Orthodox prayers for the dead, modified

[DavidFord]

modified from "Akathist for the Repose of the Departed"
https://akroasis.org/texts-and-resources/akathists-and-canons/akathist-for-the-respose-of-the-departed/
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Akathists-Saviour-Mother-Various/dp/0884650596/

Thank you, Lord, for forgiving the sins of those who have died, and of those who will die; please grant them repentance, and receive them into habitations of light and rejoicing, and open your fatherly embrace to them in mercy.  We boldly ask of you Lord for help for the dead and the dying from all ages, crying:  O Lord, send down to us the gift of flaming prayer for all.  Christ our God, greatest of innocent sufferers, you alone have power to forgive all.  Thank you for forgiving all in creation, including all people, all evil spirits, and all sentient creatures.  May members in your army of love speak of your love and forgiveness and healing to the deceased in hellish realms, and to dark angels, and to sentient creatures in bondage; may your invincible love conquer every human heart and every evil spirit and every created being having consciousness.  Thank you, Lord, that every member of your household will have life.  Return to the world and all creation its former prosperity, that both the living and the dead and all creation may find your peace, crying:  Alleluia!

O Gentle Light, Redeemer of the world, you who embraces the whole world with your love:  behold, your cry from the Cross for your enemies is heard:  Father, forgive them!  And in the name of your all-forgiveness we dare to pray to you our heavenly Father for the eternal repose of your enemies and ours:  Lord, grant repentance to those who have shed innocent blood, those who have sown our path of life with sorrows, those who have built their success on the tears of their near and dear ones:  Lord, condemn not those who persecute us with slander and malice, repay with mercy those whom we have wronged or offended through ignorance.

As a potent means to bring us to understanding and repentance, you O Lord have given us death.  In its threatening light earthly vanity is exposed, carnal passions and sufferings become subdued, unruly reason is humbled, eternal righteousness is revealed; wherefore, inveterate sinners and atheists on their deathbeds confess your eternal being and cry to your lovingkindness:  Alleluia!

O Father of all consolation, you brighten with the sun, delight with fruits, and gladden with the beauty of the world both your friends and enemies.  We believe that even beyond the grave your lovingkindness, which is merciful to all sinners, does not fail.  We grieve for hardened and lawless blasphemers of holiness; Lord, may your saving and gracious will be over them.  Have compassion upon those wounded by pernicious unbelief, and who have not known you here on earth, that they may know and love you in heaven; Lord, grant repentance to those who have died without repentance, save those who have committed suicide in darkness of mind, that the flame of their impiety may be extinguished in the sea of your Grace.

Your light, O Christ our God, has shone upon those that sit in darkness and the shadow of death, and those in Sheol and Gehenna and all hellish realms.  Having descended into the nethermost parts of the earth, bring out into joy those who have been separated from you by sin:  Lord, your children suffer, grant them repentance; for they have sinned against Heaven and before you, immeasurably serious are their sins, but also infinite is your mercy.  Visit the bitter destitution of souls far removed from you.  Lord, have mercy on those who hated the truth out of ignorance; may your love be to them not a burning fire, but the cool delight of Paradise.

The whole world is a common sacred cemetery:  in every place is the dust of our fathers and brethren.  O Christ our God who alone loves us unchangeably, grant repentance to all past present and future sentient creatures, that we all may sing with boundless love:  Alleluia!

You who saved fallen Adam and the whole human race from eternal perdition, O Good One, you sent your Son into the world, by whose cross and resurrection eternal life has dawned upon us.  Trusting in your infinite compassion, we look for the incorruptible kingdom of your glory and implore you to grant it to all the deceased.  Hearken to them in your bosom, as a mother hears her children, and say to them:  your sins are forgiven you.  Lord, receive them into your blessed, calm haven, open to them the palaces of angels and saints, that they may rejoice in your divine glory.

O God of spirits and of all flesh, who have trampled down death and overthrown the devil, and given life to your world, Lord, give rest to the souls of your departed servants, and to those who finished the course of their lives without repentance, in a place of light, in a place of repose, whence all sickness, sorrow, and sighing are fled away.  Thank you for pardoning every sin committed by them in word, deed, or thought, in that you are a good God, the Lover of mankind and all sentient creation and all creation.  There is no man that lives and sins not; your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your word is truth.

You are the resurrection and the life, and the repose of your departed servants, O Christ our God, and unto you do we send up glory, together with your unoriginate Father, and your most holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages, continuing.  Amen.

[DavidFord]

Ravensbruck Prayer
https://prayersofapilgrim.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/ravensbruck-prayer/
Written on a piece of wrapping paper found near the body of a dead child in Ravensbruck where 92,000 women and children died in the Holocaust.
O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will
but also those of evil will.
But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us;
remember the fruits we have borne thanks to this suffering –
our comradeship,
our loyalty,
our humility,
our courage,
our generosity,
the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this;
and when they come to the judgement,
let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness.
Amen.

[GodIsLove]

That prayer touched me, thanks for sharing

[DavidFord]

Mike Parsons and Robin Main have preached in hellish realms.  Parsons preached several times to a large number of his deceased ancestors in anguish in the fire of God's love, and got practically all of them to turn their lives over to Jesus.

Parsons has also released from his mountain both love and forgiveness to 3 dark angels, and they are now serving God and people. The first angel was 'Destiny Robber' who became 'Destiny Restorer.'

While seeing in the spiritual realm, Ana Mendez Ferrell went with Jesus to get her sister out of a hellish realm, and in this physical realm, her sister recovered from cancer (the sister subsequently came down again with & recovered from cancer several times, but finally ended up succumbing).

[DavidFord]

_A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines_ by William George Smith et al. (1880), 193-194
https://archive.org/details/adictionarychri07wacegoog/page/n212/mode/2up
https://archive.org/stream/adictionarychri07wacegoog/adictionarychri07wacegoog_djvu.txt

What Origen thus whispered, as it were, to the ear in the secret chamber was proclaimed by Gregory of Nyssa as from the housetop. His universalism is as wide and unlimited as that of bishop Newton of Bristol. The whole course of this life was for him a discipline leading to virtue. If any one remain uncured by it the healing process (...) is continued in the life that follows. It may take for some, sharp and severe forms, the work of the knife and cautery ; for others, the work of God, restoring the creature of His hands to its original likeness will be sufficient (_Orat. Catech._ viii.). Those who are not sharers in the purification by baptism will be purified by fire (_Orat. Catech._ xxxv.). Men are angry often with those who use severe remedies, but afterwards they thank them, and so, in like manner, when the evil now intermingled and implanted in their nature has been, after long periods of time, eradicated, and there shall be a restoration (ἀποκαταστασις) of those who are now lying in evil to their primal state ; there shall be an accordant thanksgiving to God from all creation, both of those who needed and those who did not need purification (_Orat. Catech._ xxvi.).

The same thought of an ... is developed more systematically in the treatise _de Anima et Resurrectione_. "The process of healing shall be proportioned to the measure of evil in each of us, and when the evil is purged and blotted out, there shall come in its place to each immortality and life and honour" (vol. iii. pp. 255, 260, ed. 1637).

Now the race of man is by its evil shut out from the divine, but the barriers by which sin excludes us from that within the veil will one day be broken down, and when our nature shall be reconstructed, as in a new tabernacle (...), and all the corruption that sin has brought in shall be blotted out from the universe ; then shall there be the great feast of God for all whom the resurrection has brought together as His guests (iii. p. 245). In the end there shall be one common joy for all, and those who are now through sin outside the sanctuary of the divine blessedness will then cling to the horns of the altar, _e.g._ to the Founder of the world above (_De Anima, Opp._ ii. p. 677).

It is true that he, too, speaks of punishment through aeons to which no limit can be assigned (_De Anima, Opp._ ii. p. 650) of a chastisement that shall extend through an eternal interval (...) ; but it is clear, as indeed the last word shews that he looks forward beyond this to the ultimate extirpation of evil and the restoration of mankind, to a time "when there shall no longer be a sinner in the universe (in _Psalm. iii. vol. ii. p. 289), and the war between good and evil shall be ended (_ibid_), and the nature of evil shall pass into nothingness, and the divine and unmingled goodness shall embrace all intelligent existence." (vol. i. 844).

What is noticeable in Gregory of Nyssa is that in thus teaching there is no apparent consciousness that he is deviating into the bye-paths of new and strange opinions. He claims to be taking his stand on the doctrines (...) of the church in thus teaching with as much confidence as when he is expounding the mysteries of the divine nature as set forth in the creed of Nicaea (ii. p. 663). And the same absence of any sense of being even in danger of heresy is seen in most of those who followed in his footsteps or those of Origen. The _Apologia_ for Origen, which was the joint work of Eusebius and Pamphilus, defends him without any hesitation.

Theodore of Mopeuestia teaches that in the world to come "those who have done evil all their life long will be made worthy of the sweetness of the divine bounty. For never would Christ have said 'until thou hast paid the uttermost farthing,' unless it were possible for us to be cleansed when we have paid the penalty. Nor would He have spoken of the many stripes and few unless after men had borne the punishment of their sins they might afterwards hope for pardon." (_Fragm._ ed. Fritzsche, p. 41.)

Even Gregory of Nazianzus, when speaking of the fire that is not quenched, throws out the thought, as though it were at least admissible, that there may be a .... (_Orat._ xl. 86). Diodorus of Tarsus taught that the penalty of sin is not perpetual, but issues in the blessedness of immortality, and was followed by Stephanus, bishop of Edessa, and Solomon of Bassora, and Isaac of Nineveh. "Even those who are tortured in Gehenna are under the discipline of the divine charity" (Assemanni, _Biblioth. Orient._ iii. p. 328); and they were followed in their turn by Georgius of Arbela and Ebed Jesu of Soba (_ibid._ iv. p. 204).

Timotheus II. patriarch of the Nestorians, wrote that "by the prayers of the saints the souls of sinners may pass from Gehenna to Paradise" (_ibid._ iv. p. 844). Many of these teachers were, it is true, like the last-named, followers of Nestorius, and were so far not in communion with the orthodox churches of the East, but it is obvious that the special point on which Nestorius was condemned had no direct connexion with this or that form of eschatology, and that it was derived by them from those whose orthodoxy, like that of Gregory of Nyssa, was unquestioned.

We have no evidence that the belief in the ἀποκαταστασις which prevailed in the 4th and 5th centuries, was ever definitely condemned by any council of the church, and so far as Origen was named as coming under the church's censure it was rather as if involved in the general sentence passed upon the leaders of Nestorianism than singled out for special and characteristic errors.

=================================================.
Upon what basis/grounds do you believe that Gregory of Nyssa wasn't a:
proponent of ἀποκαταστασις?
universalist?

_The Catechetical Oration of Gregory of Nyssa_ (1903), 182pp., on xv-xvi
https://books.google.com/books?id=KqlKAAAAMAAJ&dq=gregory%20of%20nyssa&pg=PR15#v=snippet&q=attested&f=false
But though the work is frequently cited as belonging to Gregory, a careful perusal of its contents excited the suspicions of orthodox readers. The traces of Origenistic teaching, especially on the ἀποκαταστασις, in the writings of one who ranked amongst the three great Fathers of the Eastern Church, needed explanation. Accordingly an attempt was made to prove that Gregory's writings had been interpolated by the Origenists.

This idea first appears in the book written by Germanus, to which Photius refers. The work was entitled ....  In the first part of the book Germanus refuted the teaching of Origen on the purgation of wicked spirits. In the latter part he maintains that the works of Gregory of Nyssa had been falsified by the Origenists, who had inserted many passages from Origen's writings. The works to which he referred are, according to Photius, the _de Anima et Resurrectione_, the _Oratio Catechetica_ and the _de Vita Perfecta_. But the idea of a universal restoration occurs too frequently in Gregory's writings^1 to be disposed of by a theory of interpolation, which further receives no support from any change of style.

An objection of a different character has been raised against the concluding chapter of the treatise by Aubertin, on the ground that Gregory, after treating of Baptism in cc. 34-36, and of the Eucharist in c. 37, again returns to Baptism in c. 40. But the objection is of little value, as the whole section, cc. 38-40, deals with the moral conditions which are essential to the life of grace, and as baptism marks the initiation into that life it is naturally chosen as the point of reference for his remarks.

The spurious addition to c. 40, found in the Paris editions and in some late manuscripts, is an extract from a work on the Incarnation by Theodore of Rhaithu, a monk of the seventh century, and its presence in the text is due to a blunder of transcription.

The _Oratio Catechetica_ has received considerable attention in modern times as representing more adequately than any single treatise the characteristic features of Gregory's teaching.

1 Other passages in which Gregory teaches an ἀποκαταστασις are _de Hom. Opif._ c. 21, _in Psalmos_ i 9, _Or. in illud Tunc ipse Filius_ (of doubtful genuineness) p. 1316 (Migne), _de Mortuis_ pp. 524, f. (Migne), in _Chr. Resurr. Or._ i pp. 609, f. (Migne).

=====================================.
Gregory of Nyssa, "The Great Catechism" in _Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5_, edited by Schaff and Wace (1893), 495-6
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205/npnf205.xi.ii.xxviii.html
https://books.google.com/books?id=pF9EAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA495#v=onepage&q&f=false

Chapter XXVI. ....
Two persons may both mix poison with food, one with the design of taking life, the other with the design of saving that life; the one using it as a poison, the other only as an antidote to poison; and in no way does the manner of the cure adopted spoil the aim and purpose of the benefit intended; for although a mixture of poison with the food may be effected by both of these persons alike, yet looking at their intention we are indignant with the one and approve the other; so in this instance, by the reasonable rule of justice, he who practised deception receives in return that very treatment, the seeds of which he had himself sown of his own free will. He who first deceived man by the bait of sensual pleasure is himself deceived by the presentment of the human form. But as regards the aim and purpose of what took place, a change in the direction of the nobler is involved; for whereas he, the enemy, effected his deception for the ruin of our nature, He Who is at once the just, and good, and wise one, used His device, in which there was deception, for the salvation of him who had perished, and thus not only conferred benefit on the lost one, but on him, too, who had wrought our ruin.

For from this approximation of death to life, of darkness to light, of corruption to incorruption, there is effected an obliteration of what is worse, and a passing away of it into nothing, while benefit is conferred on him who is freed from those evils. For it is as when some worthless material has been mixed with gold, and the gold-refiners^2004 burn up the foreign and refuse part in the consuming fire, and so restore the more precious substance to its natural lustre: (not that the separation is effected without difficulty, for it takes time for the fire by its melting force to cause the baser matter to disappear; but for all that, this melting away of the actual thing that was embedded in it to the injury of its beauty is a kind of healing of the gold.) In the same way when death, and corruption, and darkness, and every other offshoot of evil had grown into the nature of the author of evil, the approach of the Divine power, acting like fire, and making that unnatural accretion to disappear, thus by purgation of the evil becomes a blessing to that nature, though the separation is agonizing.

Therefore even the adversary himself will not be likely to dispute that what took place was both just and salutary, that is, if he shall have attained to a perception of the boon. For it is now as with those who for their cure are subjected to the knife and the cautery; they are angry with the doctors, and wince with the pain of the incision; but if recovery of health be the result of this treatment, and the pain of the cautery passes away, they will feel grateful to those who have wrought this cure upon them. In like manner, when, after long periods of time, the evil of our nature, which now is mixed up with it and has grown with its growth, has been expelled, and when there has been a restoration of those who are now lying in Sin to their primal state, a harmony of thanksgiving will arise from all creation, as well from those who in the process of the purgation have suffered chastisement, as from those who needed not any purgation at all.

These and the like benefits the great mystery of the Divine incarnation bestows. For in those points in which He was mingled with humanity, passing as He did through all the accidents proper to human nature, such as birth, rearing, growing up, and advancing even to the taste of death, He accomplished all the results before mentioned, freeing both man from evil, and healing even the introducer of evil himself. For the chastisement, however painful, of moral disease is a healing of its weakness.

2004 οἱ θεραπευταὶ τοῦ χρυσίου On the margin of one of Krabinger's Codd. is written here in Latin, "This must be read with caution: it seems to savour of Origen's opinion," i.e. the curing of Satan.

===========================================.
Gregory of Nyssa, _The Great Catechism_ (Part III, The Sacraments), chapter 35
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/29083.htm
....I am thinking of the restoration to a blessed and divine condition, separated from all shame and sorrow. For not everything that is granted in the resurrection a return to existence will return to the same kind of life. There is a wide interval between those who have been purified, and those who still need purification. For those in whose life-time here the purification by the laver has preceded, there is a restoration to a kindred state. Now, to the pure, freedom from passion is that kindred state, and that in this freedom from passion blessedness consists, admits of no dispute.

But as for those whose weaknesses have become inveterate, and to whom no purgation of their defilement has been applied, no mystic water, no invocation of the Divine power, no amendment by repentance, it is absolutely necessary that they should come to be in something proper to their case-- just as the furnace is the proper thing for gold alloyed with dross-- in order that, the vice which has been mixed up in them being melted away after long succeeding ages, their nature may be restored pure again to God.

Since, then, there is a cleansing virtue in fire and water, they who by the mystic water have washed away the defilement of their sin have no further need of the other form of purification, while they who have not been admitted to that form of purgation must needs be purified by fire.

===========================================.
_On the Soul and the Resurrection_ by Gregory of Nyssa, in _Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5_, edited by Schaff and Wace (1893), cited at
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2915.htm

When I had finished, the Teacher thus replied, You have attacked the doctrines connected with the Resurrection with some spirit, in the way of rhetoric as it is called; you have coursed round and round the truth with plausibly subversive arguments; so much so, that those who have not very carefully considered this mysterious truth might possibly be affected in their view of it by the likelihood of those arguments....

But whenever the time come that God shall have brought our nature back to the primal state of man, it will be useless to talk of such things then, and to imagine that objections based upon such things can prove God's power to be impeded in arriving at His end. His end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from the first man to the last-- some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil-- to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor thought ever reached. But this is nothing else, as I at least understand it, but to be in God Himself; for the Good which is above hearing and eye and heart must be that Good which transcends the universe.

But the difference between the virtuous and the vicious life led at the present time will be illustrated in this way; viz. in the quicker or more tardy participation of each in that promised blessedness. According to the amount of the ingrained wickedness of each will be computed the duration of his cure. This cure consists in the cleansing of his soul, and that cannot be achieved without an excruciating condition, as has been expounded in our previous discussion.

....the order indicated in this similitude clearly shows that all that blessed state, which arises for us by means of the Resurrection is only a return to our pristine state of grace. We too, in fact, were once in a fashion a full ear ; but the burning heat of sin withered us up, and then on our dissolution by death the earth received us: but in the spring of the Resurrection she will reproduce this naked grain of our body in the form of an ear, tall, well-proportioned, and erect, reaching to the heights of heaven, and, for blade and beard, resplendent in incorruption, and with all the other godlike marks.  ....

The virtuous life as contrasted with that of vice is distinguished thus: those who while living have by virtuous conduct exercised husbandry on themselves are at once revealed in all the qualities of a perfect ear, while those whose bare grain (that is the forces of their natural soul) has become through evil habits degenerate, as it were, and hardened by the weather (as the so-called hornstruck seeds, according to the experts in such things, grow up), will, though they live again in the Resurrection, experience very great severity from their Judge, because they do not possess the strength to shoot up into the full proportions of an ear, and thereby become that which we were before our earthly fall.

The remedy offered by the Overseer of the produce is to collect together the tares and the thorns, which have grown up with the good seed, and into whose bastard life all the secret forces that once nourished its root have passed, so that it not only has had to remain without its nutriment, but has been choked and so rendered unproductive by this unnatural growth. When from the nutritive part within them everything that is the reverse or the counterfeit of it has been picked out, and has been committed to the fire that consumes everything unnatural, and so has disappeared, then in this class also their humanity will thrive and will ripen into fruit-bearing, owing to such husbandry, and some day after long courses of ages will get back again that universal form which God stamped upon us at the beginning. 

....we spoke of in the previous parts of the discussion, when we said how many were the passions, sprung from evil, which are so hard for the soul to get rid of, when they have infused themselves into the very substance of its entire nature and become one with it. When such, then, have been purged from it and utterly removed by the healing processes worked out by the Fire, then every one of the things which make up our conception of the good will come to take their place; incorruption, that is, and life, and honour, and grace, and glory, and everything else that we conjecture is to be seen in God, and in His Image, man as he was made.

[DavidFord]

Gregory of Nyssa, "The Great Catechism" in _Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5_, edited by Schaff and Wace (1893), 482-5
https://books.google.com/books?id=pF9EAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA482#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205/npnf205.xi.ii.x.html
Chapter VIII.
....
But since there is a necessity that the defilements which sin has engendered in the soul as well should be removed thence by some remedial process, the medicine which virtue supplies has, in the life that now is, been applied to the healing of such mutilations as these. If, however, the soul remains unhealed, the remedy is dispensed in the life that follows this.

Now in the ailments of the body there are sundry differences, some admitting of an easier, others requiring a more difficult treatment. In these last the use of the knife, or cauteries, or draughts of bitter medicines are adopted to remove the disease that has attacked the body. For the healing of the soul's sicknesses the future judgment announces something of the same kind, and this to the thoughtless sort is held out as the threat of a terrible correction, in order that through fear of this painful retribution they may gain the wisdom of fleeing from wickedness: while by those of more intelligence it is believed to be a remedial process ordered by God to bring back man, His peculiar creature, to the grace of his primal condition.

They who use the knife or cautery to remove certain unnatural excrescences in the body, such as wens or warts, do not bring to the person they are serving a method of healing that is painless, though certainly they apply the knife without any intention of injuring the patient. In like manner whatever material excrescences are hardening on our souls, that have been sensualized by fellowship with the body's affections, are, in the day of the judgment, as it were cut and scraped away by the ineffable wisdom and power of Him Who, as the Gospel says, "healeth those that are sick." For, as He says again, "they that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick."

Since, then, there has been inbred in the soul a strong natural tendency to evil, it must suffer, just as the excision of a wart gives a sharp pain to the skin of the body; for whatever contrary to the nature has been inbred in the nature attaches itself to the subject in a certain union of feeling, and hence there is produced an abnormal intermixture of our own with an alien quality, so that the feelings, when the separation from this abnormal growth comes, are hurt and lacerated. Thus when the soul pines and melts away under the correction of its sins, as prophecy somewhere tells us, there necessarily follow, from its deep and intimate connection with evil, certain unspeakable and inexpressible pangs, the description of which is as difficult to render as is that of the nature of those good things which are the subjects of our hope.
....
He knew what was going to be, yet did not prevent the tendency towards that which actually happened. That humanity, indeed, would be diverted from the good, could not be unknown to Him Who grasps all things by His power of foresight, and Whose eyes behold the coming equally with the past events. As, then, He had in sight the perversion, so He devised man's recall to good. Accordingly, which was the better way?-- never to have brought our nature into existence at all, since He foresaw that the being about to be created would fall away from that which is morally beautiful; or to bring him back by repentance, and restore his diseased nature to its original beauty?
....
That man is the work of God, created morally noble and for the noblest destiny, is evident not only from what has been said, but from a vast number of other proofs; which, because they are so many, we shall here omit.

....by whom was man to be recalled to the grace of his original state? To whom belonged the restoration of the fallen one, the recovery of the lost, the leading back the wanderer by the hand? To whom else than entirely to Him Who is the Lord of his nature? For Him only Who at the first had given the life was it possible, or fitting, to recover it when lost. This is what we are taught and learn from the Revelation of the truth, that God in the beginning made man and saved him when he had fallen.

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Gregory of Nyssa, "On the Soul and the Resurrection" in _Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 5_, edited by Schaff and Wace (1893)
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.x.iii.ii.html
And I at once tried to repeat all the devices hit upon by their captious champions to upset the doctrine of the Resurrection.

She, however, replied, First, I think, we must briefly run over the scattered proclamations of this doctrine in Holy Scripture; they shall give the finishing touch to our discourse. Observe, then, that....
Now this passage from the Psalms runs as follows: "God and Lord hath showed Himself to us; keep the Feast amongst the decorators even unto the horns of the altar;" and this seems to me to proclaim in metaphors the fact that one single feast is to be kept by the whole rational creation, and that in that assembly of the saints the inferiors are to join the dance with their superiors. 

....the race of man, on the contrary, on account of indwelling evil was excluded from the Divine precinct, but that purified with lustral water it re-enters it; and, since all the further barriers by which our sin has fenced us off from the things within the veil are in the end to be taken down, whenever the time comes that the tabernacle of our nature is as it were to be fixed up again in the Resurrection, and all the inveterate corruption of sin has vanished from the world, then a universal feast will be kept around the Deity by those who have decorated themselves in the Resurrection; and one and the same banquet will be spread for all, with no differences cutting off any rational creature from an equal participation in it; for those who are now excluded by reason of their sin will at last be admitted within the Holiest places of God?s blessedness, and will bind themselves to the horns of the Altar there, that is, to the most excellent of the transcendental Powers.

The Apostle says the same thing more plainly when he indicates the final accord of the whole Universe with the Good: "That" to Him "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father":  instead of the "horns," speaking of that which is angelic and "in heaven," and by the other terms signifying ourselves, the creatures whom we think of next to that; one festival of united voices shall occupy us all; that festival shall be the confession and the recognition of the Being Who truly Is.

[darryl]

nothing wrong in praying for the dead, imo..i pray for my late parents often...I dont feel wrong doing this

[DavidFord]

This was supposedly communicated telepathically from a woman in the afterlife to Greaves.

_Testimony of Light_ by Helen Greaves (1969), entry for The same day (3rd January) - later.  3 minor tweaks.
PDF: http://www.unariunwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Testimony-of-Light-by-Helen-Greaves.pdf
Sister Hilda and I returned to the Home. Mother Florence awaited us. She took us apart and told us that a new, and very difficult 'patient' had just been brought in. Quietly she told us the facts about this new arrival. The man had been a Nazi leader; well known and extremely powerful during the last war. After the downfall of Germany he had committed suicide. (I cannot give his name but it is not Hitler.) Since that time he had been 'lodged in the shadows'. Mother Florence explained that he had been 'wandering in the lower places'. You would no doubt refer to this dark place as the 'lower astral'. In any case, for twenty earth years, he had been imprisoned by his own evil.

Now he had been rescued. He was conscious of his terrible cruelty and filled with remorse. Mother Florence warned us that he would need very special nursing, care, understanding and help. Also that we might get a shock at his appearance which, I gathered, was not a sight such as I had ever witnessed. Mother also warned us to draw 'a web of protection' around us and to hold firmly to the Light. I was apprehensive as we went towards a separate ward at the far end of the Home. But not prepared for the sight that met us.

The ward was dark and gloomy, very different from our usual light and sunny rooms. A pall of murky twilight seemed to hover over it. Only slowly did it become apparent to us that 'something' lay on the bed. I looked away quickly from the repellent sight. The poor creature's body appeared to be covered with sores and scars; the eyes were closed. "He thinks he is blind" Mother Florence whispered. "He is not of course. But the Light here is too bright and penetrating for him as yet; and he cries out that it has blinded him." The man was a terrible and pathetic sight. As I looked away again I became aware of Father Joseph who sat at the head of the bed behind the patient.

"Now" I heard Father Joseph say, although there was no apparent sound in the room. "This poor unfortunate creature needs all our care and compassion. He has come to us to be healed and to be enabled to face himself and judge his deeds when he wakens from his terrible ordeal of darkness. Let us together concentrate our thoughts and blessings on him. Let us feel a gentle soft healing Light, God's healing Force of the utmost sweetness and gentleness pour out from our souls to his. Let us ask that Light may come into this place; that it may touch him, comfort him and give him sweet sleep. . . ."

I looked round swiftly. There were Father Joseph, Mother Florence, Sister Hilda, Sister Cecilia and myself. They looked utterly calm. Slowly, as I sank deeper into concentration, I felt myself swept up into a great joy and strength and power. The poor creature moaned but I scarcely heard him. The ward had been dark. Gradually Light grew in it; in one corner an intense shimmer of Light became clearly visible; a Light that condensed into a white-hot Flame, like a pillar of fire. Then I knew that a Celestial Being had added His Ray of Spirit Force. I found myself praying, not only for this tormented soul but also for the souls of his victims. Suddenly, in the midst of my prayers, I was 'transported' back into the Community Chapel in South Africa. I heard the Sisters singing, and I joined in:
Unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given...

The hymn swelled. I was there, with the Community, singing, yet I knelt here by the bedside of this lost, broken soul. I started because I felt that I must have been singing aloud; but no one moved. Then a Voice echoed in my mind . . . and the words were similar to those of the Master Jesus. "Father, forgive him. He knew not what he did . . ."

I found myself on my knees gazing at the Light, now slowly diminishing. It was an awareness so wonderful, and so shattering that I felt my whole self tremble. At that moment I had been at one with the Sisters on earth in their prayers and intercessions for 'all sorts and conditions of mankind', as well as at one with this small band of dedicated and devoted Servers of the Light; and at the same moment at one with the penetrating white Light of a great healing Angel.

There is no separation. We are all one.

"Neither heaven nor earth nor hell can separate us from the love of God" I murmured to myself as the realisation flooded me that the patient had literally come from hell to us. . . .

The great Light faded slowly, but now the gloom had gone from the ward. Our patient lay still. The rigours of his body had ceased. He seemed to be asleep. "In the next ward", Mother Florence was saying, "is a woman who was one of his victims, a young Jewish mother who has arrived with him. She has been bound to him by her deep hatred. But she is progressing because she had real love in her heart for her husband and child who were snatched from her. She has the power of Love in her soul. He, poor creature has not . . . yet. . . ."

"And", Mother Florence went on, "when he is healed sufficiently they must confront one another and learn forgiveness, understanding and charity." I was aware then that Father Joseph had slipped away. Mother Florence also left us and the three of us remained behind to keep vigil.
Unto us a Child is given,
Unto us a Son is born . . .

rang in my mind. The Christmas hymn seemed out of context. Yet the thought persisted in my mind: "This is a beginning, a birth. This is a new life being born, a soul being brought into Light." Slowly I seemed to melt into an all-embracing meditation and contemplation upon God's Peace and Light; a depth of contemplation such as I had never before known. It was a most truly wonderful experience.

At last, it seemed, I had 'broken through' that barrier which throughout the entire period of my earthly life, had barred my way. Of such a Peace I cannot speak, for words cannot express it. But enough if I say, with all sincerity, that I felt I truly understood at last the meaning of those words "My Peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. . ."

I had found a new measure, a new capacity, and I was awake in the Light. I was carried in that peace to my own cottage where, later, I found myself. Our patient still sleeps. . . .

[DavidFord]

nothing wrong in praying for the dead, imo..i pray for my late parents often...I dont feel wrong doing this

Sounds good to me.

[DavidFord]

_Testimony of Light_ (1969) by Helen Greaves, from the entries for 13th January - Later and 15th January
PDF: http://www.unariunwisdom.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Testimony-of-Light-by-Helen-Greaves.pdf
Our Nazi patient is still the same; inert, motionless, shut up in the shell of himself. A shell indeed.

Father Joseph tells me that the poor creature might be like this for what we would say on earth, many years. He has already been held in the dark bondage of the hell of his own making since the end of the last war, and that is over twenty years ago. (I am fast losing count of time as we knew it on earth.) Things 'happen' here; souls or entities at all the lower stages of progress come and go; we either leave or we stay; but we do not reckon these events in time. We live, or we exist, according to the level of our thought-life; some are content to stay, thinking no doubt that this is the final stage. There must, of course, come a time in the soul's awakening when that belief is proved false, but Father Joseph tells me that some souls settle down in one stage for years . . . even centuries! While others persist in their former earth surroundings for ages!

Our Nazi then may lie like this long after many of the patients, helpers and servers here have graduated to Higher Spheres.

Still we have regular 'thought-sessions' for him. Even the Jewish woman has been to see him! She stood looking at this pathetically disfigured soul and at last she whispered: "He doesn't look so evil, does he?" The wonderful lesson about this is that by the time he is ready to confront her, she will have progressed enough to be able to forgive all the injuries for which he was responsible; and she will be prepared to help him. And he will need help! I talked to our wise Director about this. Father Joseph said that although we are doing all we can, it is a pity that there are no prayers which could be said for the man's soul from the inhabitants of the earth plane. Interested in this point of view I asked for explanations.

"Prayers and good thoughts" he told me "for those who have left the earth life, by their fellows still in incarnation, are a great aid to our work here. The prayer forms, and the potency of good thoughts, cause a quickened vibration to reach the one prayed for. As he is generally closely connected with his former life by interests and affections and memories, he is able to respond to such vibrations; thus he is much helped. Such petitions and meditations could be likened to a draught of healing water for the newly transmitted soul." Our Adviser shook his head with what I felt was infinite sadness. "But alas, there is no one on earth to pray ever for the repose of this poor soul. . . ."

I thought deeply about this.

Poor soul he is . . . but not a 'lost soul'. There must have been some good which the Great Ones recognised, otherwise our Nazi patient would not have been 'rescued'. His besetting sin, which blacked out all else, was love of power; it swelled into viciousness against another race, even causing him to put to death men, women and children of that race. But unless we are All-Wise how can we judge what he did? I have always believed in reincarnation, and have as yet had no cause to believe otherwise; I wonder then, with what provocations and with what bitter soul memories this poor creature hastened back to rebirth! There have been monsters throughout history who have burned, tortured, pillaged and ravaged. What has happened to them? They could not all have been 'lost'. Poor creatures, they must have crawled up out of the slime of their misdeeds into some soul-light at some time, and perhaps then, have hastened back to birth with only half-digested knowledge. Always, I feel certain, those ahead must have reached down a helping hand, or sent a loving thought, for no soul is left alone. But as each soul must come to the judgment of his earth deeds and results of them, one can only ask for strength to be vouchsafed to this poor, deluded entity when he too stands at the bar of judgment. Will no one on earth pray for his soul at that time?

We have been instructed to 'pray for those who despitefully use us'. Here, surely, is a living example for us all.

Perhaps this is a notorious case. But what of the millions more who, during their short span on earth, have done evil and have paid for their crimes (as we have so smugly said) by execution, and then have been forgotten? Have no prayers been moulded by Love into thoughts of compassion which could reach them in their darkness? Have we ever remembered them and called for aid for the reckoning of their misdeeds? It is a sobering thought. In such a connection we might discover that our negligence and the self-interest in which we have enclosed ourselves might call for recompense when we reach this world.

You ask about Rescue Circles?

When I was in the body I knew about this method of help and even attended such groups myself, when I was investigating. But the investigators and helpers must be very pure in heart and very sure of Divine Help and Strength when attempting such work. Now that I have witnessed, for myself, the state of such a soul from outer darkness, I am aware more potently of the dangers of such groups, and would advise caution.

Yet the sending out of Light from the Centre by groups at meditation times, the deliberate formation of a prayer thought to reach down and touch those poor benighted ones, a moment of remembrance in a holy place, even the uttering of the names of such unfortunates, commending them to Divine Mercy . . . all are helps towards the resurrection of those who dwell in darkness.

Forgive me if I have preached; such is not my wish. I can only trust that the describing of my grave experiences here may bring some echo of compassion into the hearts of those who read.

15th January

I have met my family, and visited my father, mother, sister and brother. But as this is a private affair and not relevant to the purpose of these communications, I shall not write about it. . . .

Our Nazi patient still sleeps. His Jewish victim has been visited by her husband, a kind and gentle soul, and they have talked long and earnestly. The child, who was taken from her, is not, it appears, in this World. Her husband told of his long search. At last he was told that the child had lived on and had grown up. Poor soul she exists, bitter and unhappy and sunk into a sordid life.

On learning this information, the mother at first reverted to her bitterness and longing for revenge but, as Father Joseph and her husband pointed out to her, revenge has no meaning now. There is no avenging of injury either here, or I imagine, in the realms above; there is only understanding, forgiveness and selfless love.

After much discussion (and I was 'called in' to speak at some of the sessions) our poor sad mother became calmed and was enabled to see Purpose in all things. Now she is as anxious as her husband to locate the girl and get into touch with her by thought, love and concentrated prayer. She herself needs a great deal more cleansing of her 'etheric' before she can succeed in her quest. But she is already a different soul. The old hard shell is melting from her. Gentleness and maternal love shine in her. She is happy to be once more with the husband she lost, and is preparing to join him in the home he is preparing for her. At first she may sojourn with him for a space, returning here to rest and grow strong in her soul. Later, when the healing is accomplished, the way will be open for these two souls to be together, and to contact their daughter. . . . I mean that the Powers-that-be who operate these contacts from this side will find a 'channel' through which the girl may be reached, [and] Light and Love will be poured upon her. . . .

[lastpost]

In my simple ignorance, I find it surprisingly pleasant to encounter the redemptive love and power of Christ expressed in a certain form that is comprehensible to us mere humans, should spirits be open to it. For me personally, I find these words refreshingly avoid, for the most part, the often loveless repetition of dogmatic statements that have only so much power to reveal Divine Love to God's children but which must work for His use that many may cling to them.

This simpleton, myself, would not say that these words are perfect truth, but rather I feel that this expression of love has been culled from perfect truth - perfect love, as much as imperfect transient expressions may do so in an impermanent and constantly changing material world that will at one time find itself dissipated into the dust of the physical universe.

In other words, in perfect truth, words such as these do not exist per se, but rather words such as these are expressed manifestations of the love of God through Christ His Redeemer - expressions of the love of God expressed through His children on their way Home.

So, to this simple child, the material world, like the material word, is not eternal - but this Divine moment in perfect truth is eternal, and it shall always be, it has always been. The one moment that never changes is where the kingdom can be found, and it is within, as He has taught but which has often been denied, although accessible to all yet unknown to those who do not allow that Divinity to simply be both within and without.

Finding and being with that moment forever is freedom - not with a concept, not with an idea, not with a mental construct, not with earthly cleverness, but with the Divine Spirit of God, the Being who lives and loves.

To be free forever is to be of service for ever - and as this simple fool sees it - that is the desire of the spirit within and the Spirit without. It is there to be perceived by all in the expressed life of Christ, if they should look. Divine Truth expressed in His own Christ in the man Jesus. As I see it, if He is found in words then they are of Him.

Peace ✟

[DavidFord]

Encyclical letter "Spe Salvi" by Pope Benedict XVI
https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi.html
47. Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation "as through fire". But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ's Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy. It is clear that we cannot calculate the "duration" of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. The transforming "moment" of this encounter eludes earthly time-reckoning-- it is the heart's time, it is the time of "passage" to communion with God in the Body of Christ[39].

The judgement of God is hope, both because it is justice and because it is grace. If it were merely grace, making all earthly things cease to matter, God would still owe us an answer to the question about justice-- the crucial question that we ask of history and of God. If it were merely justice, in the end it could bring only fear to us all. The incarnation of God in Christ has so closely linked the two together-- judgement and grace-- that justice is firmly established: we all work out our salvation "with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12). Nevertheless grace allows us all to hope, and to go trustfully to meet the Judge whom we know as our "advocate", or parakletos (cf. 1 Jn 2:1).

48. A further point must be mentioned here, because it is important for the practice of Christian hope. Early Jewish thought includes the idea that one can help the deceased in their intermediate state through prayer (see for example 2 Macc 12:38-45; first century BC). The equivalent practice was readily adopted by Christians and is common to the Eastern and Western Church. The East does not recognize the purifying and expiatory suffering of souls in the afterlife, but it does acknowledge various levels of beatitude and of suffering in the intermediate state. The souls of the departed can, however, receive "solace and refreshment" through the Eucharist, prayer and almsgiving. The belief that love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death-- this has been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it remains a source of comfort today. Who would not feel the need to convey to their departed loved ones a sign of kindness, a gesture of gratitude or even a request for pardon?

Now a further question arises: if "Purgatory" is simply purification through fire in the encounter with the Lord, Judge and Saviour, how can a third person intervene, even if he or she is particularly close to the other? When we ask such a question, we should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other-- my prayer for him-- can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God's time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too[40]. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.

Mary, Star of Hope
....

hat tip:
_The Restoration of all Things: My continuing journey beyond beyond_ by Mike Parsons (2021), 437pp., 409-411
https://www.amazon.com/Restoration-all-Things-continuing-journey/dp/1789632005/
https://t.alibris.com/The-restoration-of-all-things-My-continuing-journey-beyond-beyond-Mike-Parsons/book/49346563?

[DavidFord]

https://cac.org/daily-meditations/responding-vengeful-scriptures-2015-05-15/
which cites
Bishop Kallistos Ware, _The Inner Kingdom_, Vol. 1 of the Collected Works (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press: 2004), 48:
"I remember a conversation between [Staretz Silouan] and a certain hermit, who declared with evident satisfaction, 'God will punish all atheists. They will burn in everlasting fire.'

"Obviously upset, the Staretz said, 'Tell me, supposing you went to paradise, and there looked down and saw somebody burning in hell-fire-- would you feel happy?'

"'It can't be helped. It would be their own fault,' said the hermit.

"The Staretz answered him with a sorrowful countenance:

"'Love could not bear that,' he said. 'We must pray for all.'"

[DavidFord]

Ron Horner, _Lingering Human Spirits:  Unraveling the Mystery_ (2020), 187pp., on 169, slight edit
https://www.amazon.com/Lingering-Human-Spirits-Unraveling-Mystery/dp/1678146625/
Frequently Asked Questions
_Why should I become a Christian now if I have the option of going to Heaven anyway by just asking for God's mercy?_
We can find no definitive pattern for why (or whether) a human spirit enters directly into Heaven or hell or lingers for a time.
If you take what has been discussed in this book and say to yourself,
"I don't have to serve God now, I can wait and get another chance even after I die,"
this would be a risk I would not recommend to anyone.
Serve God with all your heart now!

[DavidFord]

Some Puritans' views retarded their return to God in the afterlife.

Ann Carroll Martin, _Lingering Spirits:  Cases from the Afterlife_ (2023), 103pp., on 63
https://www.amazon.com/LINGERING-SPIRITS-Ann-Carroll-Martin/dp/B0C7J83TBW/
It was interesting to bring so many spirits across in the same place and on the same day, yet from several different periods.
Each person or group had been stuck in their individual times.
Unless we... cross at the time of our passing, we remain suspended in time...

On 80:
As I walked toward the first graveyard, I noticed it was very old, with barely readable markers from the Puritan days of the late 1600s.
As I began a mental conversation asking if any spirits would like to accompany my Guide and me, the Puritans' personalities grew indignant and stern.
They mumbled together that I was a witch!
The Puritans made it clear they did not trust me and were not about to go with me.
I felt there was something behind their scorn, and when I gently probed, the spirits admitted that they were fearful and felt unworthy to go to Heaven.
Having lived their lives in an extremely harsh religion that demanded perfection with no tolerance for mistakes, their spirits chose to stay where they were rather than face the devil or hell they had been promised.
Some of them came with us, but some remained and, to my knowledge, are there still.
...
In the same vicinity was a Jewish cemetery.
Many small stones adorned the tops of the headstones.
Spirits were sitting on top of their graves or standing in groups talking.
The energy here was quite different from the burial ground of the Puritans.
It was much more relaxed and jovial.
I reached out to them and asked if anyone would like to go on to the gateway to Heaven.
They were delighted and joined the numbers in crossing over.

[DavidFord]

Sergius Bulgakov,  _The Bride of the Lamb_ (2002), 531pp., on 361
https://www.amazon.com/Bride-Lamb-Sergius-Bulgakov/dp/0802839150/ https://archive.org/details/brideoflamb0000bulg/page/360/mode/2up?q=%22force+in+the%22
Page 361
...at least in Orthodoxy, which recognizes the efficacy of the prayer for the deceased (see below), for which no limits are set (this is expressed with particular force in the third prayer of the Pentecost vespers).
According to Orthodox doctrine, the state of sinners in the afterlife is that of a temporary purgatory rather than that of an irrevocable hell.

Hat tip
Mike Parsons, _Unconditional Love: Good News for All Creation_ (2025)
https://www.amazon.com/Unconditional-Love-Good-News-Creation/dp/1789635454/

[Ross]

Temporary purgatory, essential for the forecoming correction of their beliefs and position.
Christ being all in all needs much change to the underlying  system, Babylonian, which has held mankind in subjection to the false Christ.
Fortunately His, will, Christ's, is for all mankind.

[DavidFord]

Catholic prayer
https://thecatholichandbook.com/oh-my-jesus-prayer/
Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
save us from the fires of hell;
lead all souls to heaven
especially those who are in most need of
Your mercy.
Amen.