nothing, position is nothing, material environment is nothing. Any material dependence disappears, but all feelings remain: sympathy or antipathy, love or hate, friendship or enmity... Here on Earth, talking with the powers that be, a person feels his dependence on them, there the situation changes dramatically - strong of the world this loses its significance, and only friendship, respect or indifference matter.

Many meetings, many long-standing connections, but only for sighted people. It's all about maintaining consciousness. Immortality means unobscured clarity of consciousness. People who are there in a state of unconsciousness, although they are alive, but this will not be immortality in our understanding of the word. The spirit does not die, and yet the owners of the immortal spirit can be called, both on Earth and in the Supermundane, the living dead. This is also the logic of the Subtle World. The spirit is alive, but the absence of consciousness, due to any reasons, sometimes makes a person a motionless idol (a living corpse).

If there are about 6 billion embodied people on the earthly plane, then how many of them are in the Subtle World in a disembodied state! Obviously, many times more, because the disembodied state is usually longer than the incarnate state. It is difficult to even imagine these huge masses of people, as well as the position of a person who finds himself among these crowds and does not know what and who to rush towards. Indeed, it is not difficult to get confused. Therefore, it is very important to know where and to whom you are going and who exactly will be the center of gravity of your consciousness. “He who goes to his fathers will remain with them.” “Whoever comes to Me is with Me.” But you must know, firmly, definitely, unshakably, to whom exactly your heart is directed. There can be no accidental or unwanted attraction then. But this aspiration must be established on Earth not accidentally and not temporarily, but once and for all. He who comes to the Lord (of the planet) comes to Him forever. This is how man on Earth confirms his path in the Subtle World.

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Good afternoon Tell me, can’t the Lord free a soul from hell without private prayer, without the prayer of the Church? Why do the deceased need my prayer, the prayer of the Church, the Bloodless Sacrifice? Is it possible without this?

The Holy Fathers noticed that for this purpose the Lord not only founded His Church, but even before the century, before the creation of the world, He had already planned that He would build His Church on His blood, because God wanted the salvation of people to be through their effort. The Lord wants, like any father, for His children to participate in His life, in His works. Of course, God can generally do anything, but as far as salvation is concerned, He wants it to happen through people.

- So that a person not only places everything on God...

Not only this, but so that there is love between people. Right now in all churches of Russia with blessing His Holiness Patriarch We are praying for you, dear residents of Mariupol, Kiev, Donetsk. God wants us to pray for you who are going through difficult life circumstances. Every time I directly feel that good is happening through this prayer. Of course, God can do anything, but this is both joy for Him and salvation for us. Because when we pray at a time when we can no longer help with anything else, our prayer is selfless. Prayer for the departed is a selfless prayer, this only shows our compassion and desire to save a person, therefore such a selfless prayer is pleasing to God, and it ennobles us, i.e. we ourselves become better, and this helps to cleanse our soul.

Father Dmitry, your programs are always broadcast on Saturday, and on Sunday we go to communion, is it possible to listen to them correctly before communion?

No, it’s wrong and you shouldn’t listen to it under any circumstances! Therefore, goodbye, see you next time on Sunday on the Soyuz TV channel!

Father, if a person did not have time to bring church repentance and passed into another world, is there any hope for him to move from the place of torment to the heavenly abode?

- What if a person was worthy of confession? Is this a guarantee or what?

- Of course, there is no guarantee.

So, our life, our soul is in the hands of God, if we accept the legal term. If we look at it in a Christian way, then the whole judgment already consists in our life, and each person himself chooses what he likes most, and the Lord, depending on what he likes most, places his soul there. And what he likes - the Lord himself sees.

What then is the torment if a person is placed in an environment familiar to him?

And this is torment from the point of view of the angels of the Lord, the righteous and the Lord. From their point of view, what a person experiences is torture. But many people who are clearly addicted, for example, to games, think like this: “So what’s wrong? I play and play, I feel good that my mother is going crazy? Unclear". But from the mother’s point of view, he is in ruin, in suffering, it depends on the way you look at things.

- But you won’t be able to play there anymore...

Well, this will be the suffering.

- How can I understand how Christian my soul is? How Christian am I? What evaluation criteria can be adopted?

A good criterion is that if they hit you on the right cheek, turn the other one, willingly and with joy, with joy that you managed to serve God. If you joyfully serve the Savior, then you are already a Christian. If you do this with sorrow and effort, it means that you are still learning to become a Christian. If you managed to do this, then you passed the exam.

- What if they don’t hit me on the cheek, and there’s no one to give me the other one? Are there other criteria?

Of course I have! “I was sick and they visited Me, I was in prison and they came to Me, I was hungry and they fed Me. Whatever they did to one of these little ones, they did to Me” - that’s your criterion.

Please tell me if a person can come to Christian life, if he doesn’t read the Holy Fathers, doesn’t read the Gospel, it’s very difficult and boring for him to read, but he goes to church, confesses, takes communion. But if you look at whether his actions always correspond to the Gospel, it is clear that he does not know and does not want to. And then won’t going to church remain just an obligation?

Don't know. The fact is that there was a time when most people on earth did not understand literacy. And until the 18th century, 100% of people did not have any books at home. A person would be glad to read, but he had nowhere to get books. Therefore, our divine service itself is a living illustration of the Gospel, and there you can hear the Gospel, and hear the interpretation that the priests try to teach in the sermon, therefore enlightenment is quite possible through our divine service.

Father Dmitry, who is your favorite secular writer? And how do you know whether a particular author is worth reading or not?

I like Fazil Iskander - our contemporary, I simply adore him, I know him a little personally, I even had lunch with him twice. I am simply in awe of this man; this year, even on vacation, I read one of his novels (from early creativity), I took it with me specifically to enjoy. And so... I generally like all kinds of literature, good, solid literature. To understand whether it is good or not, you need to read a lot of good literature, then you will be able to tell the difference. As in music, in order to distinguish good from bad, you need to listen to a lot of good music, it is usually called classics.

- “If you lost your wife, don’t look for a wife” - is this only about the death of your spouse or about divorce too? And am I sinning if I still seek?

No, you are not sinning. But the Apostle Paul spoke generally about any loss.

“People are often perplexed: “Well, I’m still very young, how can I live without a wife?!”...

Wait, some people are perplexed: “I’m so young, I can’t live without meat!” - “You can’t - eat, what do I care?!” - “Well, how?!” Fast!". - “And fasting, well, fast.” - "But I can not!". - “Well, why don’t you fast?”

- Vicious circle…

None vicious circle, it's just nonsense. Why pester busy people?

When we say that such and such a scientist discovered such and such a law, how will this be from a theological point of view, since the Lord said: “without Me you cannot do anything”?

But every law was created by God. Therefore, how can one discover a law composed by God without the Creator? Therefore, God is involved in everything, I don’t see any contradiction here.

My husband has become despondent, constantly walks around depressed, says that his boss at work shouts and forces him to work until 10 pm and even on weekends. I try to support, but it doesn’t help. What complicates everything is that he is an unbeliever. How to help in such a situation? What words to choose?

But you don’t need a word, you just need one word - “quit” - and that’s all, why say a lot of words? Since it’s unbearable... Why live like this - in despondency, in stress, always under pressure, in some kind of slavery?

- But without work it’s even worse...

No, first find a more or less acceptable job. I’m not saying “quit today,” find someone else first, and while you’re looking, it will become easier to endure.

As far as I understand, unction is a sacrament for the sick. In our church, when the unction is held, everyone participates in it. The priest himself invited everyone to participate in the sermon. For what healthy person to participate in unction, if the soul can be healed by repentance and communion?

Father invites, but does not force; if you don’t want to, don’t go. If the priest had said: “On pain of death tomorrow, everyone should come to the unction!”, then - yes... And so - you’re healthy, and go home! For example, I have half a dozen different chronic illnesses, I have something to pray about, and I am very willing to gather together every year. But if a person is healthy, it’s just nice to hear. His only problem is to go to the unction or not to go, Lord have mercy...

- Can a prayer of thanksgiving be served to a saint or only to God? After all, we get help from God?

But there is no such prayer: “Thanksgiving prayer to such and such a saint.” Something I haven’t seen... There is a prayer service to the saint with a request, but gratitude to the saint - there is no such thing, somehow I’m completely behind the times. We serve the old fashioned way thanksgiving prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why are there such things in many of our churches? high prices for unction? 500 rubles and plus I need to buy candles?

This is necessary so that you come only to our Annunciation Church for unction, and not go closer to home. Our temple is further away - but cheaper, we don’t have any prices, come during Great Lent - we’ll do the unction, you’re welcome.

- It’s amazing how people don’t spare money to ruin their health - they’ll set a rich table and console themselves with one thing or another, but when they go to church to pray, they feel such pity for money...

No, there is another very cheap way - you give birth to a boy, raise him to be a priest, and he will administer unction to you three times a year for free.

How to protect yourself from sorcerers? Even sorcerers come to church, push and cause damage, how to protect yourself from them? There's just no strength...

It all depends on faith. Who believes in strength Holy Trinity, sorcerers are not afraid of him. And whoever believes in the power of sorcerers becomes their slave, and then they do dirty tricks. Because it’s like it’s said: “Whoever believes in someone is his slave.” If a person believes in God, he is a servant of God, if a person believes in sorcerers, he is a slave of sorcerers, and they mock him all the time. The only way here - stop believing in them.

- One woman tells me: “I had never even heard of sorcerers, but everything in my life began to fall apart - in my family, with my health, at work... They told me: “they did it to you there.”

Well, these always say the same thing... Let’s say you need money, any woman comes to you and starts complaining about something, don’t even listen to what she says, she’ll just shut up for a second to catch some air, you and say: “This is done for you,” the first text. She says: "Who?" - “I know who, I can’t say, but they did it to you, I can take it off you, give me the money.” - “How much?” - “Well, for starters, fifty thousand.” When she brings it, I will say: “They did this to your death. Look, I took it off you, but it won’t come off, I need more, give me a hundred.” And that's how you'll be rich. They always say the same thing: “this was done for you.” And the people are already shelling out money, and will give what they have for the funeral, etc. And he himself will start to get sick... African witchcraft and shamanism are based on this.

- How then can you explain why everything in a person’s life collapses?

There's no way to explain it. Because that’s not why it’s collapsing. You start asking - and she has a history of 15 abortions, and she also says: “My health is not very good”... And what kind of health do you want? Well, and so on, if you immerse yourself a little into a person’s life, then you can immediately see why this life is falling apart. In order for life not to collapse, it must be built on the rock, which is Christ, meaning faith. And there - on nothing at all, on condemnation, on gossip, on witches, etc. What people live with is constant condemnation, mutual damage, threads, needles, someone sticks something somewhere... Well, what’s it like here? Already only in Kashchenko.

My mother recently died, please pray for N.P. Galina, it’s very difficult for me. And my father, he always had a difficult character, but now, no matter what I do - I put the kettle on or open the window, he starts cursing me. What do i do?

Well, good. The Gospel says: “Bless those who curse you.” He cursed you, and you answered him: “God will bless you and give you good health! And so that you die without suffering, and live 200 years! And God grant that you be happy with everything, and that no one ever offends you in your life.” That's all. He cursed again, and you did the same thing again. We must act according to Scripture.

-Why does a person need life if everything is so bad?

A person needs life so that he can serve God, this is the meaning of a person’s life - to serve God. What you did to one of these little ones, you did to God himself, so you need to serve God with something from morning to evening.

-Are there still wise people in Russia? elder monks who can I turn to for help?

There will always be someone smarter than you. Therefore, you don’t need to be very smart, you need to be at least a little smarter than yourself. It's enough.

-How to behave Orthodox Christian on New Year?

An Orthodox Christian must behave well, in a Christian manner, both on the New Year and on Kurban Bayram.

Hello, my dear. Today I want to talk to you about a deep topic - death. About accepting the inevitable transitions to another world of our loved ones - friends, relatives...

This topic, of course, is purely individual in perception, because the attitude towards death is the maturity of Life. However, time does not wait, and many will now have to “mature” at an accelerated pace. I hope my experience will be useful to someone.
I was lucky enough to experience the instant death of a loved one very early, at the age of 14. I was lucky, because due to the unexpectedness of what was happening, I didn’t have time to evaluate anything with my mind, but only plunged into a wave of bliss and love that touched me with the last exhalation of a living body , settling at my feet. Not many people are given such a death in old age - ask for a Validol tablet, put your hand to your chest and just leave your body. It is surprising that no one else in the family - and everyone was at home - did not feel the beauty of the moment, the situation caused shock and panic in everyone, the ambulance arrived very quickly, but to no avail, and I was in splits. The joy that filled me, the joy from the freedom and boundlessness of the World that was present in me, contradicted the “normal” attitude towards this “tragic” event from everyone around. I was ashamed and embarrassed, I covered my shining face as best I could, but the Gift I received is the confidence that there is no death, and Life is endless and varied , - defined my entire later life. Many thanks to my dear Soul who gave me this experience!
The fear of death and everything connected with it is worthy of respect and has been necessary for us for almost eons. Otherwise, we would simply run away from here - from the physical embodiment, because the intensity spiritual path in the human body on Earth is very large. I think that few of you have not experienced at certain moments in your life the feeling of “why am I here?..” And if we knew about the infinity of life, about the variability of our incarnations and that we are free to finish this performance or leave it in the middle, we simply would not be able to implement the plans of our divine core. A our task was, as you already know, to raise this planet to a new frequency of Love , before immersing it as much as possible in polarity along with our souls
The knowledge of immortality cannot be conveyed in words; it must be felt from within oneself. . Therefore, some people, still deeply immersed in their lessons, are not able to believe it, despite the abundance of information on this topic.
But for you - those who have already passed the Rubicon and stopped perceiving themselves as a separate person in a separate story; those who have seen from their own experience how deep the connections of your Soul are with your ancestors, with your loved ones, what amazing creative powers you possess as a manifested particle of God on Earth - I want to show the beauty of the inevitable transition of our loved ones to another world.
Since ancient times it has been known that death takes not the old, but the mature. And a baby can also be mature if his soul has collected all the harvest on its way and can return to other, higher forms of its existence. Tall - not in the sense of better, but in the sense of lighter and thinner.
Therefore, a person’s exit into another world is a great happiness. No posthumous retribution awaits him in new energies, since he comes out only when he is ready, when everything that was possible has been done, when all debts at this stage are closed .
Not a single death occurs by accident or due to someone else's fault. It's always soul choice the person who leaves. And there are always reasons why a person leaves the Game right now.
Of course, for those who remain, the passing of a loved one is a tragedy. It seems to us that we have not delivered enough, it seems to us that we have not loved, we could have been more attentive, more sensitive, etc. But I want to tell you honestly: the greatest share of our suffering in loneliness is not sadness that we did not give enough love, it is self-pity that we are deprived of support.
Any absurd deaths - the death of young people, the death of children, unexpected accidents that take away men and women in the prime of life - are always very deep meaning for those who remain. These events are a tremendous accelerator for the liberation of those who remain from selfishness, false illusions and self-pity.
Remember that life is endless. AND Your loved one continues his journey even after death. But It’s very difficult for him if you constantly seem to pull him by the strings of your pity for yourself and for what has already passed .
When your close person goes on an unpredictable journey, the best thing you can do for him is not to wait for a call from him with a report on how he is coping there, but to believe that everything is fine with him. In the same way, we must believe that all is well with the souls of our loved ones. We must free them from earthly attachments so that they can further move and develop.
The more we cry about someone who has left, the more we harm and interfere with him. The more we are sincerely grateful and glad for what he has given our lives, and we let him go with all our hearts for the better, we wish him an easy and bright path, the easier it is for him not only to go where his soul planned, but also to maintain a heartfelt relationship with us. connection.
Our departed loved ones are often willing to help and support us. Believe me, if you remember the departed person happy, contented, smiling, in those moments when you were in good mutual understanding and cooperation, if you focus your attention on gratitude to yourself and him, on remembering all the good things - in other words, if you remember him fond memory You will be amazed at how much strength will be added to your life to solve everyday problems. It’s as if you will receive the invisible help of a guardian angel
There are many examples when loving people experienced such emotional support. At the “Doors of Spring” meeting in Moscow, I received a book as a gift from a wonderful woman in all respects, describing her path to establishing truly cordial contact with her dearly beloved husband who had passed away. And this book shows very clearly that when this contact is established (and contact is possible when you achieve a certain degree of harmony; out of confusion, despair and grief, you cannot feel the presence of your dear person on the other side) You are simultaneously establishing contact with your own soul. You begin to receive answers from your higher self and be, frankly, in harmony with God.
And this experience - preserving grateful, harmonious vibrations in relation to the departed - is their enormous help to us, so that we, being alive, establish unity within ourselves, in the space of our heart, as quickly as possible. Thus, any passing of a loved one is an amazing opportunity to open our hearts.
The book I recommend is called “The Priceless Gift of My Loss”, it is posted on our website. Please do not rush to evaluate or judge anything, just read personal experience a person who, like each of us, broke out of his illusions with great difficulty, blood and loss, but found true harmony in the fact that he sincerely wanted to be in touch with his loved one.
Now let's talk about older people. The bodies of older people (astral, mental, causal) are often so cluttered with blocks that it is easier for them to leave the body and, being born again, continue their evolution in a new world. In addition, the soul of an elderly person often gets tired of living in a sick physical body. The person himself may not understand this, his ego may cling to life, but the soul really wants to be freed. Therefore, death is a kind of renewal for such people.
Usually a person goes through several phases on the path of dying. The first is disbelief that he will die; the second is anger at those who remain to live; the third is trading with God: I am ready to do this and that in order to stay alive. At this phase, someone desperately prays, someone completely trusts medicine and performs a bunch of procedures, forcing themselves... I.e. this is the struggle of biological consciousness for survival.
And finally, the fourth stage comes, when a person resigns himself, realizes that everything is hopeless, and begins to lose interest in his surroundings - the so-called pre-death depression. Close relatives try with all their might to return this interest, to remind the person of his past life, please him with something... But in fact, this is a wonderful time, because the egoic consciousness is finally weakening, the work of passions and internal “red buttons” is finally decreasing. There is no need to disturb the person at this time, there is no need to dissuade him or “bring him back to reality.” He needs to live through this phase too. At this time, with our “inhumility” and regret, we only burden the path of our relatives. If their soul has already entered this road, we can be of enormous help to them if, in this process of dying, we are as harmonious as possible ourselves. It is our resource state that allows us to take care of loved ones not just technically, but environmentally unconditional love their last time on earth.
Your memory of the best in this person, your gratitude to him for the lessons he brought, your conscious ability to engage with your resource and only in a resourceful state to be close to the dying person allow you to hold like a bright lamp in your heart, which is visible to the heart of the departing person. And then it’s easier for a person to refocus on going into his own heart. When can you be with your loved one? high condition spirit, in a state of goodness and gratitude to life, in a state of acceptance and praise of the Creator, his soul has the opportunity to complete its affairs as comfortably as possible and easily free itself from the body.
I remind you once again that life is one, it develops many times and in many layers. And very soon the time will come when we will be able to interact with those who, on the subtle planes, continue their development for the benefit of everyone. Because no one leaves unknown where, we all create the same Love.
I wish you courage, self-confidence and peace in your heart.

It rarely happens that we make promises, and then, much later, we rack our brains and still can’t figure out how we can better fulfill them, so as not to be branded (and actually be) frivolous idle talkers and worse than that- deceivers? It seems very often. This happens mainly when we, indeed, treat someone’s request with a fair amount of frivolity and, sometimes without even really listening to what is required or at least expected of us, we rush to answer:

- Certainly! I will do everything, and don’t think about doubting it!

Well, subsequently, according to what was said above, we are looking for a way to implement what we have already contracted for, and the result of our thoughts is not always satisfactory.

And it’s surprising: often a similar situation can be observed when it’s not about something super complex or extremely unusual we're talking about, and when they ask us for a simple and natural thing: to pray.

They ask, and we immediately readily exclaim:

- Certainly! I will definitely pray!

And then... And then man walking to the temple and asks the priest a question, the answer to which seems obvious:

- They asked me to pray, I promised, but how can I do this?..

And really - how? Remember the person who asked for prayer in the morning and evening, bow down for him, read akathists and canons, add petitions for him to the reading of the Psalter and Gospel, submit notes for proskomedia, for a prayer service, order the magpie? It would probably be correct if, having promised to pray, a Christian already imagined exactly how he would do it. But it is also right that, having difficulty, he asks. It would be worse if he did not ask and did not pray at all, believing that a promise as such is enough to calm the heart of the petitioner - this also happens and is not as rare as someone might think.

It seems to me that the question is: how should I pray in this case? - akin to another question: how to determine the extent of my participation when I am asked for help in deed or, for example, money? And the answer to it consists of the same components: one must participate (pray) as necessary, as one’s diligence, as possible, according to the degree of closeness to us of the person in question, and, of course, according to the degree of love that lives in our heart. And definitely - with reasoning.

In terms of its external expression and duration, prayer can be very different, the main thing is that it should not be formal, it should come from the heart and be done with an understanding of who and what we are asking the Lord for. As for the rest... St. Silouan of Athos has these words: “Praying for people is like shedding blood.” And this is not only in the sense that the person praying feels the pain of another person as his own, empathizes, sympathizes with him.

The person praying must be ready to take on the burden that the one for whom he is praying bears.

The person praying must be ready to take on some part of the load that another person carries, to bear his burden, to share his sorrow: this is the law of spiritual perception about which St. Mark the Ascetic speaks. He explains that this perception can be twofold – involuntary and voluntary. When we condemn a person, when we cause him harm, the Lord allows us to take upon ourselves some part of his temptations and troubles. When, on the contrary, we love a person and pray for him, then God, seeing in us a readiness for self-sacrifice for the sake of our neighbor, allows us to suffer with him. Moreover, this readiness, which has found its expression in prayerful work, sometimes remains not fully realized by us, and everything that we ultimately encounter as a result of prayer turns out to be completely unexpected for us.

But we must wait. Firstly, because the expected is much easier to bear. Secondly, because it is the awareness of such a reality that makes you treat yourself more soberly and understand your own life more correctly.

It is no coincidence that, answering a question from one of his disciples, the Monk Barsanuphius the Great says that it will be enough if he, having promised to pray for someone, one day says: “Lord, have mercy on such and such!” and will sigh for him from the heart. And he convinces this monk that he cannot do more. This same advice can probably be taken personally by almost every one of us – and there is only so much we can do. If we talk about a little more, then it is appropriate to remember a person with varying degrees of regularity in our usual morning or evening prayer - just as briefly, along with other people for whom we constantly pray.

But this, of course, applies to a greater extent to situations when a person we do not know very well asks us to pray. It’s another matter when we talk about someone truly close, about someone we love, with whom we are connected by bonds of friendship, especially if this person dear to us is in trouble or seriously ill. Here work of a completely different order is needed: simply fervent prayer, and akathists, and canons, and the Gospel with the Psalter, and remembrance during the service.

And the temptations that we have to endure... well, courageously enduring them makes our prayer stronger

And, of course, the same can be said about prayer for those of our loved ones who die, unable to control their passions, who cannot cope with alcohol or drug addiction, lose their last money somewhere, live sinfully, dissolutely . Here you can and should either beg them, “pull them out” on yourself, or, as one ascetic put it, at least show the knees worn out by bows to the Lord. And the temptations that we will have to endure... well, they must be - courageously enduring them makes our prayer much stronger, our courage proves that we really love, and prayer, facilitated by love, works miracles.

Prayer for occultists and Satanists is dangerous: it may not please God

However, there are times when you even have to refuse to pray for loved ones, when you should, having resigned yourself to sadness, but retreat. These are cases, of course, of a special kind: if our loved ones are seriously carried away, if they are engaged in extrasensory perception or, not to mention direct, conscious service dark force, then praying for them becomes truly dangerous. And moreover, it often ceases to be pleasing to God. Even such a great righteous man and man of prayer as Athonite elder Ephraim Katunaksky, a disciple of Elder Joseph the Hesychast, who labored on the Holy Mountain in the 20th century, admitted that he could not pray for his occultist brother while he was alive, because he felt every time that the Lord did not accept his prayers, “punishing” him for her. He only resumed his prayers for his brother when he passed into another world and could no longer commit those iniquities with which his life had been filled before. What can we say about us...

Of course, when discussing prayer for our neighbors, I am aware that there cannot be ready-made, once and for all defined “recipes” for it: life is living, and any rules very often require certain adjustments. Which? We understand this if we ourselves, like life, are alive: the heart prompts, and common sense and reasoning allow us to be convinced of its correctness. I just tried some general principles speak out, indicate, knowing from experience that there is an urgent need for this.

You definitely need to pray. And if you understand how, then this work becomes easier and brings more benefits - both to our neighbors and to ourselves.