A bloodless sacrifice for health. What is a “bloodless sacrifice”? Thief and Victim

Prayer for health and peace: how to correctly write and submit notes in church? What is mass, proskomedia, prayer service? About all this in our article!

Prayer for health and repose, how to submit notes

Daily prayer for health

Remember, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, Thy mercy and generosity from all eternity, for whose sake Thou didst become man, and Thou didst deign to endure crucifixion and death, for the sake of the salvation of those who believe in Thee; and rose from the dead, you ascended into heaven and sit at the right hand of God the Father, and look upon the humble prayers of those who call upon You with all their hearts: incline Your ear and hear the humble prayer of me, Your indecent servant, in the stench of the spiritual fragrance, which brings You for all Your people . And in the first place, remember Your Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which You have provided with Your venerable Blood, and establish, and strengthen, and expand, multiply, pacify, and preserve the insurmountable gates of hell forever; Calm the tearing of the Churches, quench the pagan vacillations, and quickly destroy and eradicate the heresies of rebellion, and convert them into nothingness by the power of Your Holy Spirit. ( Bow)

Save, Lord, and have mercy on our God-protected country, its authorities and army, protect their power with peace, and subdue every enemy and adversary under the nose of the Orthodox, and say peaceful and good words in their hearts about Your Holy Church, and about all Your people: yes Let us live a quiet and silent life in orthodoxy and in all piety and purity. ( Bow)

Save, O Lord, and have mercy on the Great Lord and Father of our Holiness Patriarch Alexy, Your Eminence metropolitans, archbishops and Orthodox bishops, priests and deacons, and the entire church clergy, who You have appointed to shepherd Your verbal flock, and with their prayers have mercy and save me, a sinner. ( Bow)

Save, Lord, and have mercy on my spiritual father (his name), and with his holy prayers forgive my sins. ( Bow)

Save, O Lord, and have mercy on my parents (their names), brothers and sisters, and my relatives according to the flesh, and all the neighbors of my family, and others, and grant them Your peaceful and most peaceful goodness. ( Bow)

Save, O Lord, and have mercy according to the multitude of Your bounties, all the sacred monks, monks and nuns, and all those living in virginity and reverence and fasting in monasteries, in deserts, in caves, mountains, pillars, gates, rock crevices, and sea islands, and in every place of Thy dominion, those who live faithfully and piously serve Thee, and pray to Thee: ease their burden, and comfort their sorrow, and grant them strength and strength to strive for Thee, and through their prayers grant me remission of sins. ( Bow)

Save, O Lord, and have mercy on the old and the young, the poor and the orphans and the widows, and those who are in sickness and sorrow, troubles and sorrows, conditions and captivity, prisons and imprisonments, and even more so in persecution, for You for the sake of the Orthodox faith, from the tongue of the godless, from the apostate and from the heretics, Thy present servants, and remember, visit, strengthen, comfort, and soon by Thy power I will weaken, grant them freedom and deliver. ( Bow)

Save, O Lord, and have mercy on us, who are merciful and nourishing to us, who gave us alms, and who commanded us unworthy to pray for them, and who give us rest, and do Thy mercy to them, granting them all the petitions for salvation, and the perception of eternal blessings . ( Bow)

Save, Lord, and have mercy on those sent to the service, those traveling, our fathers and brethren, and all Orthodox Christians. ( Bow)

Save, Lord, and have mercy on them who I tempted with my madness, and turned away from the path of salvation, and led me to evil and inappropriate deeds; By Your Divine Providence, return again to the path of salvation. ( Bow)

Save, Lord, and have mercy on those who hate and offend me, and those who create misfortunes against me, and do not leave them to perish for my sake, a sinner. ( Bow)

Those who have departed from the Orthodox faith and are blinded by destructive heresies, enlighten the light of Your knowledge and bring Your Holy Apostles to the Catholic Church. ( Bow)

What is a memorial and church note “On health” and “On repose”

A church note given “On health” or “On repose” is a relatively recent phenomenon.

In those families where the traditions of Orthodox piety are respected, there is a commemoration book, a special book in which the names of the living and the dead are written and which is presented during the service for remembrance. Memorial books can still be purchased in churches or Orthodox book stores.

A memorial is a record for posterity about the ancestors who lived on earth, which makes the memorial a book that is important for every Christian and forces them to treat it with respect. Memorials are kept clean and tidy, near household icons. A church note, in essence, is a one-time commemoration and requires the same respect.

A note submitted without an image of a cross, written in sloppy, illegible handwriting, with many names, indicates a lack of understanding of the sacred importance and high purpose of recording the names of the living and deceased for their commemoration.

Meanwhile, memorials and notes, in their own way appearance, and according to their use, can be called liturgical books: after all, the holy cross is depicted on them, they are brought into the altar, and read during the Divine Liturgy before the Holy Throne.

What is the advantage of praying for our family and friends in church?

Home prayer, as a rule, does not have such grace-filled power as general, corporate prayer, that is, the prayer of the Church.

Church prayer is the prayer about which the Lord said: “Truly I also say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven, for where there are two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

Believers gather in the temple for joint prayer. God Himself mysteriously dwells in the temple. The temple is the house of God. In the temple, the priests offer the Most Holy Bloodless Sacrifice. Even in Old Testament times, prayers were accompanied by the sacrifice of animals to cleanse sins and appease God.

In the Church of the New Testament, animal sacrifice does not exist, for “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3). “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

He sacrificed His Most Pure Blood and Flesh for everyone and established at the Last Supper to perform, in remembrance of Him, the offering under the guise of bloodless gifts - bread and wine - His Most Pure Flesh and Blood for the remission of sins, which is performed in churches on the Divine liturgy.

Just as in the Old Testament sacrifices were added to prayers, so now in churches, in addition to prayer, the Most Holy Bloodless Sacrifice is offered - Holy Communion. Church prayer has special power also because it is offered by a priest specially appointed to perform sacred rites and offer prayers and sacrifices to God for people.

“I chose you and appointed you,” says the Savior to His Apostles, “so that... whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give you” (John 15:16).

They transferred the rights given from the Lord to the apostles and the duties and powers assigned to them to the successors they appointed: bishops and presbyters, bequeathing to them the power, the right, and the indispensable duty, first of all... “to make prayers, petitions, supplications, thanksgivings for all people” ( 1 Timothy 2:1).

That is why the holy Apostle James says to Christians: “Is any of you sick, let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him” (James 5:14). Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt recalled how he, still a young priest, unknown woman asked to pray for the success of one of her business.

“I don’t know how to pray,” Father John humbly answered.
“Pray,” the woman continued to ask. – I believe that through your prayers the Lord will help me.

Father John, seeing that she had such high hopes for his prayer, became even more embarrassed, again claiming that he did not know how to pray, but the woman said:
- You, father, just pray, I ask you, as best you can, and I believe that the Lord will hear.

Father John began to remember this woman during the liturgy. After some time, the priest met her again, and she said:
“You, father, just prayed for me, and the Lord sent me, through your prayers, what I asked.”

This incident influenced the young priest so much that he understood the power of priestly prayer.

Who should and can be remembered in notes

In notes submitted for commemoration, the names of only those who have been baptized in the Orthodox Church are written.

The first note we submit is “On Health”

The concept of “health” includes not only the health and physical condition of a person, but also his spiritual condition and material well-being. And if we pray for the health of a person who has done a lot of evil, this does not mean that we are praying that he will continue to be in the same state - no, we pray to God that He will change his intentions and internal disorder, made sure that our ill-wisher or even enemy began to be in harmony with God, with the Church, with others.

This note should include everyone to whom we wish health, salvation and prosperity.
The Word of God teaches that everyone needs to pray not only for themselves, but also for others: “pray for one another” (James 5:16). The Church is built on this common prayer for each other.
In imperial Russia, all prayer services began with the name of the Sovereign Emperor, on whose “health” the fate of not only Russia, but also every family, every Orthodox Christian depended. Now we must first write the name of our Patriarch, and after him - the Archpastor, His Grace the Bishop, appointed by God as a spiritual ruler, caring for and offering prayers and sacrifices to the Lord for the flock entrusted to him.
Many Christians do this, as the Holy Scripture teaches: “First of all, I ask you to make prayers, petitions, intercessions, thanksgivings for all people, for kings and for all those in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and serene life in all piety and purity, for this is good and it pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4).
Then the name of your spiritual father is written, the priest who instructs you, takes care of the salvation of your soul, prays to the Lord for you: “Remember your teachers” (Heb. 13:7).

Then write the names of your parents, your name, the names of your family members, loved ones and relatives. Everyone should pray for the health and well-being of their family: “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those at home, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8).
For your family and relatives, write down the names of your benefactors. If they have done good to you, then you should wish and pray for good and blessings from the Lord for them, so as not to remain in debt to them: “give everyone their due... Do not remain in debt to anyone except mutual love; For he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:7-8).
Finally, if you have an ill-wisher, an offender, an envious person or even an enemy, write down his name for prayerful remembrance, according to the commandment of the Lord: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5, 44).

Prayer for enemies, for those at war, is a great force for ending hostility and establishing peace. The Savior himself prayed for his enemies. There are many known cases when one of the warring parties wrote the name of his ill-wisher in the health note next to his name - and the hostility stopped, the former enemy became a well-wisher.

The second note we submit is “On Repose”

In it we write the names of deceased relatives, acquaintances, teachers, well-wishers, everyone who is dear to us.
Just as we pray for the living, so we must pray for the dead - and not only for our closest relatives, but also for our entire family, for everyone who did us good in earthly life, helped us, taught us.
The dead, although they have departed from us, although they remain flesh in the earth, but in soul with the Lord, have not disappeared, they continue to live a spiritual life invisible to us before the eyes of God, since the Lord Himself says in the Holy Gospel: “God is not the God of the dead.” , but alive, for with Him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).
We believe that our deceased relatives, and we often do not know the names of many of them, pray for us, their descendants.
We who live on earth, together with those who have departed from us, constitute one Church, one body, having One Head - the Lord Jesus Christ. “If we live, we live for the Lord; Whether we die, we die for the Lord: and therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:8-9).

Our unity and communication with the dead is especially felt during fervent prayer for them. It produces an extremely deep effect and impression on the soul of the person praying, proving the real communication of the soul of the person praying with the souls of those for whom the prayer is offered.

How the Church commemorates the living and the dead at Proskomedia

How is the offering of the Sacrifice performed in the temple according to our notes?
Preparation for Her begins during the proskomedia.
Proskomedia is a part of the liturgy during which bread and wine are prepared for the sacrament.

Translated from Greek, this word means “bringing” - the ancient Christians themselves brought bread and wine to the temple, necessary for the liturgy.

Proskomedia, symbolizing, is performed in the altar secretly for the believers in the temple, just as the birth of the Savior took place secretly, unknown to the world.
For proskomedia, five special prosphoras are used.

From the first prosphora, after special prayers, the priest cuts out the middle in the shape of a cube - this part of the prosphora is given the name Lamb. This “lamb” prosphora rests on a paten, a round dish on a stand, symbolizing the manger in which the Savior was born. The lamb prosphora is actually used for Communion.

From the second prosphora, the “Mother of God” prosphora, the priest takes out a portion in honor of the Mother of God. This particle is placed on the paten along left side from the Lamb.

From the third prosphora, the “nine-time” prosphora, nine particles are taken out - in honor of the saints: John the Baptist, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs and saints, unmercenaries, Joachim and Anna, and the saint in whose name the liturgy is celebrated. These removed particles are believed to be right side from the Lamb, three particles in a row.

After this, the clergyman proceeds to the fourth prosphora, from which they take out particles about the living - about the Patriarch, bishops, presbyters and deacons. From the fifth prosphora they take out particles about the deceased - Patriarchs, creators of churches, bishops, priests.

These removed particles are also placed on the paten - first for the living, below - for the dead.

Then the priest removes the particles from the prosphora served by the believers.
At this time, remembrances are read - notes, memorial books, which we submitted to the candle box for the proskomedia.
After reading each name indicated in the note, the clergyman takes out a piece of prosphora, saying: “Remember, Lord, (the name we wrote is indicated).”
These particles, taken out according to our notes, are also placed on the paten along with the particles taken from the liturgical prosphoras.
This is the first, invisible by those praying, commemoration of those whose names are written in the notes we submitted.
So, the particles taken out according to our notes lie on the paten, next to the particles taken from special liturgical prosphoras.

This is a great, holy place! The particles lying in this order on the paten symbolize the entire Church of Christ.

“At the proskomedia, the entire Church, heavenly and earthly, is figuratively presented gathered around the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world... What a close connection is between the Lord and His saints, between Him and those who live piously on earth and those who die in faith and piety: remember what a close connection is between us and the saints and those who died in Christ, and love everyone as members of the Lord and as your members - writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt about the particles taken from the prosphora and placed on the paten. – How close to each other are the celestials and the earthly inhabitants, and Mother of God and all the saints, and all of us, Orthodox Christians, when the divine, universal, heavenly, universal Liturgy is celebrated! My God! What a joyful, life-giving communication!”

Many believe that the particles offered for the living and the dead are a cleansing sacrifice for our sins.

It's a delusion. You can be cleansed from sin only by repentance, correction of life, mercy, and good deeds.

The particles taken out from the prosphoras we serve are not consecrated into the body of the Lord; when they are removed, there is no remembrance of Christ’s suffering: during the ascension of the Holy Lamb, during the proclamation “Holy to Holies,” these particles do not rise for the mysterious elevation to the cross with the flesh of the Savior. These particles are not given in communion with the Flesh of the Savior. Why are they brought? So that through them the believers, whose names are written in our notes, receive grace, sanctification and remission of sins from the cleansing sacrifice offered on the Throne.

A particle taken from our prosphora, reclining near the most pure Body of the Lord, being brought into the chalice, filled with Divine blood, is completely filled with sacred things and spiritual gifts and sends them down to the one whose name is lifted up. After all the communicants have partaken of the Holy Mysteries, the deacon places into the chalice the particles of the saints, the living and the dead, reclining on the paten.

This is done so that the saints, in their closest union with God, rejoice in heaven, and the living and the dead, whose names are indicated in the notes, having been washed by the most pure blood of the Son of God, receive remission of sins and eternal life.

This is also evidenced by the words spoken by the priest: “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of those who were remembered here, with Your Honest Blood.”

That is why it is necessary to commemorate the living and the dead in the Church, at the liturgy - after all, it is here that the cleansing of the sins we commit every day takes place through the Blood of Christ. The sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary and offered daily during the liturgy on the Holy Throne is a complete and completely exhaustive payment for our debt to God - and only it, like fire, can burn away all of a person’s sins.

What is a registered note?

In some churches, in addition to the usual notes about health and repose, they accept custom notes.
A customized mass for health with a prayer differs from a regular commemoration for health in that, in addition to removing a particle from the prosphora (which happens during a regular commemoration), the deacon publicly reads the names of those commemorated in the litanies, and then these names are repeated by the priest before the altar.

But even this is not the end of the commemoration according to the ordered note - after the end of the liturgy, a prayer is offered for them at a prayer service.

The same thing happens at a custom-made mass of repose with a memorial service - and here, after removing the particles with the names of the deceased, the deacon publicly pronounces their names at the litany, then the names are repeated in front of the altar by the clergyman, and then the deceased are remembered at the memorial service, which takes place after the end of the liturgy .

Sorokoust is a prayer service that is performed by the Church daily for forty days. Every day during this period, particles are removed from the prosphora.
“Sorokousts,” writes St. Simeon of Thessalonica, - are performed in remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord, which happened on the fortieth day after the resurrection, - and with the purpose that he (the deceased), having risen from the grave, ascended to the meeting (that is, towards - ed.). Judge, he was caught up into the clouds, and so he was always with the Lord.”
Sorokousts are ordered not only for repose, but also for health, especially for seriously ill people.
A prayer service is a special divine service in which they ask the Lord, the Mother of God, and the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits. In the church, prayer services are performed before and after the liturgy, as well as after Matins and Vespers.
Public prayer services are held on temple holidays, New Year, before the beginning of the youths’ teaching, during natural disasters, during the invasion of foreigners, during epidemics, during rainlessness, etc.

Other prayer services belong to private worship and are performed at the requests and needs of individual believers. Often during these prayers there is a small blessing of water.
The note for the prayer service begins with an indication of which saint the prayer service is being offered, whether it is for health or repose. Then the names of those for whom the prayer song will be offered are listed.

When you submit a note for the prayer service, tell the minister whether you are ordering a water-blessing prayer service - in this case, a small blessing of water is performed, which is then distributed to the believers - or a regular one, without the blessing of water.
You can order commemoration of the living or deceased for a month, for six months, for a year.
Some churches and monasteries accept notes for eternal remembrance. If you submitted a registered note, then the names written in the notes are pronounced at prayer shortly after the reading of the Gospel.
At the end of the Gospel, a special (that is, intensified) litany begins - a general cry to God, a threefold “Lord, have mercy!”

The deacon calls: “We recem (that is, let’s say, let’s pray, speak) with all our hearts, and with all our thoughts, recem!”
In two petitions, we strenuously ask the Lord to hear our prayer and have mercy on us: “Lord Almighty, God of our Fathers, pray (that is, pray to You), hear and have mercy. “Have mercy on us, O God...”
Everyone in the church asks for the Patriarch, for the bishop, for the priestly brotherhood (a church parable) and for all “our brethren in Christ,” for the authorities and the army... The Church prays for mercy (so that the Lord may have mercy on us), for life, peace, health, salvation, visitation (that is, so that the Lord would visit and not leave with his mercies), forgiveness, forgiveness of the sins of the servants of God to the brethren of this holy temple.
In the last petition of the special litany, the deacon strongly calls for prayer for those who bear fruit and do good in this holy and all-honorable temple, those who work (for the temple), those who sing and those who stand before them, expecting great and rich mercies from God. Those who bear fruit and do good are believers who bring to the temple everything necessary for Divine services (oil, incense, prosphora, etc.), who sacrifice money and things for the splendor of the temple and for the maintenance of those who work in it.

On certain days, the special litany is followed by a special litany for the dead, in which we pray for all our departed fathers and brothers, asking Christ, the immortal King and our God, to forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, to rest them in the villages of the righteous and, recognizing, that there is no person who has not sinned in his life, we beg the Lord to grant our departed the Kingdom of Heaven, where all the righteous rest.
During the litanies, the deacon pronounces the names of those indicated in the registered note and invokes God’s blessing on them, and the priest reads prayers.
Then the priest says a prayer before the Throne, loudly calling out the names from the notes.
The custom of reading notes with names during special litanies dates back to ancient, apostolic times - “the deacon commemorates diptychs, that is, the memorial of the departed.” Diptychs are two tablets made of paper or parchment, folded like the tablets of Moses. On one of them the names of the living were written for reading during the sacred rite, on the other - the names of the deceased.

Why should we pray for the dead?

Our relationships with our neighbors do not end after their death. interrupts only visible communication with them. But in the Kingdom of Christ there is no death, and what we call death is the transition from temporary life to eternal life.
Our prayers for the departed are a continuation of our relationships with our neighbors. We, who believe that our departed did not die, also believe that the Most Merciful Lord, through our prayer, will forgive souls who died, although in sins, but with faith and hope of salvation.
The Church is a living organism, in the words of the Apostle Paul, a Body, the Head of which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Not only believers living on earth belong to the Church, but also those who died in the right faith.
There must be a living, organic unity between the living and the deceased, because in a living organism all members are connected with each other, each performs something for the life of the whole organism.

Our duty is to care for those members of the Church who have ended their earthly existence, and through our prayer to alleviate the condition of the deceased.
Before their death, many did not have time to receive the sacrament of repentance and holy communion and died an unexpected or violent death. The deceased can no longer repent themselves or give alms. Only the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for them, the prayers of the Church, alms and charity for them can ease their fate after death.

The commemoration of the dead is, first of all, prayer for them - at home, and especially in church, combined with the offering of a bloodless sacrifice at the Divine Liturgy.
“When all the people and the sacred face stand with hands raised, and when a terrible sacrifice is presented, then how can we not pray to God, asking for the dead?” – writes Saint John Chrysostom.
But in addition to praying for the departed, we must show mercy in every possible way and do good deeds, because “alms delivers from death and can cleanse all sin” (Tob. 12:9).
Saint John Chrysostom advises: “Almost dead through alms and acts of kindness: for alms serves to deliver one from eternal torment.”

St. Athanasia, having said that “if the souls of the departed are sinners, then for the good deeds of the living in their memory they receive remission of sins from God,” adds: “if they are righteous, then charity for them serves to save the benefactors themselves.”

Therefore, it is necessary that prayer and Bloodless Sacrifice be offered for our departed as often as possible.
Offering a Bloodless Sacrifice for the dead eases their fate, even if they were already in hell, for the Bloodless Gifts brought to the sacrifice are transformed into the Flesh and Blood of Christ, so that He Himself is sacrificed for the sake of our salvation.

How to properly remember the dead?

The custom of remembering the dead is already found in the Old Testament Church. The Apostolic Constitutions mention the commemoration of the dead with particular clarity. In them we find both prayers for the departed during the celebration of the Eucharist, and an indication of the days on which it is especially necessary to remember the departed: the third, ninth, fortieth, annual.

Thus, the commemoration of the departed is an apostolic institution, it is observed throughout the Church, and the liturgy for the departed, the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for their salvation, is the most powerful and effective means of asking the departed for the mercy of God.
Church commemoration is performed only for those who were baptized in the Orthodox faith. Memorial services for suicides, as well as for those not baptized in the Orthodox faith, are not performed. Moreover, these persons cannot be commemorated at the liturgy. The Holy Church offers unceasing prayers for our departed fathers and brothers at every divine service and especially at the liturgy.

But besides this, the Holy Church at certain times creates a special commemoration of all fathers and brothers in faith who have passed away from time immemorial, who have been worthy of Christian death, as well as those who, having been caught by sudden death, were not guided into the afterlife by the prayers of the Church. The memorial services performed at this time are called ecumenical. On Meat Saturday, before Cheese Week, on the eve of memories Last Judgment, we pray to the Lord that He will show His mercy to all the departed on the day when the Last Judgment comes.

On this Saturday, the Orthodox Church prays for all those who have fallen asleep in the Orthodox faith, whenever and wherever they lived on earth, whoever they were in their own way. social background and position in earthly life.

Prayers are offered for people “from Adam to this day who have fallen asleep in piety and right faith.”
Three Saturdays of Great Lent - Saturdays of the second, third, fourth weeks of Great Lent - were established because during the presanctified liturgy there is no such commemoration as is performed at any other time of the year. In order not to deprive the dead of the saving intercession of the Church, these parental Saturdays were established. During Great Lent, the Church intercedes for the departed, so that the Lord forgives their sins and resurrects them into eternal life.
On Radonitsa - Tuesday of the second week of Easter - the joy of the Resurrection of the Lord is shared with the departed, in the hope of the resurrection of our departed. The Savior Himself descended into hell to preach victory over death and brought from there the souls of the Old Testament righteous. Because of this great spiritual joy, the day of this commemoration is called “Rainbow”, or “Radonitsa”.

Trinity Parental Saturday - on this day the Holy Church calls us to commemorate the dead, so that the saving grace of the Holy Spirit cleanses the sins of the souls of all our forefathers, fathers and brothers who have departed from time immemorial and, interceding for the gathering of all into the Kingdom of Christ, praying for the redemption of the living, for the return captivity of their souls, asks “to rest the souls of those who departed first in the place of cooling, as if they are not dead, they will praise You, Lord, those who exist below in hell dare to bring confessions to You: but we, the living, bless You and pray, and we bring cleansing prayers and sacrifices to You for the souls ours.”
Dimitrievskaya Parental Saturday - on this day, commemoration is made of all Orthodox slain soldiers. It was established by the holy noble prince Demetrius Donskoy at the inspiration and blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh in 1380, when he won a glorious, famous victory over the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field. The commemoration takes place on the Saturday before Demetrius Day (October 26, old style). Subsequently, on this Saturday, Orthodox Christians began to commemorate not only the soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for their faith and fatherland, but along with them, for all Orthodox Christians.
Commemoration of deceased soldiers is performed Orthodox Church April 26 (May 9, new style), the holiday of victory over Nazi Germany, as well as on August 29, the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
It is imperative to remember the deceased on the day of his death, birth and name day. Days of remembrance must be spent decorously, reverently, in prayer, doing good to the poor and loved ones, in thinking about our death and future life.
The rules for submitting notes “On repose” are the same as for notes “On health”.

“At litanies, the newly departed or significant builders of the monastery are commemorated more, and then no more than one or two names. But proskomedia is the most important commemoration, for the parts taken out for the departed are immersed in the blood of Christ and sins are cleansed by this great sacrifice; and when there is a memory of one of your relatives, you can submit a note and remember it at the litany,” wrote the Monk Macarius of Optina in one of his letters.

How often should memorial notes be submitted?

The prayer of the Church and the Most Holy Sacrifice attract the mercy of the Lord to us, purifying and saving us.
We always, both during life and after death, need God's mercy towards us. Therefore, it is necessary to be worthy of the prayers of the Church and the offering of the sacrifice of the Holy Gifts for us or our loved ones, living and deceased, as often as possible, and necessarily on those days that have special meaning: on birthdays, baptism days, name days of both one’s own and members of your family.
Honoring the memory of the saint whose name we bear, we thereby call on our patron to pray and intercede before God, because, as the Holy Scripture says, the intense prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much (James 5:16).
It is imperative to submit a note of remembrance on your child’s birthdays and baptisms.
Mothers must carefully monitor this, because caring for the child is their sacred duty.
Whether sin attracts us to itself, whether some passion takes possession of us, whether the devil tempts us, whether despair or inconsolable sorrow befalls us, whether trouble, need, illness have visited us - in such cases, the prayer of the Church with the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice serves as the surest means of deliverance, strengthening and consolation.

Instructions for those wishing to submit a note about the living and the deceased

1. Notes must be submitted before the start of the liturgy. It is best to submit notes of remembrance in the evening or early in the morning, before the start of the service.
2. When writing down the names of the living and the deceased, remember them in the process of writing with a sincere desire for their good, from the bottom of your heart, trying to remember the one whose name you are writing in - this is already a prayer.
3. The note should contain no more than five to ten names. If you want to remember many of your family and friends, send a few notes.
4. Names must be written in the genitive case (answer the question “who?”).
The names of bishops and priests are indicated first, and their rank is indicated - for example, “about the health” of Bishop Tikhon, Abbot Tikhon, Priest Yaroslav, then write your name, your family and friends.
The same applies to notes “about the repose” - for example, Metropolitan John, Archpriest Michael, Alexandra, John, Anthony, Elijah, etc.
6. All names must be given in church spelling (for example, George, not Yuri) and in full (for example, Alexander, Nikolai, but not Sasha, Kolya)
7. The notes do not indicate last names, patronymics, ranks and titles, or degrees of relationship.
8. A child under 7 years old is referred to in the note as an infant – the baby John.
9. If you want, in health notes you can mention “sick”, “warrior”, “travelling”, “prisoner” before the name. They don’t write in notes – “suffering”, “embarrassed”, “needy”, “lost”.
10. In the notes “On Repose” the deceased is referred to as “newly deceased” within 40 days after death. It is allowed in notes “On repose” to write before the name “killed”, “warrior”, “of ever-memorable” (day of death, name day of the deceased).

Notes for a prayer service or memorial service, which take place after the end of the liturgy, are submitted separately.

Eucharist(Greek ευχαριστια - thanksgiving) is a sacrament in which the bread and wine of offer are transformed by the Holy Spirit into the true Body and true Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then believers partake of them for the closest union with Christ and eternal life. This sacrament therefore consists of two separate points:

transmutation, or transubstantiation, of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord
communion of these Holy Gifts.

It has names: Eucharist; Lord's Supper; The Lord's Table; The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Body and Blood of Christ in this sacrament are called the Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Life, or the Cup of Salvation; holy mysteries; bloodless Sacrifice. The Eucharist is the greatest Christian sacrament.

Pre-establishment of the sacrament.

Before the first performance of this sacrament at the Last Supper, Christ promised it in His conversation about animal bread on the occasion of feeding five thousand people with five loaves. The Lord taught: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:51). The Jews obviously took Christ's words literally. They began to talk among themselves: How can He give us His flesh to eat? And the Lord did not tell the Jews that they had misunderstood Him, but only continued speaking with even greater force and clarity in the same sense: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Unless ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye shall have no your own life. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:53-56). Further, Christ adds: The Spirit gives life, but the flesh does not profit in the least: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. With this remark, Christ does not require understanding of His conversation about animal bread in a “figurative” sense. “There are some of you who are unbelievers,” He immediately adds. With these words, the Savior Himself indicates that His words are difficult to believe: how will believers eat His Body and drink His Blood? But He confirms that He is talking about His actual Body. His words about His Body and Blood are “spirit and life”: they testify that a) whoever partakes of them will have eternal life and will be resurrected for the Kingdom of Glory on the last day and b) that whoever partakes of them enters into the closest communion with Christ. His words do not speak about life according to the flesh, but about life according to the Spirit. “Taste the Heavenly Bread and the Cup of Life and see that the Lord is good,” we hear at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. This communion is important not for satisfying physical hunger, as was the case when eating manna in the desert, when feeding the five thousand, but it is important for eternal life.

The establishment of the Sacrament and its celebration in apostolic times. - Whereas the Savior’s foreknowledge of the future establishment of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is given in the Gospel of John, the very establishment of the sacrament is set forth by the three evangelists - the Synoptics Matthew, Mark and Luke, and then repeated by the Apostle Paul. The Gospel of Matthew in the twenty-sixth chapter says: And while they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And, taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them and said: drink from it, all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:26-28). The same is in the Gospel of Mark, in the fourteenth chapter.

In the Gospel of Luke in the twenty-second chapter: And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. Likewise the cup after supper, saying: This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:19-20). The same as in the Evangelist Luke, we read in the Apostle Paul: I received from the Lord Himself what I also conveyed to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night on which he was betrayed took bread and, having given thanks, broke it and said: take, eat , this is My Body, broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me. He also took the cup after supper, and said, “This cup is New Testament in My Blood; Do this whenever you drink, in remembrance of Me (1 Cor. 11:23-25).

This sacrifice must be performed until He comes (1 Cor. 11:26), as the Apostle Paul instructs, that is, until the Second Coming of the Lord. And indeed, the Eucharist has been accepted by the Church from the first days as the greatest sacrament, its establishment is preserved with the greatest care and benevolence, it is and will be performed until the end of the world.

In the Holy Mysteries Christ is fully present

“We believe that in every part, down to the smallest particle of the bread and wine offered, there is not any separate part of the Body and Blood of the Lord, but the Body of Christ, always whole and in all parts one, and the Lord Christ is present in His Essence, that is, with the Soul and Divinity, as perfect God and perfect man. Therefore, although at the same time there are many sacred rites in the universe, there are not many bodies of Christ, but one and the same Christ is truly and truly present, one His Body and one Blood in all the individual churches of the faithful. And this is not because the Body of the Lord, which is in Heaven, descends on the altars, but because the showbread, prepared separately in all churches and, after consecration, translated and transposed, becomes one and the same with the Body which is in Heaven. For the Lord always has one Body, and not many in many places. That is why this Sacrament, according to the general opinion, is the most wonderful, comprehended by faith alone, and not by the speculations of human wisdom, the vanity and madness of whose research about the Divine is rejected by this Holy and above-determined Sacrifice for us.” .

The Eucharist is not a repetition of the Sacrifice of the Cross, but the offering of the sacrificial Body and Blood, once lifted up by the Redeemer on the Cross, “always consumed and never consumed.” Therefore, the Calvary Sacrifice and the Eucharist are inseparable from each other and actually constitute one Sacrifice, but nevertheless they are different. The Eucharist is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The clergyman, performing a bloodless sacrifice, according to the rite of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom, before the consecration of the gifts, remembers in his secret prayer the great deeds of God, glorifies and thanks God in the Holy Trinity for the calling of man from oblivion, for the manifold care for him after the fall and for the economy of his salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. In the same way, all the Christians present in the church at these holy moments, glorifying God, cry out to Him: We sing to You, we bless You, we thank You, Lord...

The Eucharist is also a propitiatory sacrifice for all members of the Church. Teaching His Body to the disciples, the Lord said about it: it was broken for you and, teaching His Blood, added: it is poured out for you and for many for the remission of sins. That's why from the beginning of Christianity bloodless sacrifice was brought about the memory and forgiveness of sins of both the living and the dead. This is evident from the rites of all Liturgies, beginning with the Liturgy of the Holy Apostle James, and this sacrifice itself is often directly called in them the sacrifice of propitiation.

The Eucharist is a sacrifice that most closely unites all the faithful into one body in Christ. Therefore, after the transubstantiation of the Holy Gifts, as before at the proskomedia, the clergyman commemorates the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and all the saints, adding: with their prayers visit us, O God, and then proceeds to the commemoration of the living and the dead (the entire Church of Christ). The Eucharist is also a suppliant sacrifice: for the peace of the churches, for the well-being of the world, for the authorities, for those who are in weakness and labor, for everyone who requires help - both from everyone and for everything.

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist, bread and wine are transformed into the true Body and Blood of Christ

In the Sacrament of the Eucharist - at the very time when the clergyman, invoking the Holy Spirit on the offered gifts, blesses them with prayer to God the Father - bread and wine are actually transformed into the Body and Blood by the influx of the Holy Spirit. After this moment, although our eyes see bread and wine at the holy table, but in the very essence, invisible to sensory eyes, this is the true Body and true Blood of the Lord Jesus, only under the “appearances” of bread and wine.

This truth is expressed in the “Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs” in the following words: “We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is present in this sacred rite, not symbolically, not figuratively, not by an excess of grace, as in other sacraments, not by influx alone, as some Fathers said about baptism, and not through the “permeation” of the bread, so that the divinity of the Word “entered” into the bread offered for the Eucharist essentially, as the followers of Luther rather inexpertly and unworthily explain: but truly and truly, so that after the consecration of the bread and wine, the bread is added , is transubstantiated, transformed, transformed into the very true Body of the Lord, which was born in

Christ at Holy Mass?

ANSWER:
During Holy Mass we commemorate the Sacrifice of Christ. But this memory is not just a memory of what happened in the past. When we, for example, remember about passing an exam, then at that moment we do not take it again and do not answer the same questions again, and do not anxiously await the assessment. We are talking about an event from the past that becomes relevant only in our thoughts and memory, but it does not happen in the present.

The situation is completely different with the Eucharistic Sacrifice. When we commemorate the Sacrifice of Christ, three things happen. First, as in the exam example, we remember a fact that happened in history. Secondly, during the Mass this fact is not simply resurrected in memory, it is actualized, again presented to us and accomplished. But not in the sense that this sacrifice is being made again, but in the fact that the same Sacrifice that Christ made is being made, but it is being made here and now, for us. Thus, the Sacrifice on the Cross and the Holy Mass are one and the same Sacrifice, only on the Cross it was offered once and for all in history, and at the Mass this sacrifice is actualized for each of us, in every era. And the third meaning of the memory of Christ’s Sacrifice is communion with the grace emanating from this event, which happened then, in the era of Christ. St. Paul writes about it this way: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes” (1 Cor 11:26). The word “proclaim” here denotes precisely the event in which the believer participates. To proclaim the Death of the Lord means to be present at it, to witness the Easter Event in which this Sacrifice is offered to God for the life of the world. The Holy Mass perpetuates on our altars the Sacrifice made on the Cross, and each of us standing in the temple is like the Virgin Mary and the Apostle John at the foot of the Cross. During the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the redemptive Passion of the Lord is actualized on our altars. The Lord Himself is present - and is present not only spiritually, but also materially, in the Most Holy Gifts.

If we understand in all its depth the meaning of the Holy Mass, then it will never seem monotonous to us, we will never be able to perceive it as some kind of obligation. Saint Padre Pio, when asked about the Mass, answered: “This is a date on Calvary.” When asked with what feelings a Christian should participate in the Liturgy, the Italian ascetic said: “With the feelings of the Virgin Mary and St. John.” Communion of the Mysteries of Christ during the Mass is a source of the greatest sanctifying, redemptive, grace-filled power that we ourselves receive and which we are called to share with the whole world.

In relation to the memory of the Sacrifice of Christ in theology such words are used as "updating" or "representation". The word "renewal" sometimes used can be misleading, since Christ died on the Cross only once, as the writer of Hebrews repeatedly reminds us: "He did it once, by sacrificing Himself"; “Christ, having once offered Himself as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time not for the cleansing of sin, but for the salvation of those who wait for Him.”

All our encounters with Jesus Christ are encounters with Jesus risen from the dead, glorified, seated at the right hand of the Father. In the Eucharist we do not pretend that the Lord dies again and then rises again. We meet the Risen Christ, in Whom the entire work of His life is present, from Conception to Ascension. In the Eucharist, all His redemptive acts are made synchronous. In this sense, having the opportunity to participate in the Eucharist, we receive the same grace as all of Jesus’ contemporaries who were lucky enough to communicate with Him personally. In the Eucharist, all the redemptive acts of Jesus Christ are made not only synchronous in relation to each other, but also synchronous in relation to our life. This is reflected in the words of transubstantiation: “This is My Body, which is given for you”; “This is My Blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins.” His Passion and Death in these words are synchronous to each of us. When we participate in the Holy Bloodless Sacrifice of Christ, we are called to feel in charge actors, witnesses of the Death and Resurrection of the Lord, Who wished to make this event synchronous for every person.

What is a memorial and church note “On health” and “On repose”

A church note submitted “On health” or “On repose” is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Meanwhile, memorials and notes, both in their appearance and in their use, can be called liturgical books: after all, the Holy Cross is depicted on them, they are brought into the altar, and read during the Divine Liturgy before the Holy Altar.

What is the advantage of praying for our family and friends in church?

Home prayer, as a rule, does not have such grace-filled power as general, corporate prayer, that is, the prayer of the Church.

“I chose you and appointed you,” says the Savior to His Apostles, “so that... whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give you” (John 15:16).

That is why the holy Apostle James says to Christians: “Is any of you sick, let him call the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him” (James 5:14). The holy righteous John of Kronstadt recalled how, while still a young priest, an unfamiliar woman asked him to pray for the success of one of her affairs.

“I don’t know how to pray,” Father John humbly answered.
“Pray,” the woman continued to ask. “I believe that through your prayers the Lord will help me.”

This incident influenced the young priest so much that he understood the power of priestly prayer.

Who should and can be remembered in notes

In notes submitted for commemoration, the names of only those who have been baptized in the Orthodox Church are written.
The first note we submit is “On Health.”

The concept of “health” includes not only the health and physical condition of a person, but also his spiritual condition and material well-being. And if we pray for the health of a person who has done a lot of evil, this does not mean that we are praying that he will remain in the same state in the future - no, we pray to God that He will change his intentions and internal disorder, made sure that our ill-wisher or even enemy began to be in harmony with God, with the Church, with others.

This note should include everyone to whom we wish health, salvation and prosperity.
The Word of God teaches that everyone needs to pray not only for themselves, but also for others: “pray for one another” (James 5:16). The Church is built on this common prayer for each other.
In Imperial Russia, all prayer services began with the name of the Sovereign Emperor, on whose “health” the fate of not only Russia, but also every family, every Orthodox Christian depended. Now we must first write the name of our Patriarch, and after him - the Archpastor, the Most Reverend Bishop, appointed by God as a spiritual ruler, caring for and offering prayers and sacrifices to the Lord for the flock entrusted to him.
Many Christians do this, as the Holy Scripture teaches: “First of all, I ask you to make prayers, petitions, supplications, thanksgivings for all people, for kings and for all those in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and serene life in all piety and purity, for this is good and it pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4).
Then the name of your spiritual father is written, the priest who instructs you, takes care of the salvation of your soul, prays to the Lord for you: “Remember your teachers” (Heb. 13:7).

Then write the names of your parents, your name, the names of your family members, loved ones and relatives. Everyone should pray for the health and well-being of their family: “If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those at home, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8).
For your family and relatives, write down the names of your benefactors. If they have done good to you, then you should also wish and pray for good and blessings from the Lord for them, so as not to remain in debt to them: “give everyone their due... Do not remain in debt to anyone except mutual love; For he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:7-8).
Finally, if you have an ill-wisher, an offender, an envious person or even an enemy, write down his name for prayerful remembrance, according to the commandment of the Lord: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5, 44).

The second note we submit is “On Repose.”

In it we write the names of deceased relatives, acquaintances, teachers, well-wishers, everyone who is dear to us.
Just as we pray for the living, so we must pray for the dead - and not only for our closest relatives, but also for our entire family, for everyone who did good to us in earthly life, helped, taught.
The dead, although they have departed from us, although they remain flesh in the earth, but in soul with the Lord, have not disappeared, they continue to live a spiritual life invisible to us before the eyes of God, since the Lord Himself says in the Holy Gospel: “God is not the God of the dead.” , but alive, for with Him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).
We believe that our deceased relatives, and we often do not know the names of many of them, pray for us, their descendants.
We who live on earth, together with those who have departed from us, constitute one Church, one body, having One Head - the Lord Jesus Christ. “If we live, we live for the Lord; Whether we die, we die for the Lord: and therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:8-9).

How the Church commemorates the living and the dead at Proskomedia

Translated from Greek, this word means “bringing” - the ancient Christians themselves brought bread and wine to the temple, necessary for the liturgy.

Proskomedia, symbolizing the birth of Jesus Christ, is performed in the altar secretly for the believers in the church - just as the birth of the Savior took place secretly, unknown to the world.
For proskomedia, five special prosphoras are used.

From the second prosphora, the “Mother of God” prosphora, the priest takes out a portion in honor of the Mother of God. This particle is placed on the paten to the left of the Lamb.

From the third prosphora, the “nine-time” prosphora, nine particles are taken out - in honor of the saints: John the Baptist, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs and saints, unmercenaries, Joachim and Anna, and the saint in whose name the liturgy is celebrated. These taken out particles are placed on the right side of the Lamb, three particles in a row.

These removed particles are also placed on the paten - first for the living, below - for the dead.

This is a great, holy place! The particles lying in this order on the paten symbolize the entire Church of Christ.

“At the proskomedia, the entire Church, heavenly and earthly, is figuratively presented gathered around the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world... What a close connection is between the Lord and His saints, between Him and those who live piously on earth and those who die in faith and piety: remember what a close connection is between us and the saints and those who died in Christ, and love everyone as members of the Lord and as your members - writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt about the particles taken from the prosphora and placed on the paten. - How close to each other are the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of earth, and the Mother of God and all the saints, and all of us, Orthodox Christians, when the divine, universal, transcendental, universal Liturgy is celebrated! My God! What a joyful, life-giving communication!”

Many believe that the particles offered for the living and the dead are a cleansing sacrifice for our sins.

It's a delusion. You can be cleansed from sin only by repentance, correction of life, mercy, and good deeds.

The particles taken out from the prosphora we serve are not consecrated into the body of the Lord; when they are removed, there is no remembrance of Christ’s suffering: during the ascension of the Holy Lamb, during the proclamation “Holy to the Holies,” these particles do not rise for the mysterious elevation to the cross with the flesh of the Savior. These particles are not given in communion with the Flesh of the Savior. Why are they brought? So that through them the believers, whose names are written in our notes, receive grace, sanctification and remission of sins from the cleansing sacrifice offered on the Throne.

This is also evidenced by the words spoken by the priest: “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of those who were remembered here, with Your Honest Blood.”

That is why it is necessary to commemorate the living and the dead precisely in the Church, at the liturgy - after all, it is here that the cleansing of the sins we commit daily takes place through the Blood of Christ. The sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary and offered daily during the liturgy on the Holy Throne is a complete and completely exhaustive payment for our debt to God - and only it, like fire, can burn away all of a person’s sins.

What is a registered note?

But even this is not the end of the commemoration according to the ordered note - after the end of the liturgy, a prayer is offered for them at a prayer service.

Sorokousty is a prayer service that is performed by the Church daily for forty days. Every day during this period, particles are removed from the prosphora.
“Sorokousts,” writes St. Simeon of Thessalonica, - are performed in remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord, which happened on the fortieth day after the resurrection, - and with the purpose that he (the deceased), having risen from the grave, ascended to the meeting (that is, towards - ed.). Judge, he was caught up into the clouds, and so he was always with the Lord.”
Sorokousts are ordered not only for repose, but also for health, especially for seriously ill people.
A prayer service is a special divine service in which they ask the Lord, the Mother of God, and the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits. In the church, prayer services are performed before and after the liturgy, as well as after Matins and Vespers.
Public prayers are performed on temple holidays, on New Year’s, before the beginning of the youth’s teaching, during natural disasters, during invasions of foreigners, during epidemics, during periods of rainlessness, etc.

The deacon calls: “We recite (that is, let’s say, let’s pray, speak) with all our hearts, and with all our thoughts, recit!”
In two petitions, we strenuously ask the Lord to hear our prayer and have mercy on us: “Lord, Almighty, God of our fathers, pray (that is, pray to You), hear and have mercy. - Have mercy on us, God...
Everyone in the church asks for the Patriarch, for the bishop, for the priestly brotherhood (a church parable) and for all “our brethren in Christ,” for the authorities and the army... The Church prays for mercy (so that the Lord may have mercy on us), for life, peace, health, salvation, visitation (that is, so that the Lord would visit and not leave with his mercies), forgiveness, forgiveness of the sins of the servants of God to the brethren of this holy temple.

In the last petition of the special litany, the deacon strongly calls for prayer for those who bear fruit and do good in this holy and all-honorable temple, those who work (for the temple), those who sing and those who stand before them, expecting great and rich mercies from God. Those who bear fruit and do good are believers who bring to the temple everything necessary for Divine services (oil, incense, prosphora, etc.), who sacrifice money and things for the splendor of the temple and for the maintenance of those who work in it.

The custom of reading notes with names during special litanies dates back to ancient, apostolic times - “the deacon commemorates diptychs, that is, the memorial of the departed.” Diptychs are two tablets made of paper or parchment, folded like the tablets of Moses. On one of them the names of the living were written for reading during the sacred rite, on the other - the names of the deceased.

Why should we pray for the dead?

Our relationships with our neighbors do not end after their death. Death interrupts only visible communication with them. But in the Kingdom of Christ there is no death, and what we call death is the transition from temporary life to eternal life.
Our prayers for the departed are a continuation of our relationships with our neighbors. We, who believe that our departed did not die, also believe that the Most Merciful Lord, through our prayer, will forgive souls who died, although in sins, but with faith and hope of salvation.
The Church is a living organism, in the words of the Apostle Paul, a Body, the Head of which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Not only believers living on earth belong to the Church, but also those who died in the right faith.
There must be a living, organic unity between the living and the deceased - after all, in a living organism, all members are connected with each other, each performs something for the life of the whole organism.

The commemoration of the dead is, first of all, prayer for them - at home, and especially in church, combined with the offering of a bloodless sacrifice at the Divine Liturgy.
“When all the people and the sacred face stand with hands raised, and when a terrible sacrifice is presented, then how can we not pray to God, asking for the dead?” - writes Saint John Chrysostom.
But in addition to praying for the departed, we must show mercy in every possible way and perform good deeds, because “alms delivers from death and can cleanse all sin” (Tov. 12:9).
Saint John Chrysostom advises: “Almost dead through alms and acts of kindness: for alms serves to deliver one from eternal torment.”

How to properly remember the dead

But besides this, the Holy Church creates at certain times a special commemoration of all fathers and brothers in faith who have passed away from time immemorial, who have been worthy of Christian death, as well as those who, having been caught by sudden death, were not guided into the afterlife by the prayers of the Church. The memorial services performed at this time are called ecumenical. On Meat Saturday, before Cheese Week, on the eve of the remembrance of the Last Judgment, we pray to the Lord that He will show His mercy to all the departed on the day when the Last Judgment comes.

On this Saturday, the Orthodox Church prays for all those who have died in the Orthodox faith, whenever and wherever they lived on earth, whoever they were in terms of their social origin and position in earthly life.

Trinity Parents' Saturday- on this day the Holy Church calls us to commemorate the departed, so that the saving grace of the Holy Spirit may cleanse the sins of the souls of all our forefathers, fathers and brothers who have departed from time immemorial and, interceding for the gathering of all into the Kingdom of Christ, praying for the redemption of the living, for the return of the captivity of their souls , asks “to rest the souls of those who have departed first in a place of refreshment, for it is not in the dead that they will praise Thee, Lord, those who exist below in hell dare to bring confessions to Thee: but we, the living, bless Thee and pray, and we offer purifying prayers and sacrifices to Thee for our souls.”
Dimitrievskaya Parental Saturday - on this day, commemoration is made of all Orthodox slain soldiers. It was established by the holy noble prince Demetrius Donskoy at the inspiration and blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh in 1380, when he won a glorious, famous victory over the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field. The commemoration takes place on the Saturday before Demetrius Day (October 26, old style). Subsequently, on this Saturday, Orthodox Christians began to commemorate not only the soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for their faith and fatherland, but along with them, for all Orthodox Christians.
The commemoration of deceased soldiers is performed by the Orthodox Church on April 26 (May 9, new style), on the holiday of victory over Nazi Germany, as well as on August 29, on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist.
It is imperative to remember the deceased on the day of his death, birth and name day. Days of remembrance must be spent decorously, reverently, in prayer, doing good to the poor and loved ones, in thinking about our death and future life.
The rules for submitting notes “On repose” are the same as notes “On health”.

“On the litanies, the newly deceased or significant builders of the monastery are commemorated more, and then no more than one or two names. But proskomedia is the most important commemoration, for the parts taken out for the departed are immersed in the blood of Christ and sins are cleansed by this great sacrifice; and when there is a memory of one of your relatives, you can submit a note and remember it at the litanies,” wrote the Monk Macarius of Optina in one of his letters.

How often should memorial notes be submitted?

The prayer of the Church and the Most Holy Sacrifice attract the mercy of the Lord to us, purifying and saving us.
We always, both during life and after death, need God's mercy towards us. Therefore, it is necessary to be worthy of the prayers of the Church and the offering of the sacrifice of the Holy Gifts for us or our loved ones, living and deceased, as often as possible, and necessarily on those days that have special meaning: on birthdays, baptism days, name days of both one’s own and members of your family.
Honoring the memory of the saint whose name we bear, we thereby call on our patron to pray and intercede before God, because, as the Holy Scripture says, the intense prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much (James 5:16).
It is imperative to submit a note of remembrance on your child’s birthdays and baptisms.
Mothers must carefully monitor this, because caring for a child is a sacred duty.
Whether sin attracts us to itself, whether some passion takes possession of us, whether the devil tempts us, whether despair or inconsolable sorrow befalls us, whether trouble, need, illness have visited us - in such cases, the prayer of the Church with the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice serves as the surest means of deliverance, strengthening and consolation.

Instructions for those wishing to submit a note about the living and the deceased

1. Notes must be submitted before the start of the liturgy. It is best to submit notes of remembrance in the evening or early in the morning, before the start of the service.
2. When writing down the names of the living and the dead, remember them in the process of writing with a sincere desire for their good, from the bottom of your heart, trying to remember the one whose name you are writing down - this is already a prayer.
3. The note should contain no more than five to ten names. If you want to remember many of your family and friends, send a few notes.
4. Names must be written in the genitive case (answer the question “who?”).
The names of bishops and priests are indicated first, and their rank is indicated - for example, “about the health” of Bishop Tikhon, Abbot Tikhon, Priest Yaroslav, then write your name, your family and friends.
The same applies to notes “about the repose” - for example, Metropolitan John, Archpriest Michael, Alexandra, John, Anthony, Elijah, etc.
6. All names must be given in church spelling (for example, George, not Yuri) and in full (for example, Alexander, Nikolai, but not Sasha, Kolya)
7. The notes do not indicate last names, patronymics, ranks and titles, or degrees of relationship.
8. A child under 7 years old is referred to in the note as an infant—the baby John.
9. If you want, in health notes you can mention “sick”, “warrior”, “travelling”, “prisoner” before the name. They don’t write in notes: “suffering”, “embarrassed”, “needy”, “lost”.
10. In the notes “On Repose” the deceased is referred to as “newly deceased” within 40 days after death. It is allowed in notes “On repose” to write before the name “killed”, “warrior”, “of ever-memorable” (day of death, name day of the deceased).

Notes for a prayer service or memorial service, which take place after the end of the liturgy, are submitted separately.

Religious reading: bloodless sacrifice prayer for health to help our readers.

In the Orthodox Church there is such a thing as a bloodless sacrifice for health. In this article we will figure out what it is. A bloodless sacrifice is the offering of wine and bread as a gift to the Lord as a sign of his mercy to the entire human race and as a sign of forgiveness for the sins of all people. The Holy Spirit sanctifies the gifts brought into the true Body and Blood of Christ, which the believers then partake of.

The Jews called a bloodless sacrifice “mincha”; it differed from sacrifices in that it did not require killing the animal. You can order a bloodless sacrifice immediately before the service in the church.

During the Old Testament, it was customary to add sacrifices to prayers; today this custom has changed somewhat. The role of “sacrifice to God” is performed by the Holy Communion - this is bread and wine, which miraculously “transform” during the service into the flesh and blood of Christ. A candle can also be a victim.

Notes “On health” and “On repose” should be placed in a candle box - this is a counter in a church where books, icons and other Christian paraphernalia are sold. The believer, submitting a note, pays money - however, this is not a price in the economic sense of the word, it is a kind of donation for the needs of the temple.

“Health” is not only physical health, but also the state of a person’s soul, as well as his material well-being. If we pray to God for the health of a person who has done us harm, this does not mean at all that we wish the enemy to continue to sin. On the contrary, we want God to change this person so that he is in harmony with the whole world and treats his neighbor kindly. There were many cases when one of the warring people entered his name and the name of his enemy in the health notes, and even many years of hostility ceased.

There is another type of note - “On repose”. These notes are intended to commemorate people who are no longer with us. It is customary to pray for the living, but we must pray in the same way for the deceased, who continue to live a spiritual life in the afterlife. Christ is one, both for the living and for the dead.

There are people who did not have time to take communion and repent before their death; it is they, more than anyone else, who need the prayers of their living relatives.

The sacrament of the offering of sacrifice

The sacrament itself and preparations for it are carried out during the proskomedia (part of the liturgy). Proskomedia is an offering. In ancient times, Christians brought wine and bread to church for the liturgy. Proskomedia also symbolizes the birth of Jesus Christ. The sacrament itself is performed secretly from the believers on the altar, just as the birth of Christ was secret and unknown.

For the sacrament, the clergy use five special prosphoras - in other words, sacrificial bread, from which, after the ritual of prayer, they cut out the middles in the shape of cubes. Each cube symbolizes a Lamb. All prosphora are placed on a round dish, it is called a paten.

The first prosphora symbolizes the manger in which the Savior came into the world; it serves for communion and is called Agnichnaya. The second prosphora symbolizes the Mother of God and is placed on the left side of the paten. The third prosphora is divided into nine equal parts, they symbolize the saints, prophets, martyrs, unmercenaries, saints, John the Baptist, Joachim and Anna, as well as the one who conducts the liturgy. This prosphora is called the nine-day prosphora. It is placed in rows of three particles on the right side of the Lamb. The fourth prosphora symbolizes living Patriarchs, bishops and priests. The fifth prosphora symbolizes the dead priests, the creators of the Temples. They are laid out on the paten in the following order, first the living, and below the dead.

Afterwards, the clergyman takes out the prosphora given by the believers, and it is then that they begin to read the submitted notes about the health of the living and the repose of the dead. After reading the note, the priest breaks off a piece of the prosphora, and with the words: “Remember, Lord (the name written on the paper)!”

The particles drawn from our prosphoras are also folded onto the paten, thereby symbolizing the Church of Christ, and the connection between God, His saints, piously living on earth and the dead. This action is liturgy.

It is worth understanding that the action of a bloodless sacrifice is not cleansing from sins, since the only cleansing is sincere repentance. Liturgy is done to receive the grace of the Lord.

Sorokoust about health

For spiritual assistance to an Orthodox Christian in our Church there are many requirements and services. One of the very popular prayer appeals to God is the magpie for health. What is it and how does it differ from any other prayer?

What is magpie

Sorokoust is a special church commemoration performed at the request of an Orthodox Christian. Its essence lies in the fact that for 40 days, every time the liturgy is served, the priest at the altar takes out a piece from the prosphora for each person whose name is submitted for the magpie.

Next, all the removed particles are immersed in the Chalice with the Blood of Christ, over which a special prayer is read with a request to wash away the sins of each person who was commemorated. At the end of the service, the cup with these particles is taken out for communion, and the parishioners partake of one of the greatest miracles given to humanity - the Body and Blood of Christ.

Important. Such commemoration at the altar followed by communion is the most complete involvement of a person in church worship.

Since every time at the liturgy a bloodless sacrifice is offered at the altar, symbolizing Christ’s sacrifice for the entire human race, participation in this sacred rite has great spiritual significance.

Very often, new Christians wonder why such a prayer is performed for 40 days, and not for any other period of time. The fact is that 40 days is a symbolic period of time in Christian doctrine.

From the Gospel we know that Jesus Christ, having gone into the desert, fasted and prayed for precisely this period of time; many holy ascetics also performed their prayer vigils for 40 days; After the death of a person, his soul undergoes tests for exactly 40 days, after which its fate is determined. All this indicates that the 40-day prayer really has a special meaning and special significance.

When a magpie is ordered for health, it means not only the physical health of the people listed. Any prayer is aimed, first of all, at the salvation of a person’s soul, therefore all petitions to the Lord must be weighed against their spiritual benefit. The health of the soul is understood as its cleansing from sins, a person’s desire for a godly life, and the struggle with one’s passions. Without such painstaking work, all prayers and custom requests will be meaningless, because the Lord God cannot help a person without his free will.

How and when to order magpies for health correctly

As a rule, it is customary to indicate no more than 10 names in one note. It is customary to write names in the genitive case. For example, the text of the note might look like this:

Also, for each name, it is proposed to make a monetary donation for the maintenance of the temple. The donation can be either a fixed amount or at the discretion of the parishioners - depending on the rules established in a particular church.

For a deeper understanding of the essence of the magpie, it is worth knowing about whom you can submit notes. Following strict church canons, this prayer work is performed only for members of the Church of Christ. And they are people who lead Christian and church life, participate in divine services and, most importantly, in the Sacraments. Thus, according to church canons, a person who misses three liturgies in a row without a serious reason is considered to have dropped out of church communion and church life.

Since, after removing the particles from the prosphora, they are then transformed into the Body of Christ, the sins of a given person are symbolically atoned for by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. But if the person whose name is submitted for commemoration does not want to be saved and does not strive for this, the sacrifice of Christ turns out to be meaningless. The Lord God cannot save a person without his personal desire and willful effort to correct his life.

Attention. In view of the above, church canons require the names of only church-going Christians to be submitted for the 40-day commemoration. But modern life makes its own adjustments, and if you strictly follow all the canons, then only a few will remain in the church. Of course, one should strive for the canons as an ideal, but also make allowances for weaknesses modern people. Therefore, now almost everyone is allowed to be commemorated on Sorokoust, the main rule is that a person must be baptized in the Orthodox Church.

Since we never know in what ways the Lord leads a person, it may well turn out that such a note submitted on the 40th anniversary will become a small start that will truly lead a person to the temple and to God.

Misconceptions and myths about Magpies

The widespread dissemination of church requirements has led to the fact that they have become the object of various misconceptions, and sometimes deliberate blasphemous use. You need to monitor your life very carefully and under no circumstances allow an irreverent attitude toward any church prayer.

Thus, people firmly believe that if you order magpie in three churches, the effect will be stronger. Sometimes you can still find a recommendation to order the required food in seven churches. This pursuit of external ritual is more like some kind of magical effect than to Orthodox prayer.

Indeed, the Gospel says that “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” It is on these words of our Lord Jesus Christ that the experience of church conciliar prayer is based. And the commemoration of the same person on the altar of several churches at once has great spiritual significance. But at the same time, we should not forget that in Christianity the form is never more important than the inner meaning.

When ordering a magpie in one or more churches, it is worth remembering that church prayer does not at all cancel out personal repentance and striving for God. Only if a person himself makes an effort to change his lifestyle, if he strives to live like a Christian, then he will benefit from submitting notes to the temple.

Another common misconception associated specifically with the magpie is prayer for enemies. Indeed, the Lord commanded us to pray for our enemies and offenders and honor them with our virtues. But very often there is an opinion that if you order a magpie about the health of your enemy, then all the evil done to the person will return to him like a boomerang. Those. Church demands in this case are used as a kind of instrument of revenge. Of course, such an attitude is unacceptable. You need and can pray for your enemies only by forgiving them and not holding any grudge in your heart. Moreover, one cannot ask the Lord for retribution for the insults caused.

And finally, it is worth mentioning the deliberate blasphemy when using prayers. Many sorcerers and magicians, of whom there are now a great many, specifically use in their practices orthodox prayers or paraphernalia. This can mislead ignorant Christians - if a person prays and has icons at home, then he is Orthodox. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Therefore, you should avoid people who practice various occult or magical rituals, even if they use icons or calls to visit the temple. Such practices not only are not beneficial, but can very seriously damage a person’s soul, and the consequences will have to be atoned for the rest of his life.

The Power of Church Prayer

The Power of Church Prayer

Believers resort to her, submitting notes for health and repose.

However, the fact is that home prayer, as a rule, does not have the same power as church prayer. In the temple, believers pray together; the Lord himself is invisibly present and active there. Church prayer is the kind of prayer about which Christ said: “Truly I also say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven, for where there are two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:19-20).

Just as in Old Testament times sacrifices were added to prayers, so now in churches, in addition to prayer, the Bloodless Sacrifice is performed - holy communion, bread and wine, which are transformed during the liturgy into the Flesh and Blood of Christ. Church prayer has special power also because it is offered by a priest specially appointed to perform the sacraments and offer prayers and sacrifices to God for people.

“On Health” and “On Repose”

Notes are served in a candle box - this is the name of the counter in the temple where you can buy candles, books, etc. The money we pay when submitting a note is not a price in the commercial sense of the word, but our donation to the temple of God. In principle, if you don’t even have twenty or thirty rubles (that’s how much you’re supposed to give for prayer services, in particular in Moscow churches), then for Christ’s sake they can accept one note with one name for free. But still, this is hardly the amount that even the poorest person can occasionally donate to the church.

A church memorial note is a list of the names of living or deceased Christians whom we wish to remember in church prayer. In the notes submitted for commemoration, the names of only those who were baptized in the Orthodox Church are written!

Notes can be of only two types: “On health” and “On repose.” Some clarification is needed here.

The fact is that the concept of “health” includes not only physical health, but also spiritual and material well-being. Here, for example, is an incident that a certain parishioner told the priest Father Oleg Netsvetaev: “I couldn’t find a job for a very long time; serious difficulties began in the family. Wherever I tried to get a job, I had no luck. And so in the church the rector proposed to serve a prayer service to the Mother of God in front of the “Quick to Hear” icon. Mo leben was served. And in the very near future I unexpectedly managed to find a job, and a very suitable one! After this, I always submit notes for both the liturgy and prayer services. And help often comes!”

We must also understand that when we pray for the health of a person who has done us a lot of harm, this does not mean at all that we wish him to continue sinning safely. No, we pray to God to change his aspirations, to make our enemy begin to be in harmony with God and begin to treat others kindly.

There are many known cases when one of the warring parties wrote the name of his ill-wisher in the health note next to his name - and the hostility stopped.

The second type of notes is “On repose”, for prayerful remembrance of the deceased. Just as we pray for the living, so we must pray for the dead. They continue to live a spiritual life invisible to us before the eyes of God. We who live on earth form, with those who have left us, one Church, one body, having One Head - Jesus Christ: “For for this purpose Christ both died and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14, 8-9). Many, before death, did not have time to receive the sacrament of repentance and holy communion. Only prayers, especially church prayers, and our good deeds done in memory of the dead can ease their lot.

In most churches today, parishioners are offered ready-made forms for writing “On health” and “On repose”, in which all that remains is to enter the names of those whom you want to remember in church prayer.

Here are a few more rules:

– If the church you are visiting does not have such a practice and the note must be written on a regular piece of paper, then first place an eight-pointed Orthodox cross at the very top. Then write - as if as a title - “On health” or “On repose.”

– The note should contain no more than 5-10 names. If you want to remember many of your family and friends, send a few notes.

– Names must be written in the genitive case (answer the question “who?”).

– First, if there are many commemorated in the note, write the names of the clergy, indicating their rank (for example, Bishop Alexy, Priest Alexander), then write your name, your relatives and all other laymen whom you want to remember.

How to correctly submit notes on health or repose

Priest at the altar

What is a memorial and church note “On health” and “On repose”

A church note given “On health” or “On repose” is a relatively recent phenomenon.

A commemoration is a record as a keepsake for posterity about the ancestors who lived on earth, which makes the commemoration a book that is important for every Christian and forces them to treat it with respect. Memorials are kept clean and tidy, near household icons. A church note, in essence, is a one-time commemoration and requires the same respect.

What is the advantage of praying for our family and friends in church?

Home prayer, as a rule, does not have such grace-filled power as general, corporate prayer, that is, the prayer of the Church.

“I chose you and appointed you,” says the Savior to His Apostles, “so that... whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give you” (John 15:16).

“I don’t know how to pray,” Father John humbly answered.

“Pray,” the woman continued to ask. - I believe that through your prayers the Lord will help me.

Father John, seeing that she had such high hopes for his prayer, became even more embarrassed, again claiming that he did not know how to pray, but the woman said:

You, father, just pray, I ask you, as best you can, and I believe that the Lord will hear.

Father John began to remember this woman during the liturgy. After some time, the priest met her again, and she said:

So you, father, just prayed for me, and the Lord sent me, through your prayers, what I asked.

This incident influenced the young priest so much that he understood the power of priestly prayer.

Note on Health

Who should and can be remembered in notes

In notes submitted for commemoration, the names of only those who have been baptized in the Orthodox Church are written.

This note should include everyone to whom we wish health, salvation and prosperity.

The Word of God teaches that everyone needs to pray not only for themselves, but also for others: “pray for one another” (James 5:16). The Church is built on this common prayer for each other.

In Imperial Russia, all prayer services began with the name of the Sovereign Emperor, on whose “health” the fate of not only Russia, but also every family, every Orthodox Christian depended. Now we must first write the name of our Patriarch, and after him - the Archpastor, the Most Reverend Bishop, appointed by God as a spiritual ruler, caring for and offering prayers and sacrifices to the Lord for the flock entrusted to him.

Many Christians do this, as the Holy Scripture teaches: “First of all, I ask you to make prayers, petitions, supplications, thanksgivings for all people, for kings and for all those in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and serene life in all piety and purity, for this is good and it pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4).

Then the name of your spiritual father is written, the priest who instructs you, takes care of the salvation of your soul, prays to the Lord for you: “Remember your teachers” (Heb. 13:7).

For your family and relatives, write down the names of your benefactors. If they have done good to you, then you should also wish and pray for good and blessings from the Lord for them, so as not to remain in debt to them: “give everyone their due... Do not remain in debt to anyone except mutual love; For he who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:7-8).

Finally, if you have an ill-wisher, an offender, an envious person or even an enemy, write down his name for prayerful remembrance, according to the commandment of the Lord: “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you” (Matt. 5, 44).

In it we write the names of deceased relatives, acquaintances, teachers, well-wishers, everyone who is dear to us.

Just as we pray for the living, so we must pray for the dead - and not only for our closest relatives, but also for our entire family, for everyone who did good to us in earthly life, helped, taught.

The dead, although they have departed from us, although they remain flesh in the earth, but in soul with the Lord, have not disappeared, they continue to live a spiritual life invisible to us before the eyes of God, since the Lord Himself says in the Holy Gospel: “God is not the God of the dead.” , but alive, for with Him all are alive” (Luke 20:38).

We believe that our deceased relatives, and we often do not know the names of many of them, pray for us, their descendants.

We, living on earth, with those who have departed from us, form one Church, one body, having One Head - the Lord Jesus Christ. “If we live, we live for the Lord; whether we die, we die for the Lord: and therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Rom. 14:8-9).

How the Church commemorates the living and the dead at Proskomedia

How is the offering of the Sacrifice performed in the temple according to our notes?

Preparation for Her begins during the proskomedia.

Proskomedia is a part of the liturgy during which bread and wine are prepared for the sacrament.

Translated from Greek, this word means “bringing” - the ancient Christians themselves brought bread and wine to the temple, necessary for the liturgy.

Proskomedia, symbolizing the birth of Jesus Christ, is performed in the altar secretly for the believers in the church - just as the birth of the Savior took place secretly, unknown to the world.

For proskomedia, five special prosphoras are used.

From the second prosphora, the “Mother of God” prosphora, the priest takes out a portion in honor of the Mother of God. This particle is placed on the paten to the left of the Lamb.

From the third prosphora, the “nine-time” prosphora, nine particles are taken out - in honor of the saints: John the Baptist, prophets, apostles, saints, martyrs and saints, unmercenaries, Joachim and Anna, and the saint in whose name the liturgy is celebrated. These taken out particles are placed on the right side of the Lamb, three particles in a row.

These removed particles are also placed on the paten - first for the living, below - for the dead.

Then the priest removes the particles from the prosphora served by the believers.

At this time, remembrances are read - notes, memorial books, which we submitted to the candle box for the proskomedia.

After reading each name indicated in the note, the clergyman takes out a piece of prosphora, saying: “Remember, Lord, (the name we wrote is indicated).”

These particles, taken out according to our notes, are also placed on the paten along with the particles taken from the liturgical prosphoras.

This is the first, invisible by those praying, commemoration of those whose names are written in the notes we submitted.

So, the particles taken out according to our notes lie on the paten, next to the particles taken from special liturgical prosphoras.

This is a great, holy place! The particles lying in this order on the paten symbolize the entire Church of Christ.

“At the proskomedia, the entire Church, heavenly and earthly, is figuratively presented gathered around the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world... What a close connection is between the Lord and His saints, between Him and those who live piously on earth and those who die in faith and piety: remember what a close connection is between us and the saints and those who died in Christ, and love everyone as members of the Lord and your members - writes the holy righteous John of Kronstadt about the particles taken from the prosphora and placed on the paten. - How close to each other are the inhabitants of heaven and the inhabitants of earth, and the Mother of God and all the saints, and all of us, Orthodox Christians, when the divine, universal, transcendental, universal Liturgy is celebrated! My God! What a joyful, life-giving communication!”

Many believe that the particles offered for the living and the dead are a cleansing sacrifice for our sins.

It's a delusion. You can be cleansed from sin only by repentance, correction of life, mercy, and good deeds.

This is also evidenced by the words spoken by the priest: “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of those who were remembered here, with Your Honest Blood.”

That is why it is necessary to commemorate the living and the dead precisely in the Church, at the liturgy - after all, it is here that the cleansing of the sins we commit every day takes place through the Blood of Christ. The sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary and offered daily during the liturgy on the Holy Throne is a complete and completely exhaustive payment for our debt to God - and only it, like fire, can burn away all of a person’s sins.

What is a registered note?

In some churches, in addition to the usual notes about health and repose, they accept custom notes.

A customized mass for health with a prayer differs from a regular commemoration for health in that, in addition to removing a particle from the prosphora (which happens during a regular commemoration), the deacon publicly reads the names of those commemorated in the litanies, and then these names are repeated by the priest before the altar.

But even this is not the end of the commemoration according to the ordered note - after the end of the liturgy, a prayer is offered for them at a prayer service.

The same thing happens at a custom-made mass of repose with a requiem service - and here, after removing the particles with the names of the deceased, the deacon publicly pronounces their names at the litany, then the names are repeated in front of the altar by the clergyman, and then the deceased are remembered at the requiem service, which takes place after the end of the liturgy .

Sorokousty is a prayer service that is performed by the Church daily for forty days. Every day during this period, particles are removed from the prosphora.

“Sorokousts,” writes St. Simeon of Thessalonica, - are performed in remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord, which happened on the fortieth day after the resurrection, - and with the purpose that he (the deceased), having risen from the grave, ascended to the meeting (that is, towards - ed.). Judge, he was caught up into the clouds, and so he was always with the Lord.”

Sorokousts are ordered not only for repose, but also for health, especially for seriously ill people.

A prayer service is a special divine service in which they ask the Lord, the Mother of God, the saints to send mercy or thank God for receiving benefits. In the church, prayer services are performed before and after the liturgy, as well as after Matins and Vespers.

Public prayers are performed on temple holidays, on New Year’s, before the beginning of the youth’s teaching, during natural disasters, during invasions of foreigners, during epidemics, during periods of rainlessness, etc.

Other prayer services belong to private worship and are performed at the requests and needs of individual believers. Often during these prayers there is a small blessing of water.

The note for the prayer service begins with an indication of which saint the prayer service is being offered, whether it is for health or repose. Then the names of those for whom the prayer song will be offered are listed.

You can order commemoration of the living or deceased for a month, for six months, for a year.

Some churches and monasteries accept notes for eternal remembrance. If you submitted a registered note, then the names written in the notes are pronounced at prayer shortly after the reading of the Gospel.

At the end of the Gospel, a special (that is, intensified) litany begins - a general cry to God, a threefold “Lord, have mercy!”

The deacon calls: “We recite (that is, let’s say, let’s pray, speak) with all our hearts, and with all our thoughts, recit!”

In two petitions, we strenuously ask the Lord to hear our prayer and have mercy on us: “Lord, Almighty, God of our fathers, pray (that is, pray to You), hear and have mercy. - Have mercy on us, God..."

Everyone in the church asks for the Patriarch, for the bishop, for the priestly brotherhood (a church parable) and for all “our brethren in Christ,” for the authorities and the army... The Church prays for mercy (so that the Lord may have mercy on us), for life, peace, health, salvation, visitation (that is, so that the Lord would visit and not leave with his mercies), forgiveness, forgiveness of the sins of the servants of God to the brethren of this holy temple.

During the litanies, the deacon pronounces the names of those indicated in the registered note and invokes God’s blessing on them, and the priest reads prayers.

Then the priest says a prayer before the Throne, loudly calling out the names from the notes.

Why should we pray for the dead?

Our prayers for the departed are a continuation of our relationships with our neighbors. We, who believe that our departed did not die, also believe that the Most Merciful Lord, through our prayer, will forgive souls who died, although in sins, but with faith and hope of salvation.

The Church is a living organism, in the words of the Apostle Paul, a Body, the Head of which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Not only believers living on earth belong to the Church, but also those who died in the right faith.

There must be a living, organic unity between the living and the deceased - after all, in a living organism, all members are connected with each other, each performs something for the life of the whole organism.

Our duty is to take care of those members of the Church who have ended their earthly existence, and through our prayer to alleviate the condition of the deceased.

Before their death, many did not have time to receive the sacrament of repentance and holy communion and died an unexpected or violent death. The deceased can no longer repent themselves or give alms. Only the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for them, the prayers of the Church, alms and charity for them can ease their fate after death.

The commemoration of the dead consists primarily of prayer for them - at home, and especially in church, combined with the offering of a bloodless sacrifice at the Divine Liturgy.

“When all the people and the sacred face stand with hands raised, and when a terrible sacrifice is presented, then how can we not pray to God, asking for the dead?” - writes Saint John Chrysostom.

But in addition to praying for the departed, we must show mercy in every possible way and perform good deeds, because “alms delivers from death and can cleanse all sin” (Tov. 12:9).

Saint John Chrysostom advises: “Almost dead through alms and acts of kindness: for alms serves to deliver one from eternal torment.”

Therefore, it is necessary that prayer and Bloodless Sacrifice be offered for our departed as often as possible.

Offering a Bloodless Sacrifice for the dead eases their fate, even if they were already in hell, for the Bloodless Gifts brought to the sacrifice are transformed into the Flesh and Blood of Christ, so that He Himself is sacrificed for the sake of our salvation.

How to properly remember the dead

Thus, the commemoration of the dead is an apostolic institution, it is observed throughout the Church, and the liturgy for the dead, the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice for their salvation, is the most powerful and effective means of asking the departed for the mercy of God.

Church commemoration is performed only for those who were baptized in the Orthodox faith. Memorial services for suicides, as well as for those not baptized in the Orthodox faith, are not performed. Moreover, these persons cannot be commemorated at the liturgy. The Holy Church offers unceasing prayers for our departed fathers and brothers at every divine service and especially at the liturgy.

Prayers are offered for people “from Adam to this day who have fallen asleep in piety and right faith.”

Three Saturdays of Great Lent - Saturdays of the second, third, fourth weeks of Great Lent - were established because during the presanctified liturgy there is no such commemoration as is performed at any other time of the year. In order not to deprive the dead of the saving intercession of the Church, these parental Saturdays were established. During Great Lent, the Church intercedes for the departed, so that the Lord forgives their sins and resurrects them into eternal life.

On Radonitsa - Tuesday of the second week of Easter - the joy of the Resurrection of the Lord is shared with the departed, in the hope of the resurrection of our departed. The Savior Himself descended into hell to preach victory over death and brought from there the souls of the Old Testament righteous. Because of this great spiritual joy, the day of this commemoration is called “Rainbow”, or “Radonitsa”.

Dimitrievskaya Parental Saturday - on this day, commemoration is made of all Orthodox slain soldiers. It was established by the holy noble prince Demetrius Donskoy at the inspiration and blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh in 1380, when he won a glorious, famous victory over the Tatars on the Kulikovo Field. The commemoration takes place on the Saturday before Demetrius Day (October 26, old style). Subsequently, on this Saturday, Orthodox Christians began to commemorate not only the soldiers who laid down their lives on the battlefield for their faith and fatherland, but along with them, for all Orthodox Christians.

The commemoration of deceased soldiers is performed by the Orthodox Church on April 26 (May 9, new style), on the holiday of victory over Nazi Germany, as well as on August 29, on the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist.

It is imperative to remember the deceased on the day of his death, birth and name day. Days of remembrance must be spent decorously, reverently, in prayer, doing good to the poor and loved ones, in thinking about our death and future life.

The rules for submitting notes “On repose” are the same as notes “On health”.

How often should memorial notes be submitted?

The prayer of the Church and the Most Holy Sacrifice attract the mercy of the Lord to us, purifying and saving us.

We always, both during life and after death, need God's mercy towards us. Therefore, it is necessary to be worthy of the prayers of the Church and the offering of the sacrifice of the Holy Gifts for us or our loved ones, living and deceased, as often as possible, and necessarily on those days that have special meaning: on birthdays, baptism days, name days of both one’s own and members of your family.

Honoring the memory of the saint whose name we bear, we thereby call on our patron to pray and intercede before God, because, as the Holy Scripture says, the intense prayer of a righteous person can accomplish much (James 5:16).

It is imperative to submit a note of remembrance on your child’s birthdays and baptisms.

Mothers must carefully monitor this, because caring for a child is a sacred duty.

Whether sin attracts us to itself, whether some passion takes possession of us, whether the devil tempts us, whether despair or inconsolable sorrow befalls us, whether trouble, need, illness have visited us - in such cases, the prayer of the Church with the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice serves as the surest means of deliverance, strengthening and consolation.

Instructions for those wishing to submit a note about the living and the deceased

1. Notes must be submitted before the start of the liturgy. It is best to submit notes of remembrance in the evening or early in the morning, before the start of the service.

2. When writing down the names of the living and the dead, remember them in the process of writing with a sincere desire for their good, from the bottom of your heart, trying to remember the one whose name you are writing in - this is already a prayer.

3. The note should contain no more than five to ten names. If you want to remember many of your family and friends, send a few notes.

4. Names must be written in the genitive case (answer the question “who?”).

The names of bishops and priests are indicated first, and their rank is indicated - for example, “about the health” of Bishop Tikhon, Abbot Tikhon, Priest Yaroslav, then write your name, your family and friends.

The same applies to notes “about the repose” - for example, Metropolitan John, Archpriest Michael, Alexandra, John, Anthony, Elijah, etc.

6. All names must be given in church spelling (for example, George, not Yuri) and in full (for example, Alexander, Nikolai, but not Sasha, Kolya)

7. The notes do not indicate last names, patronymics, ranks and titles, or degrees of relationship.

8. A child under 7 years old is referred to in the note as an infant - the baby John.

9. If you want, in health notes you can mention “sick”, “warrior”, “travelling”, “prisoner” before the name. They do not write in notes - “suffering”, “embarrassed”, “needy”, “lost”.

10. In the notes “On Repose” the deceased is referred to as “newly deceased” within 40 days after death. It is allowed in notes “On repose” to write before the name “killed”, “warrior”, “of ever-memorable” (day of death, name day of the deceased).

Notes for a prayer service or memorial service, which take place after the end of the liturgy, are submitted separately.

Notes on Health and Repose