1 day after death. What ordeals does the soul go through after death? What happens to the soul after death

After the funeral, the restless soul is between heaven and earth; Many relatives and close people of the deceased ask the main question of what happens to the soul on the 9th and 40th day of death. This is an important period for the deceased person, since it is decided where he will go next, where he will spend the rest of eternity in oblivion. The Holy Scripture says that 9 and 40 days after death are the beginning and end of the heavenly path; loved ones must help so that the soul goes to heaven and finds eternal peace.

Where does the soul reside after death?

According to believers, the souls of the deceased are immortal, and their afterlife fate is determined by the deeds done on earth during life - good or bad. In Orthodoxy, it is believed that the soul of the deceased does not immediately ascend to heaven, but at first remains in the places where the body previously lived. She will have to appear before God's Court, but in the meantime there is time to see her family and friends, say goodbye to them forever, and come to terms with the idea of ​​her own death.

Where is the soul of the deceased until 9 days

The body is buried in a cemetery, but the soul of the deceased person is immortal. The Christian Church has established that the first day after death the soul is in confusion, cannot understand what is happening, and is afraid of separation from the body. On the second day, she wanders around her native place, remembers the best moments of her life, and observes the process of burying her own body. There are many places where the soul is after death, but all of them were once dear, close to the heart.

On the third day, she is ascended by angels to heaven, where the gates of paradise open. The soul is shown paradise, the opportunity to find eternal peace, a state of complete peace. On the fourth day, she is lowered underground and shown hell, where all the sins of the deceased and the payment for committing them during life are well known. The soul sees what is happening, waits for the Last Judgment, which begins on the ninth and ends on the fortieth day.

What happens to the soul on day 9

The question of why 9 days are celebrated after death has a well-reasoned answer. On this day, counted from the moment of death, the soul stands before God's court, where only the Almighty will decide where it will continue to spend eternity - in heaven or hell. Therefore, relatives and close people go to the cemetery, commemorate the deceased, and pray for his entry into heaven.

How to remember correctly

Knowing what happens on the 9th day after death, relatives must remember the deceased, and remember only the best and brightest things about his life and deeds. Church commemorations would not be out of place; for example, you can order a magpie for the repose, a memorial service or other Christian rituals in the church. This is only beneficial, plus the sincere faith of Orthodox Christians. God forgives the torment of sinners, and relatives and friends should not be too sad for the deceased. To remember correctly, you need:

• speak only good things about the deceased;
• set a modest table, exclude alcohol;
• remember only the good;
• do not laugh, do not have fun, do not rejoice;
• behave modestly, restrained.

What happens to the soul after 9 days

After the 9th day, the soul goes to hell, can clearly see all the torments of sinners, and sincerely repent. She must remember all her wrong actions, apologize, admit the wrongness of her own actions and thoughts. This is a difficult stage, so all relatives should only support the deceased in prayers, church rituals, thoughts, and memories. To reliably determine what happens to the deceased soul on the 9th and 40th days of death, it is necessary to resort to sacred scripture.

Where is the soul of the deceased until 40 days

Many people do not understand why they commemorate on 9 and 40 days. The answer is simple - this is the beginning and end of God's path, which the soul completes before receiving its place - in hell or heaven. It turns out that until the fortieth day from the moment of death of the deceased, she is between heaven and earth, experiencing all the pain and melancholy of her family and loved ones. Therefore, you should not grieve too much, otherwise it will be even more difficult for the deceased person to find eternal peace.

Why are 40 days celebrated after death?

This is a memorial day. It means farewell to a restless soul. On this day she acquires her place in eternity, finds peace, and experiences humility. The soul, up to forty days after death, is fragile and vulnerable, susceptible to other people’s thoughts, insults, and slander. She is torn from the inside by pain, but by the 40th day a deep calm comes - an awareness of her place in eternity. Then nothing happens, only oblivion, pleasant memories of the life lived.

How to remember correctly

Knowing what happens to the soul on the ninth and fortieth days of death, loved ones should treat it with compassion and ease its torment. To do this, you shouldn’t feel too bad for the deceased, throw yourself on the deceased’s chest and jump into the grave at the funeral. Such actions will only make the soul worse, and it will experience acute mental anguish. It is better to grieve in thoughts, pray more and wish her “A land that will rest in peace.” We must try to cope with emotions. All that is required from relatives is bright thoughts and complete humility, that God ordered it this way, nothing can be changed.

It is necessary to correctly remember the deceased on the 9th, 40th day, every year on the day of his sudden death. This is an unpleasant event for the whole family, which must follow all the rules. So:

1. Days of commemoration are counted from the moment of death of a person (until midnight). The 9th and 40th days of death signify the beginning and end of God’s path, when the future fate of the deceased is determined.
2. Relatives should remember the deceased, and the presence of consecrated kutya on a modest table is desirable. You need to eat at least a spoonful of it.
3. It is not recommended to remember with alcohol (not allowed by God), and the table should be modest, the feast should be more silent, thoughtful.
4. It is forbidden to remember the bad qualities of the deceased, to swear and use foul language; if there are no good words, it is better to remain silent about everything that happens.

Where is the soul after 40 days?

After the specified period, the soul of a person who died 40 days ago finds peace and is forever removed to heaven for eternity. It is possible that she will go to hell to suffer eternal torment for her actions. In any case, everything that happens to her next is unknown to a living person, and all that remains is to believe in the best, hope for the will of God, the highest mercy.

Video

The first nine days are very important both for the soul of the deceased and for the living. We will tell you what path a person’s soul takes, what it experiences, and whether the relatives of the deceased can alleviate its fate.

When a person dies, his soul overcomes certain boundaries. And this happens after 3, 9, 40 days after death. Despite the fact that everyone knows that these days it is necessary to organize funeral meals, order services in churches and pray intensely, few people understand why. In this article we will tell you about what happens on the 9th day to a person’s soul, why this day is so important and how the living can help the soul of the deceased.

According to Orthodox tradition, a person is buried on the third day. In the first days after death, the soul has enormous freedom. She is not yet fully aware of the fact of death, so she carries all the “baggage of life knowledge” with her. All the hopes, attachments, fears and aspirations of the soul pull it towards certain places and people. It is believed that these days the soul wants to be near its body, as well as near people close to it. Even if a person died far from home, the soul longs to be with loved ones. The soul may also be drawn to places that meant a lot to it during life. This time is given to the soul so that it gets used to and adapts to incorporeal existence.

As soon as the third day arrives, the soul no longer has the freedom it once possessed. She is taken by angels and escorted to heaven to worship God. For this reason, a memorial service is held - living people say goodbye to a person and his soul completely.

After worshiping God, the soul is shown Paradise and the righteous who live in it. This “excursion” lasts for six days. During this time, according to the Fathers of the Church, the soul begins to be tormented: on the one hand, it sees how beautiful this place is and that Paradise is the main goal of human existence. On the other hand, the soul understands that it is unworthy to be among the saints, since it has many vices and sins. On the ninth day, the angels return for the soul and accompany the soul to the Lord.

What do you need to do these days alive?

We should not hope that the walk of the soul is an otherworldly matter that does not concern us. On the contrary, the soul needs our support and all possible help for 9 days. At this time, the living can hope more than ever for the relief of the suffering of the soul and its salvation. This can be done through prayer in church and at home. After all, even if a person was a sinner, they pray for him, this means that there is something good in him, something because of which the soul deserves a better fate. Of course, it is advisable to order a service in a temple, but prayers for the 9th day should also be personal, from yourself. In addition, you can help the soul of a loved one with good deeds, such as donation and alms.

This may seem strange, but the ninth day in Orthodoxy even has some festive connotations. And all because people believe that after staying in Paradise, even as a guest, the soul will be able to adequately praise God. And if a person was completely righteous and led a pious life, then it is believed that after 9 days the soul can be transferred to a Holy place.

Please tell us where a person’s soul arrives after his death, why are memorial days the third, ninth and fortieth?

Priest Afanasy Gumerov, resident of the Sretensky Monastery, answers:

After the separation of the soul from the body, an independent life begins for it in the invisible world. The spiritual experience accumulated by the Church makes it possible to construct a clear and harmonious teaching about the afterlife of man.

The disciple of St. Macarius of Alexandria (+ 395) says: “When we walked through the desert, I saw two angels who accompanied St. Macarius, one on the right side, the other on the left.” One of them talked about what the soul does in the first 40 days after death: “when on the third day there is an offering in the Church, the soul of the deceased receives from the angel guarding it relief from the grief that it feels from separation from the body; receives because praise and offerings in the Church of God have been made for her, which is why good hope is born in her. For for two days the soul, together with the angels who are with it, is allowed to walk on the earth wherever it wants. Therefore, the soul that loves the body sometimes wanders around the house in which it was separated from the body, sometimes around the coffin in which the body is laid<...>And a virtuous soul goes to those places in which it used to do the truth. On the third day, He who rose from the dead on the third day - the God of all - commands, in imitation of His Resurrection, every Christian soul to ascend to heaven to worship the God of all. So, the good Church is in the habit of making an offering and prayer for the soul on the third day. After worshiping God, He is commanded to show the soul the various and pleasant abodes of the saints and the beauty of paradise. The soul examines all this for six days, marveling and glorifying the Creator of all this - God. Contemplating all this, she changes and forgets the sorrow that she had while in the body. But if she is guilty of sins, then at the sight of the pleasures of the saints she begins to grieve and reproach herself, saying: “Alas” for me! How I fussed in that world! Carried away by the satisfaction of lusts, I spent most of my life in carelessness and did not serve God as I should, so that I too could be rewarded with this goodness<...>After considering all the joys of the righteous for six days, she is again lifted up by the angels to worship God. So, the Church does well by performing services and offerings for the deceased on the ninth day.

After the second worship, the Lord of all again commands to take the soul to hell and show it the places of torment located there, the different departments of hell and the various torments of the wicked.<...>Through these various places of torment the soul rushes for thirty days, trembling, so as not to be condemned to imprisonment in them. On the fortieth day she again ascends to worship God; and then the Judge determines the proper place for her affairs<...>So, the Church acts correctly by making remembrances of the departed and those who have received Baptism” (St. Macarius of Alexandria. The Sermon on the Exodus of the Souls of the Righteous and Sinners..., - “Christian Reading”, 1831, part 43, pp. 123-31; “How to conduct soul for the first forty days after leaving the body, M., 1999, pp. 13-19). The great ascetic of our time, St. John (Maksimovich) writes: “It should be borne in mind that the description of the first two days after death gives general rule which by no means covers all situations<...>saints who were not at all attached to worldly things, lived in constant anticipation of the transition to another world, are not even attracted to the places where they did good deeds, but immediately begin their ascent to heaven" (Blessed St. John the Wonderworker, M., 2003 , p. 792) .

The Orthodox Church attaches great importance to the doctrine of aerial ordeals, which begin on the third day after the separation of the soul from the body. She passes through the airspace of the “outpost”, where evil spirits accuse her of her sins and strive to keep her as one akin to them. The holy fathers write about this (Ephraim the Syrian, Athanasius the Great, Macarius the Great, John Chrysostom, etc.). The soul of a man who lived according to the commandments of God and the statutes of St. The church passes through these “outposts” painlessly and after the fortieth day receives a temporary resting place. It is necessary for loved ones to pray in Church and at home for the departed, remembering that until the Last Judgment much depends on these prayers. “Truly, truly, I say to you, the time is coming, and has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live” (John 5:25).

The first two days after death

During the first two days the soul enjoys relative freedom and can visit those places on earth that are dear to it, but on the third day it moves to other spheres.

Here Archbishop John is simply repeating the teaching known to the Church since the 4th century. Tradition says that the Angel who accompanied St. Macarius of Alexandria, said, explaining the church commemoration of the dead on the third day after death: “When on the third day there is an offering in the church, the soul of the deceased receives from the Angel guarding it relief in the grief that it feels from separation from the body, it receives because the doxology and the offering in the Church of God was made for her, which is why good hope is born in her. For for two days the soul, together with the Angels who are with it, is allowed to walk on the earth wherever it wants. Therefore, the soul that loves the body sometimes wanders near the house in which it was separated from the body, sometimes near the coffin in which the body is laid; and thus spends two days like a bird, looking for nests for itself. And a virtuous soul walks through those places in which it used to do the truth. On the third day, He who rose from the dead commands, in imitation of His resurrection, every Christian soul to ascend into heaven to worship the God of all.” ["Words of St. Macarius of Alexandria on the exodus of the souls of the righteous and sinners", "Christ. Reading" August 1831].

In the Orthodox rite of burial of the departed, St. John of Damascus vividly describes the state of the soul, parted from the body, but still on earth, powerless to communicate with loved ones whom it can see: “Woe is me, such a feat must be accomplished by a soul separated from the body! Alas, then there will be so many tears, and there will be no mercy! lifting up his eyes to the Angels, he prays idlely; stretching out his hands to men, he has no one to help. In the same way, my beloved brethren, who have considered our short life, we ask for repose from Christ for the departed one, and great mercy for our souls" ( Sequence of burial of worldly people, stichera samoglana, tone 2).

In a letter to the husband of her dying sister mentioned above, St. Feofan writes: “After all, the sister herself will not die; the body dies, but the face of the dying remains. It only moves into other orders of life. It is not in the body that lies under the saints and then, and it is not hidden in the grave. She's in a different place. Just as alive as now. In the first hours and days she will be near you. - And he just won’t say it, - but you can’t see her, otherwise here... Keep this in mind. We who remain cry for those who have departed, but they immediately feel better: it is a joyful state. Those who died and were then introduced into the body found it a very uncomfortable place to live. My sister will feel the same. She’s better there, but we’re freaking out, as if something bad has happened to her. She looks and is probably amazed at it” (“ Soulful reading", August 1894).

It should be borne in mind that this description of the first two days after death gives general rule which by no means covers all situations. Indeed, most of the passages from Orthodox literature quoted in this book do not fit this rule - and for a very obvious reason: the saints who were not at all attached to worldly things, lived in constant anticipation of the transition to another world, are not even attracted to places where they did good deeds, but immediately begin their ascent to heaven. Others, like K. Iskul, begin their ascent earlier than two days by the special permission of God's Providence. On the other hand, all modern “posthumous” experiences, no matter how fragmentary they are, do not fit this rule: the out-of-body state is only the beginning of the first period of the disembodied journey of the soul to the places of its earthly attachments, but none of these people spent time in a state of death long enough to even meet the two Angels who were to accompany them.

Some critics of Orthodox teaching about the afterlife find that such deviations from the general rule of “posthumous” experience are evidence of contradictions in Orthodox teaching, but such critics take everything too literally. The description of the first two days (and also the subsequent ones) is by no means some kind of dogma; it is simply a model that only formulates the most general order of the post-mortem experience of the soul. Many cases, both in Orthodox literature and in accounts of modern experiences, where the dead instantly appeared alive on the first day or two after death (sometimes in a dream), serve as examples of the truth that the soul does remain near the earth for some short time. (Genuine apparitions of the dead after this brief period of freedom of the soul are much more rare and always happen by God's Will for some special purpose, and not by someone's own will. But by the third day, and often earlier, this period comes to an end ).