It seems that everyone should know what ordeals they will have to endure after death in order to be able to correct themselves in time - then it will be too late. According to the principle: forewarned is forearmed. Therefore, it will be useful for everyone to read, think about their sins and rush to confession, try to change their lives while there is time. But no one knows how much everyone has left...
So, after reading the ordeals of Blessed Theodora, confession in the order of 20 ordeals, your eyes open from understanding what is happening in your life and you look at everything differently... After death, the angels will take you by the arms, and they will lead you on the path to the Judgment of God, and in their hands theirs will be a book where your good deeds are listed. And you will be greeted at every customs office (as if at customs for the next round) by demons who have all your evil deeds written down. Now, if the angels from their book can answer every evil deed with a good one, they will let you pass further. But no - good luck...
20 tests on the way to eternity
1 ordeal - idle talk and foul language. Here you will have to answer to the demons for all empty and nasty words, for idle behavior, ridicule and offensive expressions addressed to other people, bad laughter and immodest songs...
2 ordeal awaits us to give an answer for lie. And then everyone will remember everything - or rather, they will be reminded by the evil spirits who keep count of everything from birth, in order to then present it to us, and not finding an answer, drag us into the underworld.
3 ordeal - slander and condemnation. Here you will have to answer for those who were slandered, condemned, without seeing their sins.
4- so familiar to everyone - binging and drinking without measure. Here you will have to answer for all the fasts that you broke when you started eating without praying to God, that you ate and drank in excess.
5 – laziness. You will keep the answer here for all the days when you spent time in idleness instead of work, when you lived at someone else’s expense, when you did not fulfill your duties, but were charged as if you had completed them. For those days when you were too lazy to come to church, for carelessness about your soul.
6 – theft. Think about whether everything in your life was so smooth in this regard, did you borrow anything from someone else, even by accident, and then didn’t want to return it, did you give away all the finds or secretly keep them for yourself, what else did you appropriate from someone else?
7 – stinginess and love of money. Here they will remember everything to you - to whom they were sorry to give money or what goods, they saved up money and goods, not thinking that you would not take anything with you after death.
8 – covetousness. Here they judge you for bribes and flattery, they will remember everything that happened in your life. If you don't buy it off, you'll go straight to hell!
9 – lies and vanity. They will remember here all the cases when they were proud, imagined themselves to be better than others, extolled themselves, not realizing that everything you have was given to you by God, but they themselves would have nothing.
10 –envy. This is where the demons run wild, telling you where they envied someone, when they coveted someone else’s, when they complained about their life - after all, others have such a good and rich life, not like yours!
11 – pride. Remember why the elder Angel suffered - from pride! When he imagined himself above God and decided that he could do everything himself - and what happened to him?
12 – ordeal of anger. Oh, how often we get angry, get angry with people over perhaps all sorts of trifles, often without noticing and even attaching importance to our behavior. And you will have to answer for everything...
13 – rancor. How many times have you remembered evil, kept it in your soul, how many times has it stirred your soul, corroded you from the inside - don’t you remember? Here you will remember everything, even what never happened...
14 – robbery. Here we will talk about all the cases when someone was hit, pushed, beaten, and so on..
15 – sorcery and summoning of demons. No comments here.
16 – fornication- remember? If you look at someone with lust, you are already committing fornication in your soul.
17- adultery.
18 – sins of sodom. All unnatural, secretly committed deeds and prodigal sins, which are shameful to remember, will come out at this line.
19 – idolatry and all kinds of heresy.
20 – no mercy and cruelty. Here you will be reminded of all the cases when you did not show pity and love for your neighbor, compassion for the troubles of others, they will remember cruelty and hatred. When they didn’t give a piece of bread to someone in need, they didn’t visit the sick person in the hospital, they didn’t take pity on the weak, they didn’t console anyone in word or deed, they didn’t show sympathy.
Such terrible ordeals and trials await everyone after death if they have not taken care of the relief of their soul in advance. By the way, you can greatly ease your fate if you often go to confession and tell the priest who is between us and God about all your most secret sins. After all, confession cleanses the soul and God writes off and makes invisible those sins that have already been forgiven in confession. The main thing is not to fall into the same sins again, otherwise the Almighty will become angry and even intensify the punishment, instead of forgiving each time. Something like that…
Discussion: 2 comments
Reply to Alexander:
Fornication is the intimate relationship of single men and unmarried women who are not legally married, and adultery is the intimate relationship of a married man and woman who are unfaithful to their lawful husband or wife. Both of these sins are a violation of the seventh commandment of God's Law. A fornicator sins against God’s commandment and his own body, and an adulterer is also a traitor!
“Flee fornication,” exhorts St. Apostle Paul, “...the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6: 18-19).
“But God will judge fornicators and adulterers” (Heb. 13:4).
“Do not be deceived,” says St. Apostle Paul, “neither fornicators... nor adulterers... nor homosexuals... will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10).
Answer
What is the difference between fornication and adultery? Isn’t it the same thing?
Answer
God's Last Judgment
The essence of the doctrine of ordeals is expounded by St. Cyril of Alexandria in the word “On the Exodus of the Soul.”
Ordeal is the inevitable path by which all human souls, both evil and good, make their transition from temporary earthly life to an eternal lot.
During the ordeals, the soul, in the presence of angels and demons, but also before the Eye of the All-Seeing God, is gradually and thoroughly tested in all deeds, words and thoughts.
Good souls, justified in all ordeals, are ascended by angels to the heavenly abodes for the beginning of eternal bliss, and sinful souls, detained at one or another ordeal, by the verdict of an invisible court, are drawn by demons to their dark abodes for the beginning of eternal torment.
Thus, ordeals are a private judgment that is carried out invisibly by the Lord himself through his angels over each human soul, including the evil tax collectors who accuse demons.
In the life of Rev. Vasily the New (Ch.M. March 26) it is narrated that his student, the reverend. Gregory (also March 26), were revealed in detail in a vision both the circumstances of the hour of death and the walk through the ordeals of Blessed Theodora.
Below is a short list of sins tortured at all 20 ordeals, as an auxiliary tool for more thorough preparation for the Sacrament of Repentance (Confession). Questions in the ordeals begin with sins, as we call them, “small”, universal ones (idle talk) and what goes further , those concern more important sins and end in the 20th ordeal unmercifulness And harshness towards others- the most serious sins, for which, according to the word of God, there is “judgment without mercy” for those who have not shown mercy.
1.WORD: unspeaking, verbosity, idle talk, idle talk, vanity, slander, foul language, jokes, obscenity, vulgarity, distortion of words, simplifications, grandeur, absurdities, ridicule, laughter, laughter, name-calling, singing passionate songs, rumors, grumpiness, tongue-tiedness, vileness, incitement , blasphemy, desecration of people and the name of God, taking things in vain, rudeness.
2. FALSE: flattery, sycophancy, pleasing with cunning, meanness, cowardice, antics, vanity, isolation, imagination, artistry, perjury, perjury, concealment of sins in confession, secrecy, violation of the promise given in confession not to repeat sins, deceit.
3. Slander: insults, condemnation, distortion of the truth, sneaking, complaints, abuse, mockery, contributing to the sins of others, impudence, cynicism, moral pressure, threats, mistrust, doubts.
4. Gluttony: binge eating, heavy drinking, smoking, secret eating, breaking fasts, feasting, drunkenness, drug addiction, substance abuse, etc., gluttony.
5. LAZY: negligence, inattention, oblivion, oversleeping, idleness, despondency, carelessness, cowardice, weakness of will, idleness, forgetfulness, carelessness, hackwork, parasitism, unnecessaryness, coldness and lukewarmness towards the spiritual, carelessness about prayer, carelessness about salvation, insensibility.
6.THEFT: embezzlement, theft, division, adventures, scams, complicity, use of stolen goods, fraud, misappropriation in the form of seizure, sacrilege.
7.LOVE OF AVERAGE: self-interest, search for profit, over-concern, acquisitiveness, greed, stinginess, hoarding, lent money at interest, speculation, bribes.
8. EXCEPTION: extortion, robbery, robbery, deceit, tricks, failure to repay debts, scams, fraud.
9. FALSE: deception, falsehood, bribery, unjust trial, dishonor, extravagance, suspicion, concealment, complicity.
10. ENVY: in material goods, in spiritual virtues, partiality, desire for someone else's.
11.PRIDE: conceit, self-will, self-aggrandizement, exaltation, vanity, arrogance, hypocrisy, self-adoration, disobedience, non-concession, disobedience, contempt, shamelessness, dishonesty, blasphemy, ignorance, insolence, self-justification, stubbornness, unrepentance, arrogance.
12. MEMORY GRANICITY: rancor, gloating, revenge, vindictiveness, sabotage, bullying, tricks, slander.
13. ANGER: intransigence, temper, hatred, rage, blows, kicks, insolence, bitterness, despair, quarrels, squabbles, hysterics, scandal, treachery, mercilessness, rudeness, resentment.
14.MURDER:(thought, word, deed), fights, use of all kinds of instruments or drugs for murder, abortion (or complicity).
15. MAGIC: fortune telling, divination, astrology, horoscopes, fashion seduction, healing (extrasensory perception) under the guise of God's name, levitation, witchcraft, witchcraft, sorcery, shamanism, witchcraft.
16. FORMALITY: carnal cohabitation outside of church marriage, voluptuous views, lustful thoughts, dreams, fantasies, raptures, pleasures, permission to sin, desecration of chastity, nightly desecrations, pornography, watching depraved films and programs, masturbation.
17.ADULTERY: adultery and also seduction, violence, fall, violation of the vow of celibacy.
18. FORMINATION OF SODOMA: perversion of nature, self-satisfaction, self-torture, violence, kidnapping, incest, corruption of minors (direct and indirect).
19.HERESIES: unbelief, superstition, distortions and distortions of the truth, distortions of Orthodoxy, doubts, apostasy, violation of church decrees, participation in heretical gatherings: Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, the Mother of God Center, Ivanova, Roerich, as well as in other atheistic associations and structures.
20.NO MERCY: insensibility, ruthlessness, persecution of the weak, cruelty, petrification, callousness, did not care about children, the elderly, the sick, did not give alms, did not sacrifice themselves and their time for the sake of others, inhumanity, heartlessness.
ORDERALS OF Blessed Theodora. At Rev. Vasily was a novice of Theodore, who served him a lot; Having accepted the monastic rank, she departed to the Lord. One of the saint’s disciples, Gregory, had a desire to find out where Theodora was after her death, whether she had received mercy and joy from the Lord for her service to the holy elder. Often thinking about this, Gregory asked the elder to answer him what was wrong with Theodora, for he firmly believed that the saint of God knew all this. Not wanting to upset his spiritual son, Rev. Vasily prayed that the Lord would reveal to him the fate of blessed Theodora. And then Gregory saw her in a dream - in a bright monastery, full of heavenly glory and ineffable blessings, which was prepared by God for the Venerable. Vasily and in which Theodora was installed through his prayers. Seeing her, Gregory was delighted and asked her how her soul was separated from her body, what she saw at her death, how she went through the ordeals in the air. Theodora answered these questions like this: “Child Gregory, you asked about a terrible thing, it’s terrible to remember it. I saw faces I had never seen and heard words I had never heard. What can I tell you? I had to see and hear terrible things because of my deeds, but with the help and prayers of our father, the Monk Vasily, everything was easy for me. How can I convey to you, child, that bodily torment, that fear and confusion that the dying have to experience! Just as fire burns those thrown into it and turns them into ashes, so the pain of death in the last hour destroys a person. The death of sinners like me is truly terrible! So, when the hour came for the separation of my soul from my body, I saw around my bed many Ethiopians, black as soot or tar, with eyes burning like coals. They made noise and shouting: some roared like cattle and animals, others barked like dogs, others howled like wolves, and others grunted like pigs. All of them, looking at me, became furious, threatened, gnashed their teeth, as if wanting to eat me; they prepared charters in which all my bad deeds were recorded. Then my poor soul began to tremble; the torment of death seemed not to exist for me: the menacing vision of the terrible Ethiopians was for me another, more terrible death. I turned my eyes away so as not to see their terrible faces, but they were everywhere and their voices came from everywhere. When I was completely exhausted, I saw two Angels of God approaching me in the form of beautiful young men; their faces were bright, their eyes looked with love, the hair on their heads was as light as snow and shone like gold; the clothes looked like the light of lightning, and on the chest they were girded crosswise with golden belts. Approaching my bed, they stood next to me on the right side, quietly talking to each other. Seeing them, I was happy; the black Ethiopians trembled and moved away; one of the bright young men addressed them with the following words: “O shameless, damned, dark and evil enemies of the human race! Why do you always rush to come to the bedside of the dying, making noise, frightening and confusing every soul that is separated from the body? But don’t be too happy, you won’t find anything here, for God is merciful to her and you have no part or share in this soul.” Hearing this, the Ethiopians began to rush about, raising a strong cry and saying: “How come we have no part in this soul? “And these are whose sins,” they said, pointing to the scrolls where all my bad deeds were written down, “didn’t she do this and that?” And having said this, they stood and waited for my death. Finally, death itself came, roaring like a lion and very terrible in appearance; she looked like a person, but only had no body and was made up of only bare human bones. With her were various instruments for torture: swords, spears, arrows, scythes, saws, axes and other weapons unknown to me. My poor soul trembled when I saw this. The Holy Angels said to death: why are you delaying, free this soul from the body, free it quietly and quickly, because there are not many sins behind it. Obeying this order, death approached me, took a small insult and first of all cut off my legs, then my arms, then gradually with other instruments it cut off my other members, separating body from body, and my whole body became dead. Then, taking the adze, she cut off my head, and it became like a stranger to me, for I could not turn it. After this, Death made some kind of drink in a cup and, bringing it to my lips, forcibly gave me a drink. This drink was so bitter that my soul could not bear it - it shuddered and jumped out of my body, as if forcibly torn out of it. Then the bright Angels took her into their arms. I turned back and saw my body lying soulless, insensible and motionless, just as if someone takes off his clothes and, throwing them away, looks at them - so I looked at my body, from which I had freed myself, and was very surprised at this. The demons, who were in the form of Ethiopians, surrounded the holy Angels who were holding me and shouted, showing my sins: “This soul has many sins, let him give us an answer for them!” But the holy Angels began to look for my good deeds and, by the grace of God, they found and collected everything that, with the help of the Lord, I had done good: whether I gave alms, or fed the hungry, or gave drink to the thirsty, or clothed the naked, or led a stranger into her home and calmed it down, or served the saints, or visited the sick and in prison and helped him, or when she went to church with zeal and prayed with tenderness and tears, or when she listened attentively to church readings and singing, or brought incense to church and candles, or made some other offering, or poured wooden oil into the lamps in front of the holy icons and kissed them with reverence, or when she fasted and did not eat food during all holy fasts on Wednesday and Friday, or how many bows she made and prayed at night, or when she turned to God with all her soul and cried about her sins, or when, with complete heartfelt repentance, she confessed her sins to God before her spiritual father and tried to atone for them with good deeds, or when she did some good for her neighbor, or when was not angry with someone who was at enmity with me, or when she suffered some kind of insult and abuse and did not remember them and was not angry for them, or when she repaid good for evil, or when she humbled herself or lamented about someone else’s misfortune, or she herself was sick and endured without complaint , or was ill with another sick person, and consoled someone who was crying, or gave someone a helping hand, or helped in a good deed, or kept someone from doing something bad, or when she did not pay attention to vain matters, or refrained from vain oaths or slander and idle talk, and all others My smallest deeds were collected by the holy Angels, preparing to put them against my sins. The Ethiopians, seeing this, gnashed their teeth, because they wanted to kidnap me from the Angels and take me to the bottom of hell. At this time, our reverend father Vasily unexpectedly appeared there and said to the holy Angels: “My Lord, this soul served me a lot, calming my old age, and I prayed to God, and He gave it to me.” Having said this, he took out from his bosom a golden bag, all full, as I thought, of pure gold, and gave it to the holy Angels, saying: “When you go through airy ordeals and crafty spirits begin to torment this soul, redeem it with this from its debts.” ; By the grace of God I am rich, because I have collected many treasures for myself through my labors, and I give this bag to the soul who served me.” Having said this, he disappeared. The crafty demons, seeing this, were in bewilderment and, raising lamentable cries, also disappeared. Then the saint of God, Vasily, came again and brought many vessels with pure oil, expensive myrrh, and, opening each vessel one after another, he poured everything on me, and the fragrance spread from me. Then I realized that I had changed and became especially bright. The saint again turned to the Angels with the following words: “My Lords, when you have completed everything that is necessary for this soul, take it to the house prepared for me by the Lord God and settle it there.” Having said this, he became invisible, and the holy Angels took me, and we went through the air to the east, rising to heaven.
1st Ordeal When we ascended from the earth to the heights of heaven, we were first met by the airy spirits of the first ordeal, at which the sins of idle talk are tested. This is where we stopped. They brought us many scrolls, where all the words that I had spoken since my youth were written down, everything that was said by me thoughtlessly and, moreover, shamefully. All the blasphemous deeds of my youth were immediately written down, as well as cases of idle laughter, to which youth is so prone. I immediately saw the bad words that I had ever spoken, the shameless songs of the world, and the spirits reproached me, pointing out the place and time and persons with whom I engaged in idle conversations and angering God with my words, and did not at all consider it a sin , and therefore did not confess this to her spiritual father. Looking at these scrolls, I was silent, as if speechless, because I had nothing to answer them: everything that was written down by them was the truth. And I was surprised how they hadn’t forgotten anything, because so many years had passed and I myself had forgotten about it a long time ago. They tested me in detail and in the most skillful way, and little by little I remembered everything. But the holy Angels who led me put an end to my ordeal at the first ordeal: they covered my sins, pointing out to the evil one some of my former good deeds, and what was missing from them to cover my sins, they added from the virtues of my father the Monk Basil and redeemed me from the first ordeal, and we moved on.
Ordeal 2 We have approached another ordeal, called the ordeal of lies. Here a person gives account for every false word, and mainly for perjury, for calling on the name of the Lord in vain, for false testimonies, for failure to fulfill the vows given to God, for insincere confession of sins, and for everything like that when a person resorts to lies. The spirits in this ordeal are fierce and cruel and especially test those going through this ordeal. When they stopped us, they began to ask me all the details, and I was caught in the fact that I had once lied twice about the smallest things, so that I did not put it into my sin, and also that once - Out of shame, I didn’t tell the whole truth in confession to my spiritual father. Having caught me in a lie, the spirits came to great joy and already wanted to kidnap me from the hands of the Angels, but they, to cover the sins they found, pointed to my good deeds, and replenished what was missing with the good deeds of my father, the Monk Vasily, and thereby redeemed me from this ordeal, and we went higher without hindrance.
Ordeal 3rd Ordeal, which we came to later, is called the ordeal of condemnation and slander. Here, when they stopped us, I saw how seriously the one who condemns his neighbor sins, and how much evil there is when one slanders another, dishonors him, scolds him, when he swears and laughs at the sins of others, not paying attention to his own. Terrible spirits test sinners in this way because they anticipate the dignity of Christ and become judges and destroyers of their neighbors, when they themselves are immeasurably more worthy of condemnation. In this ordeal, by the grace of God, I did not find myself sinful in many ways, because throughout my entire life I was careful not to judge anyone, not to slander anyone, I did not mock anyone, I did not scold anyone; sometimes, just listening to how others condemned their neighbors, slandered them or laughed at them, in my thoughts I partly agreed with them and, through carelessness, added a little of myself to their speeches, but, having come to my senses, I immediately restrained myself. But even this, the spirits who tested me, put me into sin, and only through the merits of St. Basil did the holy Angels free me from this ordeal, and we went higher.
Ordeal 4 Continuing our journey, we reached a new ordeal, which is called the ordeal of gluttony. Bad spirits ran out to meet us, rejoicing that a new victim was coming to them. The appearance of these spirits was ugly: they portrayed different types of voluptuous gluttons and vile drunkards; They carried dishes and bowls with food and various drinks. The food and drink were also vile in appearance, resembling stinking pus and vomit. The spirits of this ordeal seemed sated and drunk, they galloped with music in their hands and did everything that feasters usually do, and cursed at the souls of sinners they brought to the ordeal. These spirits, like dogs, surrounded us, stopped and began to show all my sins of this kind: did I ever eat secretly, or through force and beyond the need, or in the morning, like a pig, without prayer and the sign of the cross, or did I eat during holy fasts? before the time appointed by the church charter, or due to intemperance she ate before lunch, or during lunch she was over-filled. They also calculated my drunkenness, showing the cups and vessels from which I drank, and directly said: you drank so many cups at such and such a time, and at such and such a feast, with such and such people; and in another place I drank so much and reached the point of unconsciousness and vomiting, and so many times I feasted and danced to music, clapping my hands, sang songs and jumped, and when they brought you home, I was exhausted from immeasurable drunkenness; The wicked spirits also showed me those cups from which I sometimes drank in the morning and on fasting days for the sake of guests, or when, out of weakness, I drank to the point of intoxication and did not consider it a sin and did not repent, but on the contrary, I also tempted others to do the same. They also pointed out to me when on Sundays it happened to me to drink before the Holy Liturgy, and they pointed out many similar things to me from my sins of gluttony and rejoiced, already considering me in their power, and intended to take me to the bottom of hell; I, seeing myself exposed and not having anything to say against them, trembled. But the holy Angels, having borrowed his good deeds from the treasury of St. Basil, covered my sins and removed them from the power of those evil spirits. Seeing this, they raised a cry: “Woe to us! Our efforts are lost! Our hope is gone! - and they began to send packages through the air, where my sins were written; I was glad, and then we went from there without any hindrance. During the journey to the next ordeal, the holy Angels had a conversation with each other. They said: “This soul truly receives great help from the saint of God Vasily: if his prayers did not help her, she would have to experience great need, going through the ordeals of the air.” This is what the Angels accompanying me said, and I took it upon myself to ask them: “My Lords, it seems to me that no one living on earth knows what happens here, and what awaits the sinful soul after death?” The Holy Angels answered me: “Do the divine scriptures, always read in churches and preached by the servants of God, say little about this! Only those addicted to earthly vanity do not pay attention to this, finding a special delight in eating daily to satiety and getting drunk, thus making the belly their god, not thinking about the future life and forgetting the words of Scripture: woe to you, who are filled now, for you will be hungry and those who get drunk, because you thirst. They consider the Holy Scriptures to be fables and live in neglect of their souls, feasting with songs and music and every day, like the rich man of the Gospel, making merry with light. But those who are merciful and merciful, who do good to the poor and needy - these receive forgiveness of their sins from God and, for their alms, go through ordeals without much torture, according to the word of Scripture: alms delivers from death and forgives all sin. Those who do alms and truth are filled with life, but those who do not try to cleanse their sins with alms cannot avoid these trials, and the dark-shaped princes of the ordeals that you saw kidnap them and, cruelly torturing them, take them to the bottom of hell and keep them there in bonds until the terrible end. judgment of Christ. And it would have been impossible for you to avoid this if not for the treasury of good deeds of St. Basil, from which your sins were covered.”
Ordeal 5 Having talked in this way, we reached the ordeal, called the ordeal, in which a person gives an answer for all the days and hours spent in idleness. Parasites also linger here, feeding on the labors of others and not wanting to do anything themselves, or taking payment for work not completed. There they also ask for an account from those who do not care about the glory of the name of God and are too lazy to go to the Divine Liturgy and other services of God on holidays and Sundays. Here, both worldly and spiritual people experience negligence and despondency, laziness and carelessness about their souls, and many from here are led into the abyss. They tested me a lot here, and if it weren’t for the virtues of St. Basil, who made up for the lack of my good deeds, then I would not have been freed from the debt to the evil spirits of this ordeal for my sins; but they covered everything, and I was taken out of there. Ordeal 6th The next ordeal is theft. We were detained there for a short time, and few good deeds were required to cover my sins, because I did not commit theft, except for one, very small one, in childhood due to foolishness. The 7th Ordeal After the ordeal of theft, we came to the ordeal of love of money and stinginess. But we also passed this ordeal safely, because, by the grace of God, during my earthly life I did not worry about acquiring property and was not money-loving, but was content with what the Lord sent me, I was not stingy, and what I had was diligently gave to those in need.
Ordeal 8th Ascending higher, we reached the ordeal called the ordeal of extortion, where those who give their money at interest and thereby receive unrighteous gains are tested. Here those who appropriate for themselves what belongs to others give an account. The crafty spirits of this ordeal thoroughly searched me, and not finding any sin behind me, they gnashed their teeth; We, having thanked God, went higher. Ordeal 9 We have reached the ordeal, called the ordeal of untruth, where all unrighteous judges are tortured, who conduct their trial for money, justify the guilty, condemn the innocent; here those who do not pay due wages to mercenaries or use the wrong measure when trading, etc., are tortured. But we, by the grace of God, passed this ordeal without any hindrance, covering my sins of this kind with only a few good deeds. Ordeal 10 We also successfully passed the next ordeal, called the ordeal of envy. I didn’t have any sins of this kind at all, because I never envied. And although other sins were experienced here: dislike, brotherly hatred, enmity, hatred, but, by the mercy of God, I turned out to be innocent of all these sins and saw how the demons furiously gnashed their teeth, but I was not afraid of them, and, rejoicing, we went higher.
Ordeal 11 In a similar way, we went through the ordeal of pride, where arrogant and proud spirits test those who are vain, think a lot about themselves and boast; The souls of those who are disrespectful to father and mother, as well as to the authorities appointed by God, are especially carefully tested here: cases of disobedience to them, and other acts of pride, and vain words are considered. I needed very, very few good deeds to cover my sins during this ordeal, and I received freedom. Ordeal 12th The new ordeal, which we later reached, was the ordeal of anger and rage; but even here, despite the fact that the spirits torturing here are fierce, they received little from us, and we continued our path, thanking God, who covered my sins with the prayers of my father, the Monk Vasily. Ordeal 13th After the ordeal of anger and rage, we were presented with an ordeal in which those who harbor evil in their hearts against their neighbors and repay evil for evil are mercilessly tortured. From here the spirits of evil with particular fury reduce the souls of sinners to Tartarus. But God’s mercy did not abandon me here either: I never had any malice towards anyone, I did not remember the evil done to me, but, on the contrary, I forgave my enemies and, as far as I was able, revealed my love for them, thus defeating evil with good. Therefore, I did not turn out to be sinful in anything during this ordeal; the demons wept that I was freely leaving their cruel hands; We continued on our way in joy. On the way, I asked the holy Angels who led me: “My Lords, I ask you, tell me how these terrible air powers know all the evil deeds of all the people who live in the world, just like mine, and not only reveal those created, but also which only the one who did them knows?” The Holy Angels answered me: “Every Christian, from his most holy baptism, receives from God a Guardian Angel, who invisibly protects a person and throughout his life, even until the hour of death, instructs in all good and all these good deeds that a person does during his life.” earthly life, writes down so that he can receive mercy from the Lord for them and eternal reward in the Kingdom of Heaven. So the prince of darkness, who wants to destroy the human race, assigns to each person one of the evil spirits, who always follows the person and observes all his evil deeds from his youth, encouraging them with his intrigues, and collects everything that the person has done that is bad. Then he takes all these sins to the ordeal, writing each one in the appropriate place. Hence, the princes of the air know all the sins of all the people who live in the world. When the soul is separated from the body and strives to ascend to heaven to its Creator, then evil spirits hinder it, showing lists of its sins; and if the soul has more good deeds than sins, then they cannot restrain it; when there are more sins on her than good deeds, then they hold her for a while, imprison her in the prison of God’s ignorance and torture her, as far as the power of God allows them, until the soul, through the prayers of the Church and relatives, receives freedom. If any soul turns out to be so sinful and unworthy before God that all hope for its salvation is lost and it is threatened with eternal death, then it is brought down into the abyss, where it remains until the second coming of the Lord, when eternal torment begins for it in fiery hell. Know also that only the souls of those who are enlightened by holy baptism are tested in this way. Those who do not believe in Christ, idolaters and, in general, everyone who does not know the true God do not ascend this way, because during earthly life they are alive only in body, and in soul are already buried in hell. And when they die, the demons, without any testing, take their souls and bring them down to Gehenna and the abyss.”
Ordeal 14th While I was talking in this way with the holy Angels, we entered the ordeal called the ordeal of murder. Here, not only robbery is tormented, but they demand an account for any punishment inflicted on someone, for any blow on the shoulders or head, on the cheek or neck, or when someone angrily pushes his neighbor away from him. Evil spirits experience all this here in detail and weigh it; We went through this ordeal without hindrance, leaving a small part of good deeds to cover my sins. The 15th Ordeal We also passed through the next ordeal without any hindrance, where we are tortured by spirits for sorcery, witchcraft, charm, whispering, and invoking demons. The spirits of this ordeal are similar in appearance to four-legged reptiles, scorpions, snakes and toads; in a word, it’s scary and disgusting to look at them. By the grace of God, the spirits of this ordeal did not find a single similar sin in me, and we moved on; the spirits shouted after me with rage: “Let's see how you leave the prodigal places when you get there!” When we began to ascend higher, I asked the Angels who were leading me: “My Lord, do all Christians go through these ordeals and is it possible for anyone to pass here without torture and fear?” The Holy Angels answered me: “For the souls of believers ascending to heaven, there is no other way - everyone goes here, but not everyone is tested in ordeals like you, but only sinners like you, that is, those who, out of shame, did not sincerely open to the spiritual father of all your sins in confession. If someone sincerely repents of all sins, then the sins, by the mercy of God, are invisibly blotted out, and when such a soul passes here, the aerial torturers open their books and find nothing written behind it; then they can no longer frighten her, cause her anything unpleasant, and the soul ascends in joy to the throne of grace. And you, if you had repented of everything before your spiritual father and received permission from him, you would have avoided the horrors of going through ordeals; But what also helps you is that you have long stopped committing mortal sins and have been leading a virtuous life for many years, and mainly the prayers of St. Basil, whom you diligently served on earth, help you.”
Ordeal 16th During this conversation, we reached the ordeal, called the prodigal one, where a person is tortured for all fornication and for all kinds of impure passionate thoughts, for consenting to sin, for nasty touches and passionate touches. The prince of this ordeal sat on the throne dressed in stinking, nasty clothes, sprinkled with bloody foam and replacing him with a royal scarlet robe; many demons stood before him. When they saw me, they were surprised that I had reached their ordeal, and they brought out scrolls in which my fornication was written down, began to count them, indicating the persons with whom I sinned in my youth, and the time when I sinned, i.e. day or night, and the place where she committed the sin. I couldn’t answer them and stood there, trembling with shame and fear. The Holy Angels, who were leading me, began to say to the demons: “She has long since abandoned the prodigal life and has spent all this time in purity and abstinence.” The demons answered: “And we know that she stopped leading a prodigal life, but she did not reveal it to her spiritual father and did not bear penance from him to atone for her previous sins - therefore she is ours, and you either leave or redeem her with good deeds.” . The Holy Angels pointed out many of my good deeds, and even more with the good deeds of St. Basil they covered my sins, and I barely got rid of severe misfortune. We moved on. Ordeal 17th The next ordeal was the ordeal of adultery, where the sins of those living in marriage are tortured: if someone did not maintain marital fidelity, or desecrated his bed, he must give an account here. Those who sin in abduction for fornication and violence are also tortured here. Here they test persons who dedicated themselves to God and took a vow of chastity, but did not keep their vow and fell into fornication; the torture of these is especially terrible. At this ordeal I turned out to be a lot of sinners, I was caught in adultery, and evil spirits already wanted to kidnap me from the hands of the Angels and take me to the bottom of hell. But the holy Angels argued a lot with them and barely redeemed me, leaving all my good deeds here until the last and adding a lot from the treasury of St. Basil. And taking me from them, they went further. Ordeal 18th After this, we reached the ordeal of Sodom, where sins that disagree with either male or female nature are tortured, as well as copulation with demons and dumb animals, and incest, and other secret sins of this kind, which are shameful to even remember. The prince of this ordeal, the worst of all the demons who surrounded him, was completely covered with stinking pus; its ugliness is difficult to describe. They were all burning with rage; They hastily ran out to meet us and surrounded us. But, by the grace of God, they did not find me guilty of anything sinful and therefore ran back in shame; We, rejoicing, emerged from this ordeal. After this, the holy Angels said to me: “You saw, Theodora, terrible and nasty prodigal ordeals. Know that a rare soul passes through them without being detained, because the whole world lies in the evil of temptations and defilements and all people are voluptuous and prone to fornication. A person is already inclined towards these things from early youth, and is unlikely to save himself from uncleanness; a few who mortify their carnal lusts and therefore freely pass through these ordeals; the majority die here; fierce torturers kidnap the souls of fornicators and, terribly torturing them, take them to hell. You, Theodora, thank God that through the prayers of Saint Basil you passed through these prodigal ordeals, and you will no longer encounter delays.”
Air ordeals- obstacles through which every soul must pass on the way to the throne of God for private judgment. Two angels lead the soul along this path. Each of the ordeals, of which there are 20, is controlled by demons - unclean spirits who are trying to take the soul going through the ordeal to hell. Demons provide a list of sins related to a given ordeal (a list of acts of telling lies at the ordeal of lies, etc.), and angels provide good deeds committed by the soul during life. If good deeds outweigh evil ones, the soul passes to the next test. If the number of evil deeds exceeds good ones, and the angels have nothing to show to justify the soul, demons take the soul to hell.The soul of a person who has sinned, but repented and confessed this sin at the ordeal, is not tortured for this sin. At ordeals, the soul is accused of unforgiven, forgotten sins, actions the sinfulness of which a person did not know.
Trials (for those confessing)
1st ordeal:“sin by word” (of the tongue). Idle talk, verbosity, idle talk, ridicule, blasphemy, laughter. This also includes sins: evil and immodest jokes, satiation of the belly, immoderate consumption of wine, passionate kisses.
2nd ordeal:"lie". Any lie and perjury, calling the name of God in vain, failure to fulfill vows given to God, concealing sins in confession.
3rd ordeal:"slander". Slandering your neighbor, condemning, humiliating, dishonoring him, cursing, ridicule, forgetting your own sins and shortcomings, inattention to them.
4th ordeal:"gluttony". Binge eating, drunkenness, untimely and secret eating and without prayer, breaking fasts, voluptuousness, satiety; in a word, all kinds of pleasing to the belly.
5th ordeal:"laziness". Sins of carelessness: laziness and negligence in serving God, despondency, abandonment of church and home prayers. Parasitism and performing one's duties with negligence.
6th ordeal:"theft". Sins committed against someone else's property, all kinds of theft and theft, gross, open, secret, with the help of cunning, specious and with violence.
7th ordeal:"Love of money and stinginess."
8th ordeal:"covetousness." Appropriation of someone else's.
9th ordeal:"untruths". Untruths of all kinds.
10th ordeal:"envy". Annoyance, hatred (sins of vision).
11th ordeal:"pride". Pride, vanity, conceit, contempt, grandeur.
12th ordeal:"rage and wrath" Passion, hard-heartedness, anger.
13th ordeal:"resentment and remembrance."
14th ordeal:"murder". Poisoning, etc.
15th ordeal:"witchcraft". Sorcery, slander, summoning demons.
16th ordeal:"fornication". Unclean words, thoughts, desires and deeds.
17th ordeal:"adultery". Failure to maintain marital fidelity, prodigal falls of persons who have dedicated themselves to God.
18th ordeal:"Sin of Sodom" Unnatural sins, incest.
19th ordeal:"heresy". False speculation about faith, doubt in faith, apostasy from the Orthodox faith.
20th ordeal:"unmercy and cruelty"
Nika Kravchuk
“Prodigal” ordeals, civil marriage and sodomy
Orthodoxy treats the family with great reverence, calling it a home church. Marriage is the sacred union of a man and a woman. Anything beyond this is sin.He talks in more detail about these vices, civil marriage, the dangers of youth and obstacles at the ordeal. Oleg Stenyaev.
Criticism of cohabitation before marriage
16th ordeal- fornication. Lustful desires, thoughts, fornication of persons (that is, lascivious expressions), people who enter into sexual relations without the sacrament of marriage, the so-called civil marriage.
What kind of civilian is he? A civil marriage means that it is formalized according to civil laws, but if people just get together and live together, they are neither in a church nor in a civil marriage.
There are descriptions of the prince of this ordeal: “The prince of this ordeal sat on the throne, dressed in stinking, nasty clothes, sprinkled with bloody foam and replacing the royal scarlet.”
About the sins of youth
Bloody foam, fornication, crime, blood - all this can be interconnected, so we must instruct our children from childhood to be chaste, and try to set an example ourselves. I don’t know a single Orthodox person who would be satisfied with his youth.
I specifically conducted a survey among parishioners: is there at least one who is satisfied with his youth? I didn't find any. I’ve been reading the Bible since I was 12, very carefully, and I haven’t found anything that talks about the sins of childhood or the sins of old age. But the Bible says a lot about the sins of youth and youth. This is the most dangerous period in a person's life.
Saint Theophan the Recluse said that youth is a moral, spiritually insane period in a person’s life. And in the book of Job, Job exclaims: “My bones are drunk with the sins of my youth, and they want to go into the grave with me.”
The psalmist David exclaims: Since my youth many passions have tormented me.
That is why modern literature and poetry glorify youth. Because they want to sin and remember their sins.
And we must understand that when a person enters the period of youth, adolescence, this is the most dangerous period in his life. This concentration is sinful. He stores up sins, literally in his bones, as the Holy Scriptures say.
Being raised in the church acts as an inoculation against fornication
Look: children go to church, we see them until they are 12 years old. At 14-16 they disappeared somewhere.
At one time, His Holiness the Patriarch at the anniversary council said: according to the Sunday school report, we see one figure, and according to church attendance, another. Why this discrepancy? But because our children have entered the most terrible period in their lives.
And do not think that it was not in vain that you took them to church and Sunday school, and that you, teachers, taught them in vain. The more you sow the words of God in them, the less losses they will go through this period. And by the age of 40-50 they will “catch up” and return.
But there are young people who remain in churches. This is youth dedicated to Christ. The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy: Let no one despise your youth.
But what is the secret of such a happy youth for Timofey? He was a strict faster... The Apostle Paul says to him: No matter how I come, keep busy reading.
He was raised by his believing grandmother.
Grandmothers are great missionaries
By the way, grandmothers are the greatest missionaries in our church.
If I were involved in the missionary department, I would make a medal for our grandmothers. These are not empty words.
When I was studying, I did a survey among seminarians: “Through whom did anyone believe?”
And these were difficult Soviet times, when missionary activity was prohibited by the Criminal Code.
About 80% believed through their grandmothers.
Grandmother Olga, the Holy Princess Equal to the Apostles, instructed her three grandchildren, among whom was Prince Vladimir.
And when he was faced with the choice of which faith to accept, the most decisive argument, as Nestor the Chronicler writes in The Tale of Bygone Years, were his own words: “And my grandmother, the wisest of women, accepted this Orthodox faith.”
So, youth is a truly dangerous period. The sins of adultery, perversion, and fornication are mainly associated with this period of a person’s life.
We went through this with many losses, but there would have been even more losses if we had not been mentored in childhood by our godly grandmothers, mothers and fathers.
The sin of Sodom as a perversion of God's plan
The 18th ordeal is Sodom. Unnatural relations between persons of the same sex, sexual perversion, incest, relations with relatives by blood and nepotism.
The prince of this ordeal is described by the Monk Theodora: “The prince of this ordeal, the worst of all the demons that surrounded him, was completely covered with stinking pus; its ugliness is difficult to describe.”
***
Christianity clearly criticizes homosexuality. Why? Because this distorts the understanding of the family, which is called a small church.
Take it for yourself and tell your friends!
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