Prayer for Deceased Heretics or Unbelievers

by Saint Theophan the Recluse

 

 

For your parents who died in heresy, you may pray, entrusting them to the infinite mercy of God. However, they cannot be commemorated in church services or in the Divine Liturgy.

The Church prays to the Lord for her children, beseeching Him to establish them in the right faith and to guide them on the path of piety. For the unbelievers, the heretics, the deluded, and, in general, all those who are outside her bosom, she prays that they may return, coming to know the true God. And since they can return only here, on earth, and in this life, her prayer is limited to the living.

The “departed” unbelievers or heretics have definitively lost every possibility of return.

The Church is the God-man body of Christ, and Christians, both living and “departed,” are members of that body.

All those who do not belong to it are called to believe, to be baptized, and to be incorporated into the Church, because only thus will they be saved.

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16), said the Lord.

And again: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit” — and this can take place only on earth — “he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

To His disciples, He also said: “Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). That is, whatever you forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven. Thus, whatever was not forgiven in this life cannot be forgiven in the next.Top of Form

For this reason, the Church does not pray even for suicides, even if they are baptized, because by taking their own lives, they no longer have the opportunity to repent and be forgiven for their dreadful sin.

I understand that all this grieves you, because it stands in opposition to your feelings and desires. Yet I will comfort you by telling you that you may pray for your parents, entrusting them with hope to the infinite compassion of God. This is what we do, after all, for infants who die unbaptized.

I pray the Lord may have mercy on their souls according to His mercy and according to your faith.

 

From the book Χειραγωγία στην πνευματική ζωή by Saint Theophan the Recluse, published by the Holy Monastery of the Paraclete, pp. 74–75.

Greek online source: 

https://katanixi.gr/i-proseychi-gia-toy-kekoimimenoys-airetikoys-i-apistoys-osioy-theofanoys-toy-egkleistoy/