17.04.2009 14:54:10
Is it true that in the first week after Easter the gates to heaven open and everyone who died during this time goes to heaven, regardless of the degree of their sin? Sorry if the question is incorrect. Thank you.
Dear reader!
True, there is an ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church that those Orthodox Christians who died on Easter or Bright Week will bypass the ordeal of the afterlife. This Tradition is based on the ineffable mercy of the Lord, according to which the thief crucified on the cross with Christ, who called out to Him, received the promise on the same day to be with the Savior in Paradise. There is a lot of evidence confirming this Tradition.
Sergius Nilus in the book “The Power of God and Human Weakness” in the chapter “Christ is Risen!” We read about how in 1906, after the Easter service, pilgrims from the Optina Monastery drowned in the Zhizdra River. Among them was the maiden Catherine, whose father S. Nilus consoled in grief like this:
Well, doesn't this make you happy? On Maundy Thursday she received communion, and on the first day of Easter God took her to Himself. Do you know how our holy Church consoles us? Whoever, she says, dies on Easter, his soul goes straight to the Lord, bypassing all the ordeals.
Moreover, Nilus cites the testimony of a wanderer, to whom the mother of the drowned maiden Katerina said that in a dream she saw her daughter more than once, who punished her: “Don’t cry,” she says, “mama, “I feel good with the Lord.”
Orthodox Christians believe that death itself on Holy Week or on Bright Easter Week already speaks of the Lord’s mercy for the departed soul, since nothing happens by accident, especially since, according to the conviction of Orthodox children and their pastors, death is not accidental. If a sinner died at this time, it means that the Lord had mercy on him for some secret virtues; the death of the righteous man at this time confirms the godliness of his life.
The evidence of S. Nilus from a church point of view is beyond doubt and is authoritative, because This writer published all his works with the blessing of the elders of Optina Pustyn, and his books went through their editorial control, which was not always painless for the author’s pride. Let us also cite the testimony of the spiritual father of S. Nilus of Optina, Elder Fr. Barsanuphius, about the blessed death on Easter of the nun Euphrosyne, deeply revered by Fr. Barsanuphius for the height of her spiritual life:
“Today is the day of St. Easter, the greatest holiday in the Christian Church, a feast of holidays and a triumph of celebrations. Every day the Church resounds with the joyful songs of the Easter canon. I remember how Mother Euphrosyne admired the canon.”
“Here,” she said, “my life has passed, I don’t know anything good with which to appear before the Throne of God, but I hear the singing of “Resurrection Day, let us be enlightened, people,” and my soul becomes joyful, calm. “From death Christ God has brought us to life, and from earth to heaven."
The Lord fulfilled Mother Euphrosyne’s wish, and she died on Easter. When they lifted the coffin with her withered body of an 80-year old woman, the choir sang “Resurrection Day” instead of “Holy God”, the doors of the Church opened wide, light poured from the street like a wave, and she went to the eternal, unstoppable Light. May the Lord grant us such a blessed death. Pray about this, and when the deacon proclaims: “Christian death of your life, painless, shameless, peaceful,” do not forget to put down a bow, may the Lord rest you with His saints. Amen".
And here is the testimony of S. Nilus about the righteous death of the remarkable ascetic in the world, Elena Andreevna Voronova, who devoted her life to material and spiritual charity among prisoners:
“From the beginning of Lent, Elena Andreevna began to feel very bad, the attacks of angina pectoris intensified and became more frequent to the point that our poor friend, despite all her angelic patience, was forced to moan loudly and complain to God about the unbearable torment. She moans in her inexpressible suffering and keeps chanting:
Lord, forgive me! It’s hard for me, Lord! But I don’t complain, I don’t complain, Lord, send me impatient patience!
And she continually remained in such moments from the first week of Great Lent until Great Monday of Holy Week. On this day, after a particularly severe attack, she seemed to have brightened up and said to the friend of her entire mature life, with whom she had spent at least thirty years under the same roof:
No, Sonya, I will certainly die on Good Friday.
How do you know this?
The Lord Himself told me this: I saw Him. He appeared to me and said: “You have a good heart, so be patient until Friday: on the day of My crucifixion you too will die.
As she said, she died on Good Friday.”
So, Church Tradition says that those whom the Lord has deigned to die on the day of Holy Easter, bypassing the ordeal, go to the Lord. But let us emphasize here the word “honored”; Let us remember the spiritual instruction to us from Father Barsanuphius of Optina that we need to ask for a blessed death, pray to God, prepare for a truly Christian death with our entire life, since because of our sins we should not rely on the fact that our death may be sudden , will fall on the Great Days.
Church Tradition testifies that death during Holy Week of Great Lent, Bright Week, and also the Twelve Feasts can serve as consolation to the dying person and his loved ones. Of course, the Queen of Heaven does not forget us sinners on the days of the celebration of Her icons. Death on the day of one’s saint can also serve as a consolation. The lives of some secret ascetics and prayer books are closely connected with the help of certain saints of God, so that death on the day of these saints gives them hope for intercession during the ordeal.
May the Lord grant us, through the prayers of the Queen of Heaven, the holy saints and our spiritual fathers, such a blessed fate.
Easter is a time of great joy, a holiday of victory over death and over all sorrow and sadness. On Bright Week, it is not customary to visit the cemetery and perform funeral services, so as not to darken the days of joyful rejoicing.
A special day is appointed for visiting the graves, Tuesday after Easter week - Radonitsa. It is on this day that believers pray for the departed, conveying to them the joy of the Bright Holiday. According to custom, on Radonitsa, believers bring colored eggs and Easter cakes to the grave and remember the Resurrection of Christ.
In this regard, the question is often asked: “Are people buried on Easter?”
It is possible to bury on Easter; moreover, dying on Easter was considered a special grace of God. There is a popular belief that the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared for those who repose on Bright Week. It should be explained this way: he is not saved because he was worthy to rest on Easter, but because he died on Easter because he was worthy of high favor for his righteous life, repentance and love of truth. People who died during the Holy Day were buried with a red Easter egg in their right hand - “He died on Easter and an egg in his hand.”
The question also arises: “Is a funeral service held at Easter?”
According to church rules, the funeral service is performed for the deceased, regardless of significant events in the life of Christians, since life and death go on as usual. If a person dies on Easter, then he is buried and buried according to a special Easter rite.
It is worth considering that in Moscow, on the first day of Easter, cemeteries are closed for burials. This is due to mass visits by citizens to the graves of deceased relatives. In Soviet times, when it was impossible and sometimes even dangerous to get to the temple on Easter due to persecution, people came to the cemetery, which was located next to the temple. The custom has been preserved to this day, although this is not correct, you still need to go to the cemetery after Bright Week, since Easter is the holiday of the living.
During Holy Week, Easter, and then throughout the Holy Seeds, the voices of the departed were not heard. Pro-long-zha-et-sya on-mi-no-ve-nie on Li-tur-gii: for pro-sko-mi-di-ey, on su-gu-boy ek-te-nii (“about everyone who died before"), as well as in secret prayers after-stay-before, - they even pray for Easter - about the deceased.
But Easter itself is a celebration of victory over death, Christ’s giving of eternal life to all people. -lo-ve-che-sko-mu. And on such bright days, after the departed, a special message comes.
Ob-rya-do-howl-y-no-ve-ness on-chi-na-et-sya after Fo-mi-noy week
Po-ne-del-nik Ra-do-ni-tsy (next gray-mi-tsa after Svet-loy) - this is the first day, when, in fact, .
Since ancient times, there has been a description of the tradition when, after the Passover celebrations, people went to the cemetery. But for what? First of all, for your prayers.
Nowadays, going to the cemetery - soon, some kind of water for “ma-ev-ki”, “pick-n-ka on the side of the road”, as well as for meeting with distant relatives whom you see once a year. Well, to be “like everyone else,” or even “better than everyone else.”
If we are talking about a meal, as an ancient church institution, then its meaning lies in sweetness. As it is said in the Gospel: “When you eat lunch or dinner, do not call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your relatives.” neither yours nor your fellow gods, lest they ever call you, and you receive no reward . But, when you are having a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed that they cannot repay you. be, for you will be rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous” ().
Such people were called to pray for the dead. For example, the mother of the blessed Av-gu-sti-na, according to local custom, with joy wa-ri-la ka-shu and cor- mercy on the poor, creating mercy for the benefit of the souls of the departed.
The meaning of going to the cemetery is, first of all, prayer
It’s even more important to come to church on this day for service and pray for the departed. Yes, in small parish churches, the services of God are all the same - even if they are not Li-tur-gies, but only pa-ni-hi-dy. And when you come to Ra-do-ni-tsu to the cemetery (Tuesday, the second week after Easter), to the graves of your loved ones, you don’t follow -doing something that offends their memory, and even God Himself.
For example, now the tra-di-tsi-on-nym “at-ri-bu-tom” has become a ras-pi-va-nie on mo-gi -lah al-ko-gol-nyh-drinks. This is nonsense, it shouldn’t be like that. Putting on a glass of wine, pouring vodka into the bottle, by and large, is Evan’s clear belief -Gel standards. After all, it has been said that the Kingdom of God is not food and drink (). By-the-cha-et-sya, on-my ru-ko-vo-dits a typical linguistic idea that there should be some and drink.
On the other hand, without any disclaimer, “sra-ba-you-va-et” is clearly a non-Christian understanding that if We drink, eat and have fun here, which means it’s good “there”. No matter how you look at it, it’s a language, and that’s all.
But the main thing on Ra-do-ni-tsu is to remember, that is, to pray for relief, and not to get full and get drunk. Xia. When we get drunk, we testify about how much we don’t love our deceased.
According to the departed, it’s better to do everything right - in Evan-gel’s way
I'm sure everyone knows where the sta-ru-ha lives, for which the bu-khan-ka has white-go-bread - it’s already a la-com-stvo, because she’s not able to buy it for herself. Somewhere live widows, si-ro-you, in-va-li-dy... Go to them on this day, bring them something to eat, remove them from them at home - these things are sweet-lo-ser-dia for us, and for the souls of our departed relatives more than once. PS, rather than actually a tour to the cemetery.
After all, you can pray for the dead in any place, at any convenient time - and especially in the temple of God . But to do a good deed and ask that they pray for the repose of a servant in the name of God - this is my very ray -neck pro-ve-de-nie Ra-do-ni-tsy.
So, the meaning of the meal is sweetness, our trip to the cemetery is for prayer. And we get the idea that such “moves” have turned into a meaningless tradition, when not all they don’t understand its meaning and pre-signification. What is all this for? Well, others are coming, and we are going. God forbid someone be worse!
Going to the cemetery specifically on Easter days makes no sense. The Church has its own time for everyone: a time to remember the dead, and a time to rejoice in the victory over death.
Pass-hal-naya sed-mi-tsa is a victory over death, and even in the church charter it was said that if on pas-hal- this is the third, ninth, or so-so day of the deceased’s repose, by-mi-na- nie pere-re-no-sit-sia.
Prayer, mercy, abstinence from pagan customs - this is the main thing.
There is a tradition - to invite sacred people to the graves
In the villages, as a rule, no one is in a hurry, the priest complies with the general pa-ni-hi-du, and -may-go to every mo-gi-loch-ka, sing “With the Holy Rest” or serve the lit-tia. In cities this is more difficult. Huge treasure-houses, and relatives fre-quently come to the holy place. What should I do?
In this matter there is hidden another very important nuance in the understanding of the deceased. If we have already come to the cemetery, the main thing is that the heart should be turned towards God, and the prayer should sound in it. va. But there shouldn’t be a vain-glorious wish so that the ba-tyush-ka, named- but my relatives never served.
God does not consider the proximity of sacredness to the grave of the deceased, and even more so God does not feel I give glory to my vanity. If you want the name of someone related to or close to someone to be in your prayer -wah, for this there is Li-tur-gia, special days of po-mi-no-ve-niya, there is also personal reading of the Psalm-ty-ri - all this is a great consolation - for the souls of the departed.
Let us remember the history of the Ki-e-Pe-Cher-Skaya Lavra, when, at the Pass-hal greeting of the Most-excellent Di- oh-these holy fathers, in the caves in the-chi-va-yu-yu-shchie, from-ve-ti-whether “In-is-ti-well Ri-kre-se!” . Why shouldn’t we, when we come to the cemetery with prayer, say to our departed “Christ is Risen-crowned!” -tat u mo-gil-ki Pas-hal-ny ka-non, sti-hi-ry Pas-khi. This is truly spiritual joy, which we share with the comforted.
To the question about “coffins”, “red mountains”, “black weeks”
These days do not belong to the category of public church charter days, but the custom is so to a wide-spread-of-country that it has become practically universal. Its power is extremely great, and its significance in the “national consciousness” sometimes exceeds all ordinary -di-tel-skie sub-bo-you.
This day Ra-do-ni-tsa has become less and less church-like. On the contrary: there are more and more languages and just a hundred about-the-church customs and po-nya-ti-ya-mi. For the majority of people, Ra-do-ni-tsa is a little-understood ri-tu-al: no one really knows what it means, but Almost everyone is going to the cemetery.
In the people they call it “coffin-ka-mi”, “red mountain”, and Ra-do-ni-tsu itself “black week”. There are a great many regional specialties, as well as the names of the mine days - “as usual -tea."
Ignorant customs
In sociology, 20-25 years is the age. The Soviet times “you-beat-lo” from the church tradition for three whole generations. Certain knowledge could be transferred from grandmother to granddaughter, but after three generations - this is small -ro-yat-but. The right-to-glorious traditions have disappeared, but something familiar remains. And when they come to the conclusion, the majority of modern-men can hardly give a clear answer, for what reason? this or that thing.
For example, remember the customs in the village when they carry a coffin and stay at the crossroads. For what? The thing is that earlier, during the carrying of the coffin with the deceased, from the house to the temple for the funeral at each cross-crossing ke so-ver-sha-li-tia, chi-ta-elk Evan-ge-lie for the repose (in many places of Ukraine this good custom is followed- stored). This is very good, very instructive, everything sat down willingly-but-involuntarily-but-it’s prayed...
And in the knowledge of the majority of people, only a fragment of the custom remained: they carry it in no way, they stayed at the crossroads , and for what - I don’t know. And there are a lot of them.
Further. Yes, even in not-so-believing families in Soviet times, there was a portrait of someone, near someone -ro-ho-lived the candle. Although, according to the logic of things, the candle lit up in front of the icon. And such examples of mass...
Yes, mi-lo-sty-nya turned into some strange ri-tu-al distribution of candy: children on Ra-do- they walk around the treasure-house with ku-lech-ka-mi, and they go-ra-mi store-houses of candy, biscuits, fruits . At the same time, the generous “yes” don’t give a second thought: what is this for? It's a good idea, it's cute! But for the most part, it turned into entertainment.
What can we say about the bottles, co-bi-ra-e-my places, “you’re not working” after you-pi-va -niy left on the graves of “ri-tu-al-hundred grams”... You-ho-dit, we actually-manually-but-we-eat Are you going to fall?
What do people think...
Imagine how many years must pass before the people who read these lines agree with what is said here but, you should teach this to your children too.
But in the belief of linguistic traditions, for many, a terrible and very painful question is hidden: “What do I love?” “What do they think they’ll say?”
...One of my relatives died. There were immediate questions about whether it was necessary to get the mirrors? - No, that makes no sense; zer-ka-la not for-ve-si-li. And that forks, as a hundred utensils, cannot be placed on the table for a meal? - Maybe we could put a fork on the table. And that’s it, there were no problems!
So, we ourselves talk about a lot of things, without thinking, but in agreement with those around us and repeating the words of others mistakes. Everyone says: let's go to the cemetery, so we'll go too. Everyone says we should put on a glass, and so do we. Everyone says, let’s serve the candy, and we’ll spread the candy too...
Maybe there’s no need to be afraid of becoming a “white sheep” - not to pour vodka on my mo-gi-lu, as in my example, not to desecrate -remember the singing and gluttony, calm-but-create cuteness against the backdrop of the general drunkenness- go ve-se-lya?
So, probably, it would be better to proceed rather than arrange pass-hal de-bo-shi.
Why is there a priest in the cemetery?
You have always prayed over the coffin, on the grave of the deceased. So today the Church is not one iota away from what happened 10-15 centuries ago.
This, by the way, may have a mis-si-o-ner meaning. One thing is when people are sitting right next to the grave, and others. goe - when the priest came to the grave about-from-no-sit sacred words, about-from-no-sit sacred dog -but-pen-niya. For many, this is a living story. Without a sacred treasure, there is a trace of the incomprehensible ri-tu-a-lu, and so someone he prays, albeit unconsciously, but someone thinks about the Eternal.
The presence of a sacred person in a treasure-house also has a certain dis-ci-ple-narrative effect, when you scold It will be a shame to raise your voice and sing a song - it’s still ba-tyush-near. So, what sacred service can help us live in this often wild environment.
From the ancient times of Christ, in the days after the Passover, people came for special prayers at the graves of the departed Christian. And today it is important that everything that is nasal, pagan, goes away from the customs of Ra-do-ni-tsy, so that everything that happens in cemeteries these days, it would be done out of Christian love for the dead, and not out of the desire to do “ like people” or out of simple vanity.
The more of us there are, the right-of-glorious ones, the greater the likelihood that sooner or later the cemetery will be turned into - go to sacred places for prayers, and not for pre-exaltation and amusement.
Bishop Philarat (Zve-roar)
What is good will to die? How to explain the mystery of clinical death? Why do the dead come to the living? Is it possible to give and receive permission to die? We are publishing fragments of a speech at a seminar held in Moscow by Andrei Gnezdilov, a psychotherapist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, honorary doctor of the University of Essex (UK), founder of the first hospice in Russia, inventor of new methods of art therapy and author of numerous books.
Death as a part of life
In everyday life, when we talk with someone we know and he says: “You know, so-and-so died,” the usual reaction to this is the question: how did he die? It is very important how a person dies. Death is important to a person's sense of self. It is not only negative in nature.
If we look at life philosophically, we know that there is no life without death, the concept of life can only be assessed from the perspective of death.
I once had to communicate with artists and sculptors, and I asked them: “You depict various aspects of a person’s life, you can depict love, friendship, beauty, but how would you depict death?” And no one immediately gave a clear answer.
One sculptor who immortalized the siege of Leningrad promised to think about it. And shortly before his death, he answered me like this: “I would depict death in the image of Christ.” I asked: “Is Christ crucified?” - “No, the ascension of Christ.”
One German sculptor depicted a flying angel, the shadow of whose wings was death. When a person fell into this shadow, he fell into the power of death. Another sculptor depicted death in the form of two boys: one boy sits on a stone, with his head on his knees, his whole head directed downwards.
In the hands of the second boy, there is a pipe, his head is thrown back, he is all focused on following the tune. And the explanation of this sculpture was this: it is impossible to depict death without accompanying life, and life without death.
Death is a natural process. Many writers tried to portray life as immortal, but it was a terrible, terrible immortality. What is endless life - endless repetition of earthly experience, cessation of development or endless aging? It is difficult to even imagine the painful state of a person who is immortal.
Death is a reward, a respite; it is abnormal only when it comes suddenly, when a person is still on the rise, full of strength. And older people want to die. Some old women ask: “Now that she’s healed, it’s time to die.” And the patterns of death that we read about in the literature, when death befell the peasants, were normative in nature.
When a village resident felt that he could no longer work as before, that he was becoming a burden to his family, he went to the bathhouse, put on clean clothes, lay down under the icon, said goodbye to his neighbors and relatives and died calmly. His death occurred without the pronounced suffering that occurs when a person struggles with death.
The peasants knew that life is not a dandelion flower that grew, blossomed and scattered with the blow of the wind. Life has deep meaning.
This example of the death of peasants dying after giving themselves permission to die is not a peculiarity of those people; we can find similar examples today. Once a cancer patient came to us. A former military man, he carried himself well and joked: “I went through three wars, pulled death’s mustache, and now its time has come to pull me.”
We, of course, supported him, but suddenly one day he could not get out of bed, and he took it completely unambiguously: “That’s it, I’m dying, I can’t get up anymore.” We told him: “Don’t worry, this is a metastasis, people with metastases in the spine live a long time, we will take care of you, you will get used to it.” - “No, no, this is death, I know.”
And, imagine, after a few days he dies, without having any physiological prerequisites for this. He dies because he decided to die. This means that this good will to death or some kind of projection of death occurs in reality.
It is necessary to allow life to end naturally, because death is programmed at the moment of human conception. A person acquires a unique experience of death during childbirth, at the moment of birth. When you deal with this problem, you can see how intelligently life is structured. As a person is born, so he dies, easily born - easily dies, hard to be born - hard to die.
And the day of a person’s death is also not random, just like the day of birth. Statisticians are the first to raise this problem by discovering that people often have the same date of death and date of birth. Or, when we remember some significant anniversaries of the death of our relatives, it suddenly turns out that the grandmother died and a grandson was born. This transmission across generations and the non-randomness of the day of death and the day of birth is striking.
Clinical death or another life?
Not a single sage has yet understood what death is, what happens during death. Such a stage as clinical death was left practically unattended. A person falls into a comatose state, his breathing and heart stop, but unexpectedly for himself and for others, he returns to life and tells amazing stories.
Natalya Petrovna Bekhtereva recently died. At one time, we often argued, I told about cases of clinical death that were in my practice, and she said that this was all nonsense, that changes were just happening in the brain, and so on. And one day I gave her an example, which she then began to use and tell herself.
I worked for 10 years at the Oncological Institute as a psychotherapist, and one day I was called to see a young woman. During the operation, her heart stopped; it could not be started for a long time, and when she woke up, I was asked to see if her psyche had changed due to the long oxygen starvation of the brain.
I came to the intensive care ward, she was just coming to her senses. I asked: “Can you talk to me?”, “Yes, but I would like to apologize to you, I caused you so much trouble,” “What trouble?”, “Well, of course.” My heart stopped, I experienced such stress, and I saw that it was also a lot of stress for the doctors.”
I was surprised: “How could you see this if you were in a state of deep narcotic sleep, and then your heart stopped?” “Doctor, I would tell you much more if you promise not to send me to a psychiatric hospital.”
And she said the following: when she fell into a narcotic sleep, she suddenly felt as if a soft blow to her feet made something inside her turn, like a screw being turned out. She had the feeling that her soul had turned outward and emerged into some foggy space.
Looking closer, she saw a group of doctors bending over the body. She thought: what a familiar face this woman has! And then suddenly I remembered that it was herself. Suddenly a voice rang out: “Stop the operation immediately, the heart has stopped, you need to start it.”
She thought she had died and remembered with horror that she had not said goodbye to either her mother or her five-year-old daughter. Anxiety for them literally pushed her into the back, she flew out of the operating room and in an instant found herself in her apartment.
She saw a rather peaceful scene - a girl playing with dolls, her grandmother, her mother, sewing something. There was a knock on the door and a neighbor, Lidia Stepanovna, came in. She was holding a small polka dot dress in her hands. “Masha,” said the neighbor, “you always tried to be like your mother, so I sewed for you the same dress as your mother.”
The girl happily rushed to her neighbor, on the way she touched the tablecloth, an antique cup fell, and a teaspoon fell under the carpet. There is noise, the girl is crying, the grandmother exclaims: “Masha, how awkward you are,” Lidia Stepanovna says that the dishes are beating fortunately - a common situation.
And the girl’s mother, forgetting about herself, came up to her daughter, stroked her on the head and said: “Masha, this is not the worst grief in life.” Mashenka looked at her mother, but not seeing her, she turned away. And suddenly, this woman realized that when she touched the girl’s head, she did not feel this touch. Then she rushed to the mirror, and did not see herself in the mirror.
In horror, she remembered that she was supposed to be in the hospital, that her heart had stopped. She rushed out of the house and found herself in the operating room. And then I heard a voice: “The heart has started, we are doing an operation, but rather, because there may be a repeated cardiac arrest.”
After listening to this woman, I said: “Don’t you want me to come to your house and tell your family that everything is fine, they can see you?” She happily agreed.
I went to the address given to me, my grandmother opened the door, I told how the operation went, and then asked: “Tell me, didn’t your neighbor Lidiya Stepanovna come to you at half past ten?” Do you know her?”, “Didn’t she bring a dress with polka dots?”, “Are you a wizard, doctor?”
I continue to ask, and everything came together down to the details, except for one thing - the spoon was not found. Then I say: “Did you look under the carpet?” They lift the carpet and there is a spoon there.
This story had a great effect on Bekhtereva. And then she herself experienced a similar incident. On the same day, she lost both her stepson and her husband, both of whom committed suicide. It was terribly stressful for her. And then one day, entering the room, she saw her husband, and he addressed her with some words.
She, an excellent psychiatrist, decided that these were hallucinations, returned to another room and asked her relative to see what was in that room. She came up, looked in and recoiled: “Yes, your husband is there!” Then she did what her husband asked, making sure that such cases were not fiction.
She told me: “No one knows the brain better than me (Bekhtereva was the director of the Institute of the Human Brain in St. Petersburg). And I have the feeling that I am standing in front of some huge wall, behind which I hear voices, and I know that there is a wonderful and huge world out there, but I cannot convey to others what I see and hear. Because for this to be scientifically valid, everyone must repeat my experience.”
Once I was sitting next to a dying patient. I put a music box that was playing a touching melody, then asked: “Turn it off, is it bothering you?” “No, let it play.” Suddenly her breathing stopped, her relatives rushed: “Do something, she’s not breathing.”
I rashly gave her an injection of adrenaline, and she came to her senses again, turned to me: “Andrei Vladimirovich, what was that?” - “You know, it was clinical death.” She smiled and said: “No, life!”
What is this state that the brain goes into during clinical death? After all, death is death. We register death when we see that breathing has stopped, the heart has stopped, the brain does not work, it cannot perceive information and, moreover, send it out.
Does this mean that the brain is only a transmitter, but there is something deeper, more powerful in a person? And here we are faced with the concept of the soul. After all, this concept has almost been supplanted by the concept of the psyche. There is a psyche, but there is no soul.
How would you like to die?
We asked both the healthy and the sick: “How would you like to die?” And people with certain characterological qualities built a model of death in their own way.
People with a schizoid character type, such as Don Quixote, characterized their desire rather strangely: “We would like to die in such a way that no one around us would see my body.”
Epileptoids considered it unthinkable for themselves to lie quietly and wait for death to come; they had to be able to somehow participate in this process.
Cycloids - people like Sancho Panza, would like to die surrounded by their loved ones. Psychosthenics are anxious and suspicious people; they worried about what they would look like when they died. Hysteroids wanted to die at sunrise or sunset, on the seashore, in the mountains.
I compared these desires, but I remembered the words of one monk who said this: “I don’t care what will surround me, what the situation will be around me. It is important to me that I die while praying, thanking God for giving me life and seeing the power and beauty of His creation.”
Heraclitus of Ephesus said: “A man lights a light for himself on the night of death; and he is not dead, having extinguished his eyes, but is alive; but he comes into contact with the dead - while dozing, while awake - he comes into contact with the dormant,” a phrase that you can puzzle over almost your entire life.
Being in contact with the patient, I could agree with him that when he died, he would try to let me know whether there was something behind the coffin or not. And I received this answer more than once.
I once made an agreement with one woman, she died, and I soon forgot about our agreement. And then one day, when I was at the dacha, I suddenly woke up when the light came on in the room. I thought that I had forgotten to turn off the light, but then I saw that the same woman was sitting on the bed opposite me. I was happy, started talking to her, and suddenly I remembered - she died!
I thought I was dreaming all this, so I turned away and tried to go to sleep so I could wake up. Some time passed, I raised my head. The light was on again, I looked back in horror - she was still sitting on the bed and looking at me. I want to say something, but I can’t - it’s terrible. I realized that there was a dead man in front of me. And suddenly she smiled sadly and said: “But this is not a dream.”
Why do I give such examples? Because the uncertainty of what awaits us forces us to return to the old principle: “Do no harm.” That is, “don’t rush death” is the most powerful argument against euthanasia. To what extent do we have the right to intervene in the condition that the patient is experiencing? How can we hasten his death when he may be experiencing his greatest life at this moment?
Quality of life and permission to die
What matters is not the number of days we live, but the quality. What does quality of life give? Quality of life gives you the opportunity to be pain-free, the ability to control your consciousness, the opportunity to be surrounded by relatives and family.
Why is communication with relatives so important? Because children often repeat the plot of the lives of their parents or relatives. Sometimes it's in the details that are amazing. And this repetition of life is often a repetition of death.
The blessing of relatives, the parental blessing of a dying person to children is very important, it can even save them later, protect them from something. Again, returning to the cultural heritage of fairy tales.
Remember the plot: an old father dies, he has three sons. He asks: “After my death, go to my grave for three days.” The older brothers either don’t want to go or are afraid, only the younger one, a fool, goes to the grave, and at the end of the third day the father reveals some secret to him.
When a person passes away, he sometimes thinks: “Well, let me die, let me get sick, but let my family be healthy, let the illness end on me, I’ll pay the bills for the whole family.” And so, having set a goal, no matter rationally or affectively, a person receives a meaningful departure from life.
Hospice is a home that offers quality life. Not an easy death, but a quality life. This is a place where a person can end his life meaningfully and deeply, accompanied by relatives.
When a person leaves, the air does not just come out of him, like from a rubber ball, he needs to take a leap, he needs strength in order to step into the unknown. A person must allow himself to take this step. And he receives the first permission from his relatives, then from the medical staff, from volunteers, from the priest and from himself. And this permission to die from oneself is the most difficult thing.
You know that Christ, before suffering and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, asked his disciples: “Stay with me, do not sleep.” Three times the disciples promised Him to stay awake, but fell asleep without providing support. So, in a spiritual sense, a hospice is a place where a person can ask: “Stay with me.”
And if such a greatest personality - God Incarnate - needed human help, if He said: “I no longer call you slaves. I called you friends,” addressing people, then following this example and saturating the last days of the patient with spiritual content is very important.
Andrey Gnezdilov
Prepared the text; photo: Maria Stroganova
During Bright Week, no funeral services are held in churches. However, priests continue to commemorate the dead at proskomedia, people who died on these days are buried in a special Easter rite, and, of course, no one can forbid you to privately pray for your deceased loved ones.
According to the explanation of some (see Tser. Vest. 1891, 27), regarding the performance of memorial services during Bright Week, the Charter says that during this week they cannot be performed “in the vestibule of the temple,” and does not at all prohibit their performance (outside the temple). The funeral service (and the performance of memorial services) also occurs in church (without performing funeral liturgies). There are no funeral services on Bright Week, but you can receive prosphora and remember the repose at the proskomedia (see Tser. Vest. 1895, 47).
The victory over death won by the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ displaces the sadness of temporary separation from relatives, and therefore we, in the words of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, “stand with faith, hope and Easter confidence at the tombs of the departed.” It is on Radonitsa that there is a custom of remembering the Resurrection of Christ at the graves of the departed, where colored eggs, Easter cakes, and sweets are brought. Part of the prepared food is distributed to those in need to commemorate their souls. Commemoration of the dead reflects the belief that even after death they do not cease to be members of the Church founded on earth by the Lord Jesus Christ, Who “is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.”
Before going to the cemetery, you should visit the temple, order a memorial service, write a note “about repose,” and pray for the deceased. The currently widespread custom of visiting cemeteries on Easter day itself contradicts the charter of the Church: during the first Easter week, commemoration of the dead is not performed at all. If a person dies on Easter, then he is buried according to a special Easter rite. Easter is a time of special and exceptional joy, a celebration of victory over death and over all sorrow and sorrow.
Funerals during Easter week in 2018 can be celebrated after April 15
The first commemoration of the dead and the first memorial service take place on the second week, after St. Fomin Sunday, on Tuesday - Radonitsa (from the word joy - after all, the celebration of Easter continues). On this day, a funeral service is served and believers visit the cemetery to pray for the departed, so that Easter joy will be passed on to them.
Is it possible to go to the cemetery after Easter and clean up the graves before the memorial days?
After Wednesday of Bright Week, you can already go to the cemetery to clean the graves of your loved ones after the winter before the Radonitsa holiday. In the event of a person’s death, and death on Easter is traditionally considered a sign of God’s mercy, the funeral service is performed according to the Easter rite, which includes many Easter hymns.
You can remember at home, you can submit notes, but public commemoration on Easter days in the form of a memorial service is not held. If the anniversary of death falls during Easter and Bright Week, the commemoration is postponed to the period starting from Radonitsa.
When remembering the departed, it is better to do everything right - in the Gospel
Surely everyone knows where an old woman lives nearby, for whom a loaf of white bread is already a delicacy, because she is not able to buy it for herself. Widows, orphans, and disabled people live somewhere... Going to them on this day, bringing them something to eat, cleaning their houses - these acts of mercy will bring both ourselves and the souls of our deceased relatives much more benefit than the actual camping trip. cemetery.
After all, you can pray for the departed anywhere, at any convenient time - and especially in the temple of God. But to do a good deed and ask them to pray for the repose of God’s servant name is the best way to celebrate Radonitsa.
So, the meaning of the meal is almsgiving, our trip to the cemetery is for prayer. But it turns out that such “hikes” have turned into a meaningless tradition when not everyone understands its meaning and purpose. What is this all for? Well, others are coming, and we are going. God forbid you be worse than someone!
Going to the cemetery on Easter days does not make sense. The Church sets its own time for everything: a time to remember the dead, and a time to rejoice in victory over death.
Easter week is a victory over death, and even the church charter says that if the third, ninth or fortieth day of the repose of the deceased falls on Easter week, the commemoration is postponed.
Prayer, almsgiving, abstinence from pagan customs - these are the main things.
