After the human soul leaves the body, there comes a crucial period of determining its posthumous fate. The joy of the Orthodox dogma is that a dead person is not doomed at all, and one can still help him. For this, there are special memorial prayers for a deceased person. And one of the most common is magpie for the rest.

What is magpie for peace

Sorokoust is a special kind of church conciliar prayer, when during the Divine Liturgy the priest on the altar takes out particles from the consecrated prosphora for each name given for commemoration. In addition to prayer for health, you can submit petitions for your dead (deceased) relatives or any other people whose afterlife is not indifferent to you. This commemoration lasts 40 days.

The small particles of prosphora taken out by the priest are consecrated and go into the Chalice for communion of the parishioners. For each name given in the note, a prayer is read with a request for the remission of the sins of this person. Since prayer is performed in the holy of holies of the temple - the altar - such an appeal to the Lord has great spiritual power, and can greatly alleviate the afterlife of a person.

Important. After death, the human soul goes through a period of trials, after which a private judgment is made on the soul with the determination of its future fate.

That is why it is extremely important that after the death of a person there are people who will pray for the salvation of the soul of the deceased. The symbolic date in Christianity - 40 days - means that it is during this period of time that the soul goes through trials (ordeals). And the sincere prayer of a believer can help a lot.

Prayer for peace

From the name itself it becomes clear that magpie lasts forty days. It is during this time that the priest commemorates by name everyone whose names were given in a special note. The importance of such a prayer for the deceased is difficult to overestimate, because he is no longer able to pray on his own. It is good if before death a person managed to repent, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and went to the Lord quietly and peacefully. In this case, it will be easier to pray for him.

But if a person died suddenly, without proper preparation, then he might not have time to turn to the Lord before death. In this case, the personal prayer of loved ones helps a lot, as well as conciliar church petitions, such as magpie for the repose.

The spiritual meaning of magpie for the rest

For a non-believer, it may seem absolutely pointless to care in any way for loved ones who have already died. It would seem, well, what can be done for a person if he is no longer among the living?

Christianity teaches us that only the perishable human body dies. And the immortal soul does not disappear anywhere, it goes to another spiritual world. And the fate of his immortal soul will depend on how a person lived his earthly life. That is why the Orthodox Church calls everyone to repentance, while there is still time for this in our lives.

Reading Sorokoust

But the Lord loves each of us so much that it leaves the possibility of salvation even after death. And relatives and friends of the deceased can help in this through their prayers. From Tradition and the revelations of the saints, we can learn that prayer even for the last sinners eased the suffering of their unrepentant souls. Therefore, if we can do anything for a person after his death, it is sincerely and from the bottom of our hearts to pray for him and ask the Lord for a better fate. And it is the magpie for the repose that renders great help in such doing.

However, it is not only for the dead that there is a spiritual benefit in such church services. Living friends and relatives are also greatly comforted and strengthened when they participate in the life of the Church. Any believer will say that the grief and pain of the loss of a loved one is much easier to bear with God, in his holy temple. Many people managed to gain faith in this way - they once came to the temple to order a demand for the deceased.

How to order a magpie

You can order a magpie for the repose in almost any temple. To do this, you need to fill out a special form in the candle kiosk, where you must enter the names of those dead people whose commemoration should be committed.

Important. Only the names of those people who were baptized in the Orthodox Church during their lifetime can be submitted for Magpie.

This rule is due to the fact that during the service, during which all the dead are commemorated, a bloodless sacrifice is made on the altar, symbolizing the sacrifice of Christ for all mankind. But the Almighty God cannot save a person if he himself does not strive for this. If a person consciously avoids the temple, does not go to divine services, and, moreover, rejects the Sacrament of Baptism, he deprives himself of salvation, despite the Lord’s readiness to grant forgiveness to any sinner at any moment.

Sorokoust for peace

You can order a magpie for the rest at any time after the death of a person. You should not become attached to the first 40 days, you can and should pray as much as possible for the deceased even after this period. The first 40 days are a period of ordeals for the soul, so prayer is especially important during this period. But even later, you should not forget about the deceased.

Interesting. There is an opinion that for greater efficiency it is necessary to order a magpie for the repose in three, seven or some other number of temples.

This conviction is based on the experience of conciliar church prayer. In the Gospel, the Lord God tells us that "where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them." Indeed, the spiritual significance of common prayer is great.

But at the same time, one should not forget that in Orthodoxy the essence always stands above the form. And if the task is only to travel around the required number of temples and submit a certain number of notes, there will be little benefit from such doing. First of all, you need to think about the spiritual component.

How else to help the dead

Having ordered a magpie for the repose, many are wondering what else they can do to make it easier for the soul of a loved one to pass posthumous tests. In Orthodox practice, in addition to treb, there is a good tradition of giving alms for the deceased.

Surely everyone saw near the temples of poor people who ask for alms. Nowadays, unfortunately, many speculate on such cases, turning them into a whole business. However, you can always find a person who really needs help. It can be lonely old people, and orphans and simply poor families.

Prayer for peace

When helping such people, you need to ask them to pray or just remember a deceased loved one with a kind word. Thus, almsgiving appears, as it were, on his behalf. It is for this that Orthodox churches have special tables for offerings. It is customary to bring and put food on them after the burial orders are ordered. After the service, all offerings are consecrated by the priest and distributed to those who need them.

In addition to giving alms, the relatives of the deceased should also think about their own spiritual life. Correcting oneself, one's life, repentance for one's own sins has a positive effect on the whole family as a whole. The deceased loved ones will also experience spiritual joy for each of our repentant sins and for each new acquired virtue.

Watch a video about Sorokoust

Sep 23, 2017 18:11 Administrator