In the same regions where the situation with coronavirus still poses a threat, believers can follow the progress of your Internet service – for the quarantine period, many have discovered the opportunity to pray during worship, while on the other side of the screen. Someone complains that “kovida” in their region of closed cemeteries, and the graves of loved ones not to get. But, say the priests, prayers – most importantly, what they need dead.
And the memory of Saint Nicholas the special day when believers pray for the dead. Not only for the family but for all souls, “from the beginning of the century, from the time of Adam”, and especially for those who do not have time to repent before death and has not received Christian burial: died in battle, missing, died prematurely – in the mountains, fire, water depths, during natural disasters. “RG” summarized everything you need to know about the Trinity parent Saturday. We have summarized what to do on this day, in 2020, and what not.
Strictly speaking, in the temples of the dead commemorated every Saturday – but ahead of Sunday, the day that reminds us of the Resurrection of Christ, and that now death has been conquered (so the Church uses the word “dead” and not “dead”). Among these there are those Saturdays when during the service we remember in a special way our deceased loved ones – these days are called “parent”. Six of them, every year they have different dates, since they depend on the period of lent and Easter. These six parent Saturdays added a separate day of remembrance – a day of rejoicing, celebrated on the second Tuesday after Easter. Plus may 9, became in the Church the day of remembrance of fallen soldiers. Then there are the special days of commemoration we have eight.
And among the six Saturday there are two special, they are called “universal”. These days during worship we prayerfully remember not only those the memory of whom is still alive in the human race, not only of our ancestors, loved ones, but all “from a century of deceased Orthodox Christians, were honored as Christian death, and those who were not admonished in the afterlife the Church’s prayers,” that is those “who were abducted sudden death in a foreign land, in the sea and impassable mountains, on the cliffs, the abysses; died from plague and famine, in war, in fires, from the cold and all the poor and infirm”. Of these two Ecumenical parental Saturday marked one week before the beginning of lent, and the second on the eve of the feast of the Trinity, because the Trinity is called parental Saturday.
the fact that the Trinity, or, as they say solemnly in the Church, at Pentecost we celebrate the event of the descent of the Holy spirit on the apostles. At Trinity, we not only recollect about the Holy Spirit, we talk all the time about His life-giving power. That Holy Spirit, by His God��idents nature has no boundaries, no obstacles. So to remind us all to emphasize that the Holy Spirit acts on the dead and the living, that God has all life, on the eve of the feast of the Trinity and set a special Ecumenical parental Saturday, named Trinity. St. Basil the Great, formed the prayers of the Vespers of the feast of the Holy Trinity, tells them that the Lord especially in this day favors make prayers for the dead, and even about “who in the hell keep”, that is, those “who are in hell to stay.”
the Keynote of the prayers for the dead on Saturday Trinity parent becomes a petition for the forgiveness of sins. It is we, the living can repent and ask forgiveness, and to correct their actions. The dead can no longer. So we ask God’s mercy for them: “the grace of God, of the Heavenly Kingdom and the abandonment of their sins, Christ the Immortal King and our God we ask” – is repeated in the prayers of the divine services on this day.
“no One will bother to remember their parents; wrote St. Theophan the recluse, but it is necessary to remember all Orthodox Christians, and not this day only, and at all times, in every prayer. Sami will be there, and ponuguese in prayer this, as poor a piece of bread and a bowl of water. Remember that prayer for the dead and a strong community – that is on behalf of the whole Church. The Church breathes a prayer. But as in the natural order, in pregnancy, the mother’s breathing, and the breathing goes on the child and blessed the Church breathes all the common prayer, and the prayer enters and departed, content in the bosom of the Church, which is composed of the living and the dead, the warring and triumphant. Do not be lazy on every prayer hard to remember all departed father and our brethren. It will be from you to them is charity”.
the Pandemic has made adjustments to how we will spend this day. If the churches in your area are open, and you don’t feel sick in the morning, you can come to the temple to pray during the divine Liturgy. Pray not only for their families, but also for all deceased Orthodox Christians “from the age of the deceased”. Usually after this the believers went to the cemetery, where it was done already private prayer for the deceased – Requiem. Now if the cemetery is not available, you should not grieve – it is temporary. And the main thing, after all, prayer. If in your region and churches are still closed for visiting by lay people, there is nothing stopping to pray by the house – opening the prayer book or by streaming services. Before the divine Liturgy, in the temple typically write memos to commemorate their loved ones of the deceased during the Liturgy. Now this can also be done online, although, again, there is no substitute for our personal prayers. Including for the dead “from the beginning of the century, from the time of Adam.” And even if we open the prayer book, in isolation, at home, we’re not alone – our words prayer in the Trinity day Saturday will join in the common prayer of the Church.
If you think about it, the fact of the existence of Church-wide days of prayer, days of the Ecumenical parental Saturday, there is an amazing hope for all of us. The human memory is an unreliable thing, and the Church of Christ stood and will stand. And if we pray for the deceased, which did not know, it is a guarantee that and we pray our grandchildren, asking the Lord for mercy and forgiveness of our sins.
Tomorrow, June 7, a big feast of the Trinity.
