Fr. Vassilios Papavassiliou - Praying For The Dead

[@guspapadopoulos]

I just lost my wife and listening to this has helped me immensely in dealing in with her loss. Thank you Father Vassilios

[@christineerikson2177]

st. gregory of nyssa is not the be all and end all of Orthodoxy, he was influenced as were others in other ways by Origen, who was anathematized after his death and I think after the deaths of all the great writer/preacher saints who he influenced. This is why you sometimes run into the notion that unfallen Adam and Eve bodies were more etherial, less densely physical and the coats of skins were our densely physical bodies, this same idea re sun and stars and planets was condemned 5th Ec council

[@christineerikson2177]

I sneak names in on the list, don't ask don't tell, after all, they could convert to Orthodoxy after death. There is a reference to ALL dead in one prayer I noticed I can't recall if it is the formal prayer for the dead or in another context that also mentions the dead. In any case, is not Jesus the Savior of whoever calls on Him in faith? is not a starter catechumen lacking in proper knowledge and doctrine? maybe the heterodox are spiritually equivalent to starter catechumens.

[@christineerikson2177]

I have been to services that had memorial services, but this doesn't impress me as sorrowful or having that effect, after all, the whole point is asking God to help the dead, and faith and hope that He will, this is not an actual funeral of course, but the moleben, I figure an actual funeral would be rather different.

[@christineerikson2177]

no repentance after death? but "with God all things are possible." unsaved dead maybe are kind of frozen (especially if in the habit of godlessness or from a "denomination" that teaches no hope after death), but God can stir them to prayer even as He can stir a similarly frozen and godless living human.