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I was surprised today, while visiting the website of an Orthodox church, to find the following prayer: A PRAYER FOR THOSE IN HELL
On this final and saving festival thou art pleased to accept propitiatory prayers for those imprisoned in hell, granting us great hopes that thou wilt send down relaxation and refreshment to all held fast in bitter bondage. Hear us who humbly and piteously beseech thee: and to the souls of thy servants who have fallen asleep before us, grant rest in a place of light, a place of green pasture, a place of refreshment, whence all pain, sorrow and sighing have fled away; make their spirits to dwell where the righteous rest, and grant them peace and pardon.
For thine in very truth, O master and Maker of all, is the great mystery both of the temporary dissolution of they creatures, and of their subsequent restoration and repose unto all ages. We thank thee for thy grace in all things: for our entry into this world and our departure from it, and for the hopes that we enjoy of resurrection and eternal life pledged to us by thine own infallible promise, which shall be our portion at thy second coming. For thou art the precursor of our resurrection, the impartial and compassionate judge of all who have lived, the Master and Lord who gives us our reward.
-from the Vespers of Pentecost ???
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Hades? As in the mythology of antiquity?
I still don't get it, I'm afraid. Is it like Orthodox Purgatory or something?
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hades is not hell
it is not purgatory either
don't forget "Hades remains enchained"
Last edited by haydukovich; 06/09/12 01:28 AM.
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Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sheol, a place where the dead endure a gray, formless existence separated from their bodies and from God. Christ's descent into Hades emptied the tombs and destroyed death as a permanent state, transforming it instead into a period of sleep before the dead are reunited with their material, glorified bodies in a material, restored universe at the Parousia.
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Non-believers have expectations that only Hades exists after death, that there is no life after death. Theologically, it was the "place" where Adam and Eve and their descendents existed before the Resurrection; thus the Resurrection Icon "The Harrowing of Hades" http://www.comeandseeicons.com/pascha/pha21.htm I believe your quote is from the 3rd kneeling prayer of Pentecost Sunday vespers. The Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic excerpt reads as follows: Also, on this salvific feast on which everything was totally accomplished, You deigned, therefore, to accept supplications in behalf of those being held in bondage, You promised great hopes for their release from the grievous bonds constraining them by sending down your consolation.
Hear us, your humble servants, beseeching You , and grant repose to the souls of your servants who have already departed into a place of light and a place of refreshment and peace from which all illness, sorrow, and sighing have been taken away. Commit their souls to the places of the just, and make them worthy of peace and of repose. For the dead cannot praise You, O Lord, nor do those in Hades venture to offer confession to You. But we, the living, do bless You, and we do pray and offer You supplications and sacrifices for their souls. I am of the Catholic bias, and believe that the eastern belief in Purgatory exists; they just don't like to call it that and have some not-so-vital differences with actual Catholic Purgatory doctrine. Fr Deacon Paul
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Just when I thought it was safe to log on again!
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The theologia prima of both East and West is identical: the fallen require purification after death, and prayers for the dead are efficacious in that regard. Everything else is theologia second, or theoria--elaboration and speculation upon that which has been revealed. As Father Taft likes to say, nothing that diverges from or elaborates upon the deposit of faith of the undivided Church can make any claim to ecumenicity.
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In Latin, no distinction is made between between the biblical terms sheol/hades, gahennon, tartarus. They are all rendered in Latin as infernus (hell). That's not quite the case in the East, which tends to keep the distinctions.
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In Latin, no distinction is made between between the biblical terms sheol/hades, gahennon, tartarus. They are all rendered in Latin as infernus (hell). That's not quite the case in the East, which tends to keep the distinctions.
That's not true. For instance Matthew 5:22 in the Vulgate: "Ego autem dico vobis: quia omnis qui irascitur fratri suo, reus erit judicio. Qui autem dixerit fratri suo, raca: reus erit concilio. Qui autem dixerit, fatue: reus erit gehennæ ignis."
Last edited by JBenedict; 06/18/12 12:31 PM. Reason: formatting
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Many a times this is also in relation to the Bosom of Abraham found within reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, though it is also found in the Gospel of St. Luke.
From what I understand this is suppose to be the resting place of the holy and righteous prophets and ancestors of God. (Though since we both commemorate Joachim and Anna as saints I dont know how this works).
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It was the temporary resting place of the righteous until the coming of Christ "opened the gates of Heaven."
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I'm confused about this too.
It appears purgatory, in this schema, is a good place, or a place with no purgation, but at the same time, there is the toll-house opinion.
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Hi Roman.  I was surprised today, while visiting the website of an Orthodox church, to find the following prayer: A PRAYER FOR THOSE IN HELL
On this final and saving festival thou art pleased to accept propitiatory prayers for those imprisoned in hell, granting us great hopes that thou wilt send down relaxation and refreshment to all held fast in bitter bondage. Hear us who humbly and piteously beseech thee: and to the souls of thy servants who have fallen asleep before us, grant rest in a place of light, a place of green pasture, a place of refreshment, whence all pain, sorrow and sighing have fled away; make their spirits to dwell where the righteous rest, and grant them peace and pardon.
For thine in very truth, O master and Maker of all, is the great mystery both of the temporary dissolution of they creatures, and of their subsequent restoration and repose unto all ages. We thank thee for thy grace in all things: for our entry into this world and our departure from it, and for the hopes that we enjoy of resurrection and eternal life pledged to us by thine own infallible promise, which shall be our portion at thy second coming. For thou art the precursor of our resurrection, the impartial and compassionate judge of all who have lived, the Master and Lord who gives us our reward.
-from the Vespers of Pentecost ??? Have you ever read C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce?
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