How to pray for the repose of an unbaptized person. Why the martyr Huar is prayed for the dead unbaptized

Despite the ambiguous attitude of the church towards the lost souls, prayer for the unbaptized dead also works. Many clergy say that any person is worthy of the protection of the Lord.

However, it is known that the church rejects unbaptized souls, as such, forbidding ordering liturgies for a deceased person who refused to enter the bosom of Orthodoxy. You can only take the opportunity to read a private prayer for the deceased, being outside the influence of the church.

It is possible to offer prayers for the unbaptized dead to anyone who wants to give them a well-deserved rest in another world.

By praying for the departed soul, you provide support not only for the dead, but also for yourself. The power of prayer allows you to diminish the degree of grief for a worthy person who occupied a significant place in your life.

Scientists also note the need to offer prayers. According to one of the existing theories, prayer has a special effect on the consciousness of everyone who reads it, due to the presence of a special combination of sounds. Neuro-linguistic programming discovers the amazing properties of prayers for an unbaptized soul, used for centuries by thousands of people.

On the Internet, you can read a huge number of real cases when, thanks to prayers, the fate of unbaptized people really improved, who then appeared with gratitude in dreams to a loved one who raised her up. It happens that the deceased appear in a dream and ask their loved ones to pray for them in order to find peace. You shouldn't be afraid of this. If you also have such dreams, do not refuse the deceased: this is the least that you can do for him.

Pray to our God for the lost

But to whom should we pray for the souls of the departed who have not received Orthodox baptism? The clergy note that it is possible to pray for the unbaptized not only to the saints, but even to the Lord our God. The offered prayers will certainly reach the addressee, because everyone who has lived a righteous life on earth has the right to God's forgiveness and patronage.

You can even pray for people who have apostatized from the faith, who have converted to another religion, or who originally represented it. By the way, in the Orthodox Church there is still no consensus on whether to consider Catholics as baptized Christians or not.

There are many legends about the holy martyr Uare, the patron saint of the lost. According to church sources, he once appeared to a believer named Cleopatra, declaring that he had asked for forgiveness of sins for all her dead ancestors. Hence, Christians began to ask Uar for forgiveness of sins for the unbaptized dead.

During his lifetime, Ouar was famous for many good deeds. Possessing the opportunity to help the unfortunate Christians who were imprisoned for their faith, he tried in every possible way to alleviate their plight.

Heaven help everyone

It is possible and necessary to offer prayers for the unbaptized dead, because the soul of the deceased is easier when she is commemorated at the icon. And let it be an icon at the home altar, for the deceased it does not matter.

There are prayers:

For those who are not baptized to God:

Prayer of Leo of Optina

Seek, O Lord, the lost soul of my father: if it is possible to eat, have mercy! Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not put me in the sin of this prayer of mine. But Thy holy will be done.

For unbaptized souls to the holy martyr Uar:

Prayer to the Holy Martyr Uar

“Oh, holy martyr Uare, venerable, with zeal for the Mistress of Christ, we kindle, you confessed the Heavenly King before the tormentor, and now the Church honors you, as if glorified from the Lord Christ with the glory of Heaven, Who has given you the grace of great boldness towards Him, and now stand before Him with the Angels , and in the highest you rejoice, and see the Holy Trinity clearly, and enjoy the light of the Beginning Radiance: remember our relatives and languor, who died in ungodliness, accept our petition, and like Cleopatra, the unfaithful generation freed you from eternal torment with your prayers, so remember the figurines buried contrary to God, who died unbaptized (names), trying to ask them for deliverance from eternal darkness, so that with one mouth and one heart we will praise the Most Merciful Creator forever and ever. Amen."

The power of faith - works under any circumstances

The church forbids ordering liturgies for the unbaptized, however, those who wish can use the power of private prayer said outside the church. But be careful: there is an opinion that the unbaptized have made their choice, and prayers for their souls, addressed to the great martyrs, can harm yourself.

Offer a prayer service when you yourself want it.

Words must fully comply with your desires, only then they will come true. In addition, one more condition must be strictly observed - Faith. The presence of sincere faith can work real miracles, granting peace to the unbaptized dead and living on Earth.

Video: Prayer for the unbaptized dead

Last Sunday, October 9, we celebrated the day of remembrance of the apostle of love - the holy evangelist and closest disciple of Christ, John the Theologian, who wrote such great words as "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

And the question posed in the title of the article, which is burning and acute for many of us (after all, we were born and raised in an atheistic Soviet state), directly concerns love.

And therefore, of course, you can pray for all people, including heretics, schismatics, and the unbaptized. But only in private prayer at home.

It seems to me that the Lord himself gives us examples of prayer for the unbaptized, schismatics and heretics.

Recall the gospel verses: “But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:44). And who persecuted and tortured Christians in the 1st century? Jews, Romans, pagans of various cults.

Let us also remember the sufferings of the Savior: “And when they came to the place called Skull, there they crucified Him and the evildoers, one on the right, and the other on the left. Jesus said: Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:32-34). For whom was our Lord Jesus Christ praying at that moment? About the Roman pagan soldiers who did not know that He is the Messiah.

The Pauline Epistles are also important: “So, first of all, I ask you to make prayers, petitions, intercessions, thanksgiving for all people, for kings and for all those in authority, so that we can lead a quiet and serene life in all piety and purity, for this is good and pleasing to our Savior God who wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1-4). Moreover, we note, dear brothers and sisters, that this was an Epistle written by the holy apostle-God-seeer to the bishop (Paul ordained the holy Apostle Timothy as bishop of the Ephesian Church) as a guide to action. Who were, for example, the kings or rulers mentioned here? If the entire ecumene (Greek: “inhabited land”) was 99 percent pagan, including kings and rulers. In addition, the holy supreme apostle Paul deduces in the First Epistle to Timothy a truly Divine, merciful idea that we Christians need to pray for all people, “that all ... be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” This means that we can and should pray for the admonition of heretics, theomachists, schismatics, the unbaptized, so that with the help of our love, our intense prayer in our cells, our Lord Jesus Christ will enlighten them and lead them to the Orthodox faith.

Indeed, in the morning prayers, in the expanded commemoration there are the following words: “Those who have departed from the Orthodox faith and blinded by fatal heresies, enlighten with the light of Thy knowledge, and reckon with Thy Holy Apostles of the Cathedral Church.”

Let us also remember some of the lives of the saints. For example, the Monk Macarius of Egypt. When one day a skull of a pagan Egyptian priest spoke to him in the desert, who thanked the saint of God for praying for them in hell. His prayer by the grace of God eases their torment. In this example, we see the effectiveness and graceful help to people of such a prayer.

In the life of an older contemporary of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, who is already close to us, there is such a case, recorded from the lips of the saint himself: “On the road, I had absolutely nothing to eat (Father Kuksha went for deportation after a camp imprisonment. - Approx. Aut.). A young Jewish woman was traveling with me in the same compartment - God save her darling, with a 3-year-old son. She asked where I was going and if I was a priest, she said that her father, the rabbi, was also imprisoned. She fed me for three days all the way to Solikamsk and gave me some money with her. In the memoirs of the saint, we see a clear example of a prayer for the salvation of a young woman, quite possibly of the Jewish faith.

Also, St. Theodore the Studite says that one can pray at home for the above categories of people: “Unless everyone in his soul prays for such and does alms for them.”

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', in his report at the diocesan meeting of Moscow in 2003, said: “During the time of militant atheism in our country, many people grew up and died unbaptized, and their believing relatives want to pray for their repose. Such private prayer has never been forbidden. But in church prayer, at divine services, we commemorate only the children of the Church who have communed with her through the Sacrament of Holy Baptism.” That is, in cell (home) prayer, you can pray for unbaptized people.

Following the quote of His Holiness, we, with God's help, move on to the next question: "Is it possible to pray for the unbaptized, heretics and schismatics in the temple?" Answer: No.

Let us recall the definition of the Sacrament of Baptism... Baptism is the Sacrament in which the believer, when the body is immersed three times in water with the invocation of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, dies to a carnal, sinful life and is reborn from the Holy Spirit into a spiritual life. That is, Baptism is the spiritual birth of a person.

The Savior also tells us about this in a conversation with the holy righteous Nicodemus: “Jesus answered: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5, 6). An unbaptized person is still an old carnal person who has not been grafted into the vine of Christ, who has not become a part of His body - the Church of Christ. It is also the beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth. Therefore, of course, prayer in church for the unbaptized is impossible in any form. They are not part of the church body. In addition, the heart of church life is the Eucharist. But let us remember the ministry of the ancient apostolic Church of the first centuries. Even catechumens (that is, unbaptized people who wish to be baptized) could not attend the Liturgy of the Faithful, where the transubstantiation of bread, wine, and water into the Body and Blood of Christ takes place. And near the doors they placed special church servants - paranomarius gatekeepers, so that no one except the faithful (baptized Orthodox) could enter the temple during the Sacrament of Communion.

The prohibition of church commemoration of the unbaptized, heretics, schismatics, pagans during church services is reflected in the canonical consciousness of the Church. First of all, these are several rules of the Local Council of Laodicea (c. 360): “It is not appropriate to pray with a heretic or a renegade” (Rule 33), “You should not accept holiday gifts sent from Jews or heretics, below celebrate with them” (Rule 37), “To the cemeteries of all heretics, or to martyr places so called by them, let it not be allowed for the church to go for prayer, or for healing. But those who walk, if they are faithful, be deprived of the fellowship of the Church for some time” (Rule 9).

And also the 5th Canon of the VII Ecumenical Council: “There is a sin unto death, when some, sinning, remain uncorrected, and ... cruelly rise up for piety and truth ... in such people there is no Lord God, unless they humble themselves and become sober from their fall” .

In addition, from purely worldly considerations, I would like to say that an adult unbaptized person in our Orthodox country was not baptized either out of a firm atheistic, heretical, schismatic or pagan conviction, or out of special lazy negligence, neglect of his soul. Therefore, of course, he of his own free will excommunicated himself from the Eucharistic Cup and from fellowship in the bosom of the Church of Christ.

As for the babies who died unbaptized... Their parents would like to express their sincere and deep condolences. And with God's help, I would like to say that you, dear ones, do not despair and perceive this mournful, very difficult, no doubt, event of the loss of a beloved child as the will of God. After all, remember the popular saying "God gave, God took." And the people are wise in their hearts. And if the Lord took your child to Himself, then He had His mysterious plans for this to arrange our salvation. Bow down under His great and holy will. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). And if you accept this burden as the will of God, not despairing, but completely trusting in His inexpressible mercy, then it will really turn out to be light and lead you to salvation. For your own children, who died unbaptized, pray in your home prayer, give alms for them (only so that you remember them, and not someone else). And believe that the All-Merciful Lord will arrange and arrange everything in the best possible way.

There is a special mother's prayer for stillborn babies: “Lord, have mercy on my children who died in my womb, for my faith and my tears, for the sake of Your mercy. Lord, do not deprive them of Your Divine Light!”

I would also like to turn to obstetricians who take birth. If you believe in God and see, according to medical experience, already at birth, that a baby who has seen the world is still breathing, but will not live according to all signs, bring a bath or any other container of water, pour it three times on his head and say: “The servant of God (servant of God) (name) is baptized in the name of the Father, amen. And the Son, amen. And the Holy Spirit, amen. Now and forever, and forever and ever, amen.” If possible, then at each proclamation, lower the child three times when pouring and raise him after. This is a symbol of the death of the old man and the resurrection-renewal of the new - spiritual. This ceremony will take you less than a minute, and the human soul will be saved and prepared for eternal life. If such a child dies, then he will be considered a baptized Orthodox Christian, for whom you can pray in the temple. If he survives, then you need to call the priest, and he will make up for everything necessary at Baptism, perform the Sacrament of Confirmation, etc. In addition, clergy often take care of maternity hospitals. And they can be contacted through doctors in order to baptize him for the sake of fear of a mortal (that is, in a serious illness of a newborn baby).

As for heretics, schismatics and pagans, you can also pray for them at home, in private, so that the Lord will lead them to salvation. In the church, on the basis of the above council rules, it is impossible. Moreover, God does not want to violate the free will of man. If he is a heretic and a schismatic or a pagan in the Orthodox country of Ukraine (unless he is a child brought up in this), then he himself voluntarily excommunicated himself from the Orthodox Church and, according to his convictions, does not want to belong to It. Do we have the right to forcibly drag him to the temple? You won't be forced to be nice. He himself had already sinned grievously in his heart and excommunicated himself from the Church by not believing in Her dogmas or deliberately distorting them. Let us remember the many healings of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ. What did He require of people as the only condition for healing? Faith. "Do you believe that I can do it?" the Lord asks. And in Nazareth, Christ did not work many miracles and healings because of their unbelief, as it is said in the Gospel (Matthew 13:53-58).

No faith, no salvation. At least not yet for these people.

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us not lead either ourselves or the priest into sin. If such a person is already inscribed in your commemorative book, then put in front of his name (for example, nekr., i.e. "unbaptized", or "went into a sect", "went into schism", "baptized in Catholicism" etc.), so that the priest knows what to do in such cases.

Notes on the repose of suicides are also not worth applying for service in the temple. These people voluntarily took their own life - the most precious gift of God to us - and thereby voluntarily rejected the Lord. In addition, in the rite of prayerful consolation of relatives who voluntarily died his stomach, approved by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of July 27, 2011, there are the following words: communication with God. The validity of this rule is confirmed by the spiritual experience of the ascetics, who, daring to pray for suicides, experienced irresistible heaviness and demonic temptations.

You can ask the priest in the temple to perform the aforementioned service not for a suicide, but for the comfort of relatives. It should not be confused with the Order of the Orthodox burial. It's more like a prayer for the living.

If there is information (certificate from a doctor) about the mental illness of a suicide, then you can go to the Ruling Bishop of your diocese and ask him for blessings for an absentee funeral. But even after him, it is impossible to commemorate a suicide in temples.

But in home prayer, you can pray for a person who has committed suicide. Only for this, as, indeed, for prayer for the unbaptized, heretics, pagans, schismatics, you need to take a blessing from the confessor or from another priest.

Here is a rather short prayer of the Monk Leo of Optina: “Search, Lord, for the lost soul of Your servant (name): if it is possible to eat, have mercy. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not put me in sin with this prayer of mine, but may Thy holy will be done. Or the spiritual work of Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov) "The Canon of the Unauthorized Life of Those Who Died Their Lives."

Separately, I would like to say about the holy martyr Uare, whose memory the Church celebrates on November 1 according to the new style. There was an opinion in society that he could pray for unbaptized people. Perhaps it arose on the basis of that place from the life, when the pious woman Cleopatra from Palestine laid his holy relics in the tomb with her ancestors. But nowhere in the life is it said that these ancestors were not Christians or were pagans. But in Rus' there is still a tradition to pray to the holy martyr Uar for unbaptized people. It does not quite correspond to the church canonical. Here is how His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' speaks of this in his report mentioned in this article: “People with few churches get the impression that it is not necessary to receive Holy Baptism or be a member of the Church, it is enough just to pray to the martyr Huar. Such an attitude towards the veneration of the holy martyr Uar is unacceptable and contradicts our church doctrine.”

Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us carefully study the Scriptures, the canons of the Church and, with God's help, fill our hearts with love for all people and obedience to the Mother of the Church, Whose Head is Christ. This is the only saving path for us.

How to pray for the unbaptized?

The tradition of the Church brings to us many testimonies of the efficacy of prayer for unbaptized people who do not belong to the Church.

Once Rev. Macarius of Egypt was walking through the desert and saw a human skull lying on the ground. When the reverend touched it with a palm stick, the skull gave a voice. The elder asked: "Who are you?" The skull replied, "I was a pagan priest of the idolaters who lived in this place." He also said that when St. Macarius, having mercy on those who are in eternal torment, prays for them, then they receive some consolation. “How far the sky is from the earth, how much fire is under our feet and over our heads,” the skull said again, “We stand in the middle of the fire, and none of us is placed so as to see our neighbor. But when you pray for us, each sees the face of the other somewhat. That is our joy." After the conversation, the elder buried the skull in the ground.

For people who died without holy baptism or belonged to another denomination or faith, we cannot pray at the Divine Liturgy and perform funeral services for them in the Church, but no one forbids us to pray for them in our personal prayers at home.

The Monk Lev of Optina, consoling his spiritual son Pavel Tambovtsev, whose father died tragically outside the Church, said: “You should not grieve excessively. God without comparison more than you loved and loves him. So, it remains for you to leave the eternal fate of your parent to the goodness and mercy of God, who, if he deigns to have mercy, then who can resist Him. The great elder gave Pavel Tambovtsev a prayer, which, with a few changes, can be said for the unbaptized: “Have mercy, Lord, on the soul of Your servant (name), who has departed into eternal life without Holy Baptism. Your destinies are unsearchable. Do not put me in the sin of this prayer of mine. But Thy holy will be done."

This prayer may well be used when reading the Psalter for the departed, reading it at each "Glory".

Another holy Optina elder, the Monk Joseph, later said that there is evidence of the fruits of this prayer. It can be read at any time (during the day repeatedly). Mentally, you can create it in the temple. Helps feasible alms given for the deceased to those in need. It is good to pray to the Mother of God, reading the rosary “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice ...” (how much strength allows: from 30 to 150 times a day). At the beginning and at the end of this rule, one must ask the Mother of God to help the soul of the deceased.

Relatives of the deceased (especially children and grandchildren - direct descendants) have a great opportunity to influence the afterlife of the deceased. Namely: to show the fruits of spiritual life (to live in the prayerful experience of the Church, to participate in the Holy Sacraments, to live according to the commandments of Christ). Although the one who departed unbaptized did not manifest these fruits himself, but his children and grandchildren, he also participates in them as a root or a stem.

And I also want to say: loved ones should not lose heart, but do everything possible to help, remembering the mercy of the Lord and knowing that everything will be finally determined at the Judgment of God.

The main prayers for every need. According to the teachings of the saints of God. How and in what cases to pray Glagoleva Olga

Prayer to the martyr Uar for the dead babies who did not have time to receive Holy Baptism

Oh, holy martyr Uare, venerable!

We inflame the Lord Christ with zeal, you confessed the Heavenly King before the tormentor, and you zealously suffered for Him, and now the Church honors you, as if glorified from the Lord Christ with the glory of heaven, Who has given you the grace of great boldness towards Him, and now stand before Him with the Angels, and rejoice in the highest, and see clearly the Holy Trinity, and enjoy the light of the Beginning Radiance.

Remember our relatives and languor, who died in wickedness, accept our petition, and like Cleopatra, the unfaithful family freed you from eternal torment with your prayers, so remember the fir-trees that were anti-Godly buried, who died unbaptized (names), rush to ask them for deliverance from eternal darkness, so that with one mouth and one heart we will praise the Most Merciful Creator forever and ever. Amen.