Types of punishments in hell. Holy Fathers about hell and hellish torment

One paralytic, exhausted in the spirit of patience, with a cry asked the Lord to end his suffering life.
“Well,” said the Angel who once appeared to the sick man, “the Lord, as indescribably good, deigns to answer your prayer. He ends your temporary life, only on the condition: instead of one year of suffering on earth, do you agree to spend three hours in hell? Your sins require cleansing through the suffering of your own flesh; you should still be in relaxation for a year, because both for you and for all believers there is no other path to heaven except the cross, paved by the sinless God-man. You are already bored with that path on earth; experience what hell means, where all sinners go; however, just try it for a while three hours, and there - through the prayers of the Holy Church you will be saved.”

The sufferer thought about it. A year of suffering on earth is a terrible continuation of time. “I’d better endure three hours,” he finally said to the Angel. The angel quietly took his suffering soul into his arms and, confining it in the depths of hell, departed from the sufferer with the words: “In three hours I will come for you.”
The darkness prevailing everywhere, the cramped space, the reaching sounds of inexplicable sinful cries, the vision of the spirits of evil in their hellish ugliness, all this merged for the unfortunate sufferer into inexpressible fear and languor.
Everywhere he saw and heard only suffering, and not a sound of joy in the vast abyss of hell: only the fiery eyes of demons sparkled in the underworld darkness and their gigantic shadows rushed before him, ready to crush him, devour him and burn him with their hellish breath. The poor sufferer trembled and screamed, but only the hellish abyss responded to his screams and cries with its fading echo and the bubbling flames of Gehenna. It seemed to him that entire centuries of suffering had already passed: from minute to minute he was waiting for a luminous Angel to come to him.
Finally, the sufferer despaired of his appearance and, gnashing his teeth, groaned and roared with all his might, but no one listened to his cries. All the sinners, languishing in the darkness of the underworld, were busy with themselves, with their own torment.
But here quiet light angelic glory spilled over the abyss. With a heavenly smile, an Angel approached our sufferer and asked:

- What, how do you feel, brother?
“I didn’t think that there could be a lie in the mouths of angels,” the sufferer whispered in a barely audible voice, broken by suffering.
- What's happened? - objected the Angel.
- What is it? - said the sufferer. “You promised to take me from here in three hours, and yet whole years, whole centuries, it seems, have passed in my unspeakable torment!”
- What years, what centuries? - the Angel answered meekly and with a smile. - An hour has only passed since I left here, and you still have two hours to be here.
- How about two hours? - the sufferer asked in fear. - Two more hours? Oh, I can’t stand it, I have no strength! If only possible, if only it is the will of the Lord, I beg you - take me from here! Better on earth I will suffer for years and centuries, even until last day, until Christ’s coming to judgment, just get me out of here. Unbearable! Have pity on me! - the sufferer exclaimed with a groan, stretching out his hands to the bright Angel.
“Okay,” answered the Angel, “God, as the Father of generosity, surprises you with His grace.”
At these words, the sufferer opened his eyes and saw that he was still on his painful bed. All his senses were in extreme exhaustion; the suffering of the spirit was reflected in the body itself; but from that time on he joyfully endured and endured his suffering, bringing to mind the horror of hellish torment and thanking the merciful Lord for everything (“Letters of the Holy Mountainer”, paragraph 15, 1883, p. 183).

“For a long time, under the N. church, Gabriel Ivanovich Gonchar served continuously as church warden, a little short of reaching his fiftieth birthday. There was not a single election in which parishioners said anything other than the same words: “We have no one more just than Gabriel Ivanovich, and more diligent to God's temple, there is nothing to say about that, we are afraid to even think about how to replace him, we ask that he walk without a shift until his death.” And he served in the church until his death, which he was honored to receive on Friday, Easter week.

He had ideal honesty, immeasurable meekness and truly Christian love. God did not give him children; he lived with his wife, brother and nephew. No one ever saw him for a moment without difficulty, and God knows that he always performed mental prayer. He looked like the holy elder Seraphim of Sarov, in the year of whose canonization he died.

He did not drink any alcoholic beverages or tobacco and always meekly “punished” others for drunkenness and smoking. Even when I was receiving the Holy Mysteries, I was drinking clean water. I served with him already in last years his life, but all the people said that they knew Grandfather Gabriel to be a teetotaler for as long as they could remember.

Several times I asked him why he was such a strict teetotaler, maybe he didn’t listen to the doctor when he was sick, or he drank wine when he was sick; Grandfather refused and started talking about something else. A year before his death, we went with him to the city (he put a small amount of money as an eternal deposit for the needs of the church and his commemoration). Usually silent, grandfather was very talkative this time and talked a lot about the Holy Land and Athos, where he fell ill and lived for a month. What struck him, a teetotaler, was that at every meal everyone was given wine, and they gave him... “But I can’t...”.

It was then that I begged my grandfather to tell me why he couldn’t drink even a small glass of weak wine and water.

“I was the only son with my father, we had plenty of everything. My parents taught me to be smart and did not give me will. But people know how they go: they gather for parties, hire music, drink vodka, and in exchange for vodka and gifts for the girls, they steal all sorts of godly (grain) from the Bateks. I was like that too, and although my father punished me, I kept dodging it, and it was possible to drag out our house for a long time and nothing would be noticed. I got into the habit of going to parties, and at parties I began to get involved: without vodka, I became bored. And then my father died. He had his own will and did not obey his mother. My mother married me, she thought I would improve, but I became a completely lost person, and would have disappeared if the Lord had not looked back at me.

It happened that I once took him to the city to sell a cart of flour. Having sold it, I drank well there, drove home with my friends and also drank everything on the way.

I don’t remember how we arrived home. Here, father, there are people who do not believe that there will be eternal torment, Eternal flame that there is no hell, and I, the damned one, have already suffered in this world with eternal torment of fire and remember it every minute, although it was a long time ago.

I woke up and saw that there was fire all around, I felt that I was tied up, I couldn’t move my arms or legs, but they were standing all around me... (he never mentioned the name of the demon and at the same time he was always baptized) and they were burning me with fire, but not such as on earth, this one can be tolerated, but the most cruel. Yes, it’s just as painful, and just as hot (he said almost with tears) as it was now, and yet more than fifty years have passed since I was in agony, and how it was that night! And the fire is fierce, and they burn me and scorch me, but they themselves... it’s impossible to say!..

My savior! Mother of God! I prayed here, but there was no end to the torment. It seemed like a whole century had already passed, but I only suffered for one hour. Apparently, the Lord punished me to admonish me, but had mercy.

Suddenly everything disappeared at once, I felt that my arms and legs were untied, I turned around and saw: a lamp was burning in front of the images (it was just before the Dormition), and my mother was standing on her knees, tearfully praying. It was then that I remembered and realized that it was correctly said: “ Mother's prayer lifts from the bottom of the sea." And my mother’s prayer rescued me from hellish torment.

I got up healthy, as if I had never taken anything drunk. My mother said that an unconscious horse brought me to me. They carried him in as if he were dead and laid him on a bench; there was no sign of breathing. Mother began to pray with tears... Since then, I have not been able to forget this hour for the rest of my life.

How will it be for us, sinners, if we suffer like this for a whole century! Merciful Lord, You punished me once on earth, punish me here many times with fierce torment, and deliver me from eternal torment.”

I ask: “Did you, grandpa, tell anyone about this?” - “There was once, besides my spiritual father (in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where he went annually during Lent, although he fasted very often in his church), I told one person, so he laughed and said that I imagined it when I was drunk. God be with him, I haven’t told anyone else except you, father.”

And grandfather was smart to not tell anyone about this. He was glad that the Lord enlightened him and did not want to allow the enemy of the human race to again incline himself to the path of destruction through fruitless reflections and explanations.

Such admonitions often occur, but they often pass without a trace for the benefit of those admonished, for they try to explain them by natural causes, forgetting that in the world, and especially in human life, everything happens not for any natural reasons, but according to the Providence of God." Helmsman", No. 18).

“In the sixties, I lived in the village of Krasnoye, on the Raevsky estate, with my son Victor,” says Bernasconi, an old woman of sixty-five years old. “He was a wonderful child, active, intelligent, developed beyond his years, and, moreover, was distinguished by remarkable piety. Everyone around him loved him, not excluding the common people. When he was five years old, he fell ill with diphtheria. One morning he says to me: “Well, mom, I have to die today, so you give me a bath so that I can appear to God clean.” I began to object that this would make him worse, he might catch a cold, but he persistently demanded a bath, and I gave in to his request - I washed him, dressed him in clean linen and laid him on the crib. “Now, mom, give me the little icon here that I love so much,” he asked, and I fulfilled his request.

“Hurry, mom, give me a candle in my hand, I’m going to die,” the child demanded, and I lit a wax candle and put it in his hand. “Well, now goodbye, mom!” - were last words child: he closed his eyes and died immediately.

For me, the loss of this child was a hopeless grief, I cried day and night, not finding consolation in anything. But then one winter, I woke up in the morning and heard from the left side of my bed the voice of my son Victor, who was calling me: “Mom, mom, are you awake?”

Amazed, I answered: “No, I’m not sleeping,” and turned my head in the direction from which the voice came, and - lo and behold! - I saw my Victor, standing in light clothes and looking sadly at me. The light seemed to come directly from him, because the room was so dark that without it I could not have seen him. He stood so close to me that my first impulse was to rush to him and press him to my heart; but as soon as this thought flashed through my head, he warned me: “Mom, don’t touch me, you can’t touch me.” And at these words he moved back a little. I began to silently admire him, and meanwhile he continued to say: “Mom, you keep crying about me, why are you crying? I feel good there, but it would be even better if you cried less. Don't cry." And disappeared.

Two years later, Victor appeared to me again in reality when I was in the bedroom: “Mom, why do you need Olya, she’s superfluous to you,” he said. (Olya is my daughter, who was about a year old at that time.) When I asked if they would really take her, he said: “She’s superfluous,” and disappeared. Two weeks before her death, he appeared again and said: “Mom, Olya is superfluous to you: you are all big, she will only bother you.” I was sure that my daughter would die, and two weeks later, when I came home, I was not at all surprised when the nanny announced that the child had a fever and then two days later my Olya died” (“Rebus”, 1893, No. 2).

Monk Jonah’s son Cosmas, a novice at the Chudov Monastery, died. On Friday, Lazarus Saturday, around midnight, Jonah got up to adjust the lamp and saw that the door had opened, his son in a white shirt was coming in, followed by two boys, beautifully dressed.

“Cosma, why did you come, don’t touch me, I’m afraid of you,” said the father.

Don’t be afraid, father, I won’t do anything,” he answered and kissed his father.

“Guys, don’t leave, don’t leave me alone with him,” Jonah said. - How do you feel, Cosma, there?

Thank God, father, I feel good.

The father still wanted to ask about something, but the son stood up and hurriedly said: “Forgive me, father, I need to visit the elder,” and, without saying which one, he and the boys left the cell (“Monastery Letters”, paragraph 16 ).

“On the night of September 28-29, I dreamed,” reports Count M.V. Tolstoy, “as if I was standing in my living room and heard the voices of children coming from the living room. I look - different children pass me into the hall and between them Volodya, our deceased son. I happily rushed to him, he smiles at me with his old angelic smile. I extended my hands to him:

Volodya, is that you? - He threw himself on my neck and hugged me tightly. - Where are you, my joy, are you with God?

No, I am not with God yet, I will soon be with God.

Are you feeling good?

Okay, better than yours. And I visit you often, everyone is around you. I am almost alone, only Mary Magdalene is with me. Sometimes I get bored.

When are you bored?

Especially when they cry for me. But it consoles me when they pray for me, when they give to the poor for me. I keep praying, praying for my mother, for you, for my brothers, for Pasha (sister), for everyone who loves me. Hug my dear mother for me, like this, tightly.

You should have seen her, my joy.

And I’ll see you, I’ll definitely see you.

When?

When will the crying stop? Then I heard my wife’s voice from the corridor, I turned there to look at her, then looked back - he was no longer there.

I woke up with an increased heartbeat, in such excitement that I could not resist the loud sobs with which I woke up my wife. At that very moment I wrote down on paper what I had seen in the dream word for word as it was” (M. Pogodin. “Simple speech about tricky things”),

“One doctor, named Gennady,” says Blessed Augustine, “doubted the immortality of the soul and future life. One day in a dream he sees a young man who tells him:

Follow me.

He followed him and came to some city. Then, after some time, the same young man appeared to him in a dream another time and asked:

Do you know me?

“Very good,” answered the doctor.

Why do you know me?

You took me to some city, where I heard unusually pleasant singing.

What, did you see the city and hear singing there in a dream or in reality?

And what am I talking to you now, do you hear in a dream or in reality?

“In a dream,” he answered.

Where is your body at this moment?

In my bed.

Do you know that at the present moment you cannot see anything with your bodily eyes?

What are these eyes with which you now see me?

The doctor did not know what to answer, but the young man told him:

Just as at the present moment you see and hear me, although your eyes are closed and all your feelings are inactive, so you will live after your death: you will see, but with spiritual eyes, so do not doubt that after this life there will be another life" ( A. Kalmet, p.95).

* * *

One of our acquaintances, a man with higher education, worthy of complete trust, A.N.S-in, told the following incident from his life.

“Several years ago,” he said, “I fell in love with a girl with whom I had the intention of entering into a legal marriage, and the day of our wedding had already been set. But a few days before the marriage, my bride caught a cold, developed transient consumption, and died three or four months later. No matter how great the blow was for me, time took its toll - I forgot about the bride, or, at least, did not grieve for her as much as in the first time after her death.
It happened to me one day, on business, to pass through a city in our Ya-province, where I had relatives, with whom I stayed for one day. I was given a separate room for the night. I had a dog with me, smart and loyal. The night was, as I remember now, moonlit, at least read it. I had just started to fall asleep when I heard my dog ​​start to grumble. Knowing that she never grumbles in vain, I thought that, probably, a cat had been accidentally locked in the room, or a mouse had run through. I got up from the bed, but didn’t notice anything, but the dog grumbled louder and louder: apparently, it was scared of something; I look and her fur is standing on end. He began to calm her down, but the dog became more and more frightened. Together with the dog, I was unconsciously afraid of something, although by nature I was not a coward; Yes, I was so scared that the hair on my head began to rise. It is remarkable that my fright intensified as my dog ​​became frightened, and reached such an extent that, it seems, in another minute I would probably have fainted. But my dog ​​began to calm down, and with it I began to calm down, and at the same time I began to seem to sense someone’s presence and was expecting an appearance, without knowing who. When I had completely calmed down, suddenly my bride came up to me and, kissing me, said: “Hello, A.N.! You don’t believe that there is life beyond the grave, so I appeared to you, look at me, you see - I’m alive, I even kiss you. Believe, my friend, that a person’s life does not end with death.” At the same time, she indicated to me what to read from the Holy Scriptures about the afterlife and from other various spiritual works. She told me something else that she forbade me to tell others about. When I got up the next day, I saw myself completely gray overnight, so that my family were afraid when they saw me at morning tea.
At the same time, I must admit that until this incident I did not believe in anything: neither in God, nor in the immortality of the soul, nor in afterlife; for several years he did not go to church, remaining without confession and Holy Communion, he laughed at everything sacred; fasts, holidays and sacred rites Orthodox Church didn't exist for me. But now, by the grace of God, I have become a Christian again, a believer, and I don’t know how to thank the Lord that He pulled me out of the abyss of harmful delusions.”

“My father, being very ill, asked me to visit him,” says one official. - He lived quite far from me, in Chicago. He believed in the return of departed souls to earth, but he never managed to convince me of this. When I came to him, he said that he was especially glad to see me, since he did not have long to live on earth.

“How,” I said, “do you really think that you are going to die soon?”

No,” he answered, “I will not die, but will only leave my earthly body; I will soon pass into the spiritual world, clothed in a spiritual body, and I wanted to see you so that you would give me one promise. When I go to another world, I will come and show myself to you. Promise me: when you see and get to know me, you will believe that souls can return and you will admit this publicly. To this I answered him:

Okay, father, but now you shouldn’t talk about death; perhaps you will recover and live for a long time.

“I’m telling you that I won’t die,” he objected, “and I will live, but you will no longer see me in my earthly shell after this meeting of ours.” Don't forget your promise.

When I said goodbye to him, he was calm and felt well, but he repeated that he would soon move to the spiritual world and from there he would come to me.

About ten days after my return home, having received no bad news from my father, I decided to give a friendly dinner to several of my friends.

I had to spend the whole day in trouble, and I went to bed thinking about tomorrow and about preparations for the upcoming dinner. I had just managed to fall asleep when I suddenly woke up immediately, without my usual interval between sound sleep and awakening. I looked around, looking for what exactly could have woken me up. And then at the opposite end of the room I saw a bright light, in the form of a bright spot the size of my palm. I began to peer closely at it and became convinced that the light could not penetrate from anywhere outside. It was gentle White light, similar moonlight, which had a wave-like movement and seemed to tremble, as if alive. Soon the bright spot began to approach me, growing larger and larger at the same time in volume. It seemed to be moving towards me. As it approached, I began to gradually discern a full-length figure in it. My father stood in front of me so that I could examine in detail all the features of his face. Nothing had changed in him, only his face seemed younger, less tired than it had been during our last date, and his whole figure was straighter and more cheerful. He spoke, and his voice was so similar to my father’s voice that I could no longer doubt it. Smiling his gentle smile, he said:

Do you remember your promise? Behold, I have come to you, as I said before.

Father, are you dead? - I asked him.

You must not forget your promise.

I don’t understand why I suddenly asked him:

Father, what time is it now?

Exactly four minutes past twelve,” he answered.

So you died at night? - I asked.

“I repeat to you,” he answered, “I have not died, I am quite alive, I want you to fulfill your promise.”

Then he said goodbye to me, and his figure crumbled into a light cloud and gradually disappeared just as it had appeared - it seemed that darkness had swallowed it up.

The next day, when my friends gathered for a dinner party, suddenly, during dinner, the doorbell rang and they brought me a telegram with the following content: “Father died today at midnight” (“Rebus”, 1889, No. 49).

Prince Vladimir Sergeevich Dolgoruky, while in the rank of envoy at the Prussian court, became infected with freethinking there, so that he did not believe in God or the afterlife. Having learned about this, brother him, Prince Peter, more than once wrote letters to him, in which he convinced: “Believe, brother, that without true faith there is no happiness on earth, that faith is essential for the future life,” etc. But it was all in vain. Prince Vladimir Sergeevich laughed at the beliefs of his devout brother.

One day, returning from the king and feeling very tired, he undressed hastily, threw himself into bed and soon fell asleep. Suddenly he hears that someone is pulling back his blanket, approaching him and touching his hand with a cold hand, even squeezing it. He looks, sees his brother and hears from him: “Believe!” Delighted unexpected appearance, the prince wants to throw himself into the arms of his brother, but suddenly the vision disappears. He asks the servants: “Where did your brother go?” - and hearing from them that they have not seen any brother, he tries to assure himself that this is a dream, a dream, but the word “believe” does not cease to ring in his ears and does not give him peace.

He wrote down the date, hour and minute of the vision and soon received news that on that very day, hour and minute his brother, Prince Pyotr Sergeevich, died.

Since then, he became a devout and believing Christian, and often spoke about this vision to others (Monk Mitrofan, “How Our Dead Live,” vol. 1).

“In our time,” one hermit said, “there was Brother John, who bore the obedience of the reader. Some time after his death, he appeared not in a dream, but in reality to his spiritual father Savva. John stood in the doorway of his cell, naked and burned like coal. With bitter tears, he asked himself for alms and forgiveness, confessing to his spiritual father his hidden sin, for which he was now tormented there, and asked to tell all the monastic brethren about this sin, otherwise he (the confessor) himself would answer in death” (“Prologue” , August 23).

Hello,

When stories are told about Christians who have been to hell, I wonder to what extent such people can even be called Christians, since they have been to hell? Surely they were living in sin at the time of their “visit to hell,” and therefore, at least at that time, they could not be classified as particularly authoritative persons who could be trusted.

Also remember, not all stories where people saw hell, as well as heaven, are REAL visits to these places where people will stay in eternity. It is quite possible, sometimes it could just be a dream or a vision. Thus, "seeing hell or heaven" is not an actual visit to them, but only a perception this image. How true this image is is a question worth paying attention to.

How to figure it out?

Scripture says: “Do not quench the spirit. Do not disparage prophecies. Try everything, hold on to what is good.”(1 Thess. 5:19-21). This means that, on the one hand, there is no need to immediately humiliate everything incomprehensible that was revealed to man in spiritual world, but on the other hand, one cannot be trusting of everything supernatural - one must put everything to the test and stick to what is good.

Can people have false visions or dreams? Certainly. And not because they deliberately want to mislead God's people. Anyone can make mistakes. It may be that some revelations may be true and others may be false.

Our task is to figure out, using Scripture, how true or false a given prophecy, vision or dream is.

If a person tells any details about the spiritual world that do not contradict the Bible, but are not confirmed by it, then we cannot fully know whether it is true or not. Sometimes when faced with such stories, I say to myself: “Well, this is a person’s personal spiritual experience. He has the right to think and believe so, since nothing contradicts the Bible. But I have no obligation to accept this as the final truth, since the basis for my faith is only the Holy Scriptures."

When does a vision describe some spiritual reality (in in this case- hell) contradicts Scripture, then it should not be accepted. This is a false vision.

Is it possible to say from Scripture that demons in eternity represent the devil’s stokers, or maybe simply the executors of God’s punishment? I'm SURE that's not the case! In this area, the Bible gives clear answers:

The Gospel of Matthew says about " eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"(Matthew 25:41). The book of Revelation also says: “The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”(Rev.20:10).

We clearly see that eternal suffering was originally created not for man (Satan later wanted to drag him along with him), but for the devil. If the enemy of human souls is tormented “day and night forever and ever,” is it really possible to imagine that his henchmen, demons, will escape this fate? Of course not.

So, in this case, we have the opportunity to gain some understanding this issue in the light of Scripture, and as you noted, it does not confirm the thesis that demons do not suffer in eternity.

I hope I answered your question!

To roughly imagine what a sinner will feel in hell, let’s say he talks to himself in hell.

Godless, remembering his life, he will say to himself: “I also deliberately suppressed religious beliefs in myself. The truths of faith spoke about themselves to my soul. But I was looking for books and people who would convince me otherwise, i.e. that there is no God and no future life. Now I see that there is a God. I didn’t want to know Him voluntarily, but now I know Him involuntarily. Now by my own deeds I am convinced of the insanity of my previous reasoning, for example, that “the soul means nothing, that man is only matter, or the composition of flesh and blood, which are forever destroyed with his death.” How many others have I infected with my freethinking and unbelief! How fearlessly he entered the church, which, meanwhile, others entered with reverence! How he despised priests, laughed at every sacred thing, and thus insanely deprived himself of saving grace!” Persistent dissenter will remember to himself: “how many admonitions I have neglected! I didn’t want to believe even the most obvious evidence Orthodox truth! Even before his death he rejected confession and St. Communion, which my loved ones invited me to accept, but which my “mentors” in the schism rejected me from. I was called to the Church, as to Noah’s Ark, but instead of the legitimate priests, I wanted to listen better to the same ignoramuses, or at least worldly people, like myself. And now I find myself behind the saving ark, drowning in a fiery flood!” The idolater will remember the soulless idols that he worshiped instead of God...
Will remember and money lover about his money and property, which he now also places in his place instead of God, which is why he is called an idolater.
Voluptuary who in this life has fun all his days, feasts brilliantly, looks at this life as only for a period in order to enjoy every possible way, there he will actually feel the power of the sacred text: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50) He will ask himself: “Where are these feasts with music? Where are the everyday evenings for unnecessary relaxation, playing cards, running away from your family? Where are those who visited me in such great contentment that they drenched themselves in wine? Where is feminine beauty?
Persistent proud will remember how much from his pride, which he now shows in various ways: through lust for power, inaccessibility, irritability, ambition, and contemptuous treatment of others, he will remember how much others have suffered from his satanic pride. Nowadays, he doesn’t even want to listen for a minute when someone thinks of awakening his conscience, begins to tell him the truth directly or only in modest terms: he runs away from truthful speech and closes the door behind himself, so that there is no possibility of ever conveying it to him. the truth, to lead him out of error. But there he will be tied hand and foot, there he will inevitably listen to all the accusations from his conscience
Blasphemer will remember how he carelessly and impudently used the name of God in conversations, writing and vain worship; how he even cursed the name of God, remaining, through God’s forbearance, not struck at that very moment; how wickedly he thought and spoke about the ever-virgin Mary the Mother of God; as he called his “angel” woman's face to whom I had unclean love and with whom he even lived depravedly.
To the Oathbreaker His memory will come to mind of many oaths, which he took without any fear and consciously violated, also his vows before God and the assurances of others of something in the name of God, which he did not even think of fulfilling.
Blasphemer will remember all the times when he turned it into a joke and laughter church services, holy icons and clergy.
Those who didn't respect Sundays and holidays will bring to mind how at a time when good Christians hurried to church, they, on the contrary, went to field work, or - even worse - gathered in houses of feasting and debauchery..., as if under holidays, as if deliberately, they composed singing and ceremonies, otherwise they all gathered in one house (club) for fun; Like all the holidays, we spent only in revelry. These same people will remember how, except for two or three days of fasting, which they performed only according to custom, they never went to church during the whole year; how, getting up in the morning and going to bed in the evening, each time they didn’t even think about praying to the Lord God.
Post violators they will remember the meat and wine with which they satiated their bellies, while others (even those weaker in their strength) remained on dry eating or did not think about food at all (for example, on Great Friday). Blasphemers of the Holy Spirit Those who expressed their blasphemy, for example, by not recognizing holy relics and miracles that may have been performed before their eyes, will be convinced that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be tolerated in the next century.
Unruly children they will remember how, with their rude words, their resistance and depraved lives, they forced their parents to grieve and cry for them. But it will be hard to the parents themselves remember how they clearly seduced their children into a lawless life, how they did not try to raise their children in the fear of God, and thus brought them along with them to this place of torment.
How terrible the memories will be suicides who were free to destroy their souls, easily and autocratically disposed of their lives, but will not be able to stop their torment in hell with a new suicide! With what horror will they remember their crimes and others the killers, especially those who raised their murderous hands against the parents themselves, or shed the blood of a priest, or tortured their own wives and children, as persecutors once did for Christ, or even took the lives of pregnant women and babies!

Terrible will be the memories of haters, molesters, cruel rich people, seducers, in general, all those who killed their neighbor slowly, physically or mentally and morally! The consciousness of these people will bring to light all the tears that the innocent shed as a result of their cruelties. And they will cry the more intensely, the more tears they themselves have been shed by others in this life.

Fornicators and adulterers will remember in the next world how they laughed at the chastity of others, as with early years they defiled themselves with fornication, just as they seduced many innocents; how they dissolved legitimate marriages with their criminal connections, how they seduced widows; how they had concubines or concubines until old age and even when dying they did not want to end the shameful relationship; how they reached such sins of carnal passion that it’s shameful to even talk about it; will remember that they did not restrain themselves from their passion even on great bright holidays, on the strictest posts And fast days. At the same time, they will be reminded of bad words and their equally bad songs, music and theatrical performances, from which their souls were pampered and their imaginations were inflamed. These people will feel the stench of hellfire all the more.
Robber and thief their robberies and thefts will be remembered, as well as the things themselves that they acquired and used unjustly.
Lazy they will remember their talents, which they buried in the ground: a fiery flame, like some kind of scourge, will sting them for laziness.
To the slanderer his vain suspicions of others, his gossip, his evil tongue, from which many died, his false denunciations and testimonies, his very evasiveness from defending a right and innocent person, in general, his constant favor only towards untruth and lies.
Envious he will remember how he angrily rejoiced at the failures of his neighbor, how many times he stopped the good undertakings of others out of envy, while he himself, meanwhile, did nothing useful; how one would like to master everything; how my heart broke when I saw the intelligence, merits and successes of another, and how after that I took revenge on this person, without knowing why; how much he took from others with his intrigues and envious persecution good night, health and years of life. For this reason, in the next world he will be greatly consumed by his conscience and howl, as it were, like a stupefied dog howls.
Here are examples of how sinners in the future life will remember their past!!!

Fomin. "Afterlife"

There are more or less serious sins. Are the punishments for them in hell also different? Of course, the punishments are different. But know that the weakest torment in hell is equal in strength to the strongest torment on earth. The weakest joy in heaven is similar to the strongest earthly joy. Depending on how a person spends his life, he sinks to the bottom of hell according to the strength of the sins he has committed. Take, for example, Khrushchev, the “miracle worker.” He closed about 10,000 churches, many monasteries; What do you think - he doesn’t suffer there? He will face eternal terrible torment there - if he does not repent before death.

How many other such rulers were there? They raised their hands against God, against the House of God, against the monasteries. How many people were tortured on their orders! People did not suffer in vain, they are martyrs before God, but these rulers will receive a good punishment. Take Nero: he set fire in the 1st century Christian city, there was a strong fire, and he stood on the balcony and enjoyed it. He opened the most severe persecution against all Christians. Diocletian, Julian, Nero - there were many of them; Of course, they all got a place in hell because of their deeds. It was not God who punished them, they punished themselves.

A man was baptized in mature age. Continuing his sinful life, he became an apostate from Christ. What awaits the soul of such a person? Wouldn't it have been better for him not to be baptized at all than not to justify the mercy of God?

The Monk Macarius the Great was walking through the desert one day and came across a human skull. He was before God special person, had the grace of the Holy Spirit, and much was revealed to him from God. He, being in special grace, hit the skull with his staff and asked:

Tell me, who are you and where are you?

“I am an idol priest,” he answered. - I'm in hell.

“Do you find any joy,” asked the Reverend.

There is joy when Christians in the Orthodox Church commemorate their dead on Saturdays and Sundays. There is light then in the upper layers of hell, and part of it penetrates to us. Then we see each other. This brings us great joy.

The monk also asked:

And below you - the idol priests - is there anyone?

Orthodox Christians who were baptized, but did not go to Church, did not wear crosses, did not repent of their sins, did not confess, lived unmarried, did not receive communion and died without repentance. They are even lower than those pagans who did not know the True God.

What awaits those people who blaspheme God, who once destroyed churches, removed crosses and bells from churches, burned icons and holy books?

There were times when all this was done en masse. Some feared God, but there were “brave” ones who did it all. But often they fell from a temple or from a bell tower and were killed. In fact, such people often do not live to see their death. IN Caucasus mountains there was such a case. One monk from Kiev-Pechersk Lavra- Hierodeacon Isaac - suffered 92 years from bandits. Monks lived in the mountains and there was a church. He himself was blind. The brothers went to Sukhumi for worship on a big holiday. He was left alone. Three Muslim Abkhazians came and said:

Give me everything valuable you have. “They started asking him for gold and money.

He says:

I am a hermit. I don't have any of this. Seek what you find - yours.

We will kill you. Killing a monk is like killing a fly!

They took a towel, tied it around his neck, took him to a cliff and threw him into the abyss. He fell to his death.

Now one old archimandrite lives in the Pochaev Lavra. His cell was then built just below Fr. Isaacia. He heard everything they said and saw everything that the robbers did, but he could not help - the mountains got in the way. Then he went down into the abyss - Isaac was already dead.

So the fate of these killers is interesting. They all died within a year: one was driving a car and crashed - he fell into an abyss, another was crushed by a tractor, the third was killed.

If the Lord does not punish in this life those people who go against Him, against the servants of God, then they will face severe punishment on the day Last Judgment. Everyone should know that they will get what they deserve. The Lord loves everyone. The Lord is waiting for everyone. He is waiting for a person to repent. But when there is no longer a feeling of repentance in a person, when the one who is strangling has completely become coarse, then there is a sudden death. Demons take this soul and drag it straight to hell. Sometimes such people commit suicide.

What do those who have been to the next world say about hell? What is he like?

Television rarely shows anything soulful or edifying. But then somehow the “Moskovia” channel was showing interesting program. One woman, Valentina Romanova, told how she was in the afterlife. She was an unbeliever, was in a car accident, died and saw her soul separated from her body. In the program, she described in detail what happened to her after her death.

At first she did not realize that she had died. She saw everything, heard everything, understood everything and even wanted to tell the doctors that she was alive. She screamed: “I’m alive!” But no one heard her voice. She grabbed the doctors by the hands, but nothing worked for her. I saw a piece of paper and a pen on the table and decided to write a note, but I couldn’t pick up the pen.

And at that time she was pulled into a tunnel, a funnel. She came out of the tunnel and saw a dark man next to her. At first she was very glad that she was not alone, turned to him and said: “Man, tell me, where am I?”

He was tall and stood on her left side. When he turned, she looked into his eyes and realized that no good could be expected from this man. She was overcome with fear and ran. When she met a luminous youth who protected her from scary man, she calmed down.

And then the places that we call hellish were revealed to her. The cliff is a terrible height, very deep, and below there are many people - both men and women. They were different nationalities, different color skin. An unbearable stench emanated from this pit. And there was a voice to her that said that here were those who during their lifetime committed the terrible sins of Sodom, unnatural, prodigal.

Elsewhere she saw a lot of women and thought:

These are child killers, those who had abortions and did not repent.

Then Valentina realized that she would have to answer for what she had done in her life. Here she first heard the word "vices". I didn’t know what this word was before. Only gradually did I understand why hellish torment is terrible, what sin is, what vice is.

Then I saw a volcanic eruption. A huge fiery river flowed, and people swam in it human heads. They plunged into the lava and then emerged. And the same voice explained that in this fiery lava there are the souls of psychics, those who practiced fortune telling, witchcraft, and love spells. Valentina got scared and thought: “What if they leave me here too?” She had no such sin, but she understood that she could have stayed in any of these places forever, since she was an unrepentant sinner.

And then I saw a staircase that led to heaven. A lot of people were climbing up these stairs. She also began to rise. A woman walked ahead of her. She was exhausted and began to feel exhausted. And Valentina realized that if she didn’t help her, she would fall down. Apparently, she is a merciful person and began to help this woman. So they found themselves in a bright space. She couldn't describe him. She spoke only about the amazing fragrance and joy. When Valentina experienced spiritual joy, she returned to her body. She found herself in a hospital bed, standing in front of her was the man who knocked her down. His last name is Ivanov. He told her:

Don't die anymore! I will compensate for all losses on your car (she was very worried because the car was broken), just don’t die!

She was in the next world for three and a half hours. Medicine calls it clinical death, but allows a person to be in this state for no more than six minutes. After this period, irreversible changes in the brain and tissues begin. And even if a person is later revived, he turns out to be mentally disabled. The Lord showed a miracle once again resurrection of the dead. He brought a person back to life and gave him new knowledge about the spiritual world.

I also knew such a case - with Claudia Ustyuzhanina. This was in the sixties. When I was returning from the army, I stopped by Barnaul. One woman came up to me in the temple. She saw that I was praying and said:

There is a miracle in our city. The woman lay in the morgue for several days and came back to life. Would you like to see her?

And so I went. I saw a huge house, a high fence there. Everyone had such fences. The shutters in the house are closed. We knocked and a woman came out. They said we came from church, and she accepted. There was another boy at home, about six years old, Andrei, now he is a priest. I don't know if he remembers me, but I remember him well.

I spent the night with them. Claudia showed certificates of her death. She even showed the scars on her body. It is known that She had stage 4 cancer and died during surgery. She told a lot of interesting things.

And then I entered the seminary. I knew that Claudia was being persecuted; the newspapers would not leave her alone. Her house was constantly under control: nearby, two or three houses away, there was a two-story police building. I spoke with some fathers at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and they called her. She sold her house in Barnaul and bought a house in Strunino. The son has grown up and now serves in the city of Alexandrov.

When I was in the Pochaev Lavra, I heard that she had passed into the other world.

Where is hell?

There are two opinions. Saints Basil the Great and Athanasius the Great imagine that hell is inside the earth, because in Holy Scripture The Lord, through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, says: “I will bring you down /.../ and place you in the depths of the earth” (Ezek. 26:20). The same opinion is confirmed by the canon of Matins on Great Saturday: “Thou hast descended into the lower earth,” “thou hast descended into the nether regions of the earth.”

But other teachers of the Church, for example, St. John Chrysostom, believe that hell is outside the world: “Just as royal dungeons and mines are far away, so Gehenna will be somewhere outside this universe. But why are you asking where and in what place it will be? she? What do you care about that? You need to know that she exists, and not where and in what place she is hiding.” And our Christian task is to avoid hell: loving God and neighbors, humbling and repenting, and pass on to that world.

There are many mysterious things on earth. When Archdeacon Stephen was stoned, a temple was built for him in this place, at the gate to Jerusalem. In our time, archaeologists came there from Belarus and Ukraine, opened the entrance under the temple that leads under the city, brought in equipment and suddenly saw black birds in huge underground caves, with wingspans of more than two meters. The birds rushed at the archaeologists and drove them

such fear that they left the equipment, drove an excavator and blocked the entrance with stones and sand, refusing further research...

How many people go to the Kingdom of God, and how many go to hell?

One priest was asked this question. He smiled:

You know, dear! When I'm in front Divine Liturgy I climb up to ring the bell tower, then I see: people from nearby villages are walking along the paths to the church. A grandmother with a stick, a grandfather mincing with his granddaughter, young people walking... By the end of the service, the entire temple is filled. This is how people go to the abodes of Paradise - one at a time. And to hell... The service is over. I go back to the bell tower and see: people are all coming out of the church gates together. They can’t get through right away, but they’re still hurrying them from behind: “Why are you standing there! Get out quickly!”

The Holy Scripture says: “Enter at the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go in through it” (Matthew 7:13). It is very difficult for a sinful person to renounce his vices and passions, but nothing unclean will enter the Kingdom of God. Only souls purified in repentance enter there.

The Lord gave all the days of our life to prepare for eternity - we will all have to go there someday. Those who have the opportunity should constantly go to church - both in the morning and in the evening. Death will come, and we will not be ashamed to appear before the inhabitants of heaven, before God. Good deeds Orthodox Christian will intercede for him.

About faith and salvation. Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov)

Frigidity is a relatively common sexual disorder and, according to our data, occurs in 12.1% of women. It can be primary or secondary.

Primary frigidity called sexual unawakenedness of a young woman who has just begun sex life women.

In most cases, at the beginning of sexual activity, a young woman does not experience sexual desires and enters into intimate intimacy only out of curiosity or the insistence of her partner. This lack of libido is observed with primary frigidity, and it usually continues until the woman experiences orgasmic sensations. This allows us to call it conditional primary frigidity. Only in persons with a “cold” character, as well as those who were strictly (incorrectly) sexually educated in childhood, sexual desire does not appear, and primary frigidity remains for life. This can also happen in psychopathic individuals due to bitter disappointments as a result of rape or rudeness of a partner at the beginning of sexual activity (psychological primary frigidity). Mentally healthy women usually survive these events without subsequent sexual dysfunction. In some cases, lack of libido may be a symptom mental illness(symptomatic primary frigidity).

Secondary frigidity is somewhat more common, when a woman experiences a sudden or gradual, temporary or stable loss of sexual desire.

Causes of secondary frigidity are diverse, but most often it develops when a woman constantly lacks orgasm due to insufficient potency or gross awkwardness of her husband and is a kind of protection for her from even greater disappointments. In some cases, it can also be a symptom of developed mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia. A decrease in sexual desire, as a rule, occurs with physical and mental fatigue, long-term illnesses and various conflict situations(partial frigidity, according to V.I. Zdravomyslov). With rest and elimination of the cause of the conflict, sexual desire is gradually restored and partial frigidity disappears.

The main symptom of frigidity is a complete lack of sexual desire, which does not appear even after preliminary caress of the spouse. These women lack sexual arousal and orgasm, but they never feel unsatisfied, since they do not feel the slightest need for sexual satisfaction. As a rule, there is an absence of erotic dreams and complete indifference to sexual intercourse, and with secondary frigidity - disgust or antipathy towards the latter. With partial frigidity, libido is sharply reduced to the need for sexual relations “several times a year.” During foreplay, a slight attraction usually occurs, which is not sufficient for sexual intimacy. Such women look for an excuse to avoid sexual intercourse or agree to copulate to please the man.

Lack of libido manifests itself against the backdrop of a general decline in the affective-volitional sphere, although many frigid women later sometimes develop lust for power, grumpiness, an excessive need for veneration and other negative character traits.

Although frigid patients very rarely seek help, they are subject to treatment in order to eliminate disharmony in sexual relations in the family and prevent the development of negative traits character.

First of all, you need to find out possible reason suffering and, if possible, eliminate it (improving the production and living environment, creating favorable conditions for the implementation of sexual acts, etc.). In case of symptomatic frigidity that has developed as a result of diseases of the nervous system, consultation with a neuropsychiatrist is necessary to construct a treatment regimen for the underlying disease.

The main method of treating frigidity is hypnosuggestive therapy. Such a patient should be explained in an accessible form the relationship between the sexes from a psychological and physiological point of view. Where the basis of the disorder is inhibition of sexual desire due to improper sex education, psychotherapy is aimed at removing this inhibition. Suggestion in hypnotic sleep is carried out by a psychotherapist.

In cases of secondary frigidity that has developed against the background of anorgasmia, psychoerotic training gives good results married couple, which contributes to the erogenous-emotional preparation of a woman for the emergence of sexual desire in a dog. First the doctor must identify erogenous zones such a patient and during the conversation indicate the desirability of their stimulation by the husband in order to increase sexual arousal during foreplay. Then, in a delicate form, such advice is given to the husband, and it is important that the wife does not know about it.

In addition to psychotherapy, vitamins, central nervous system stimulants, hormonal drugs and physiotherapeutic procedures are prescribed. Among the vitamins, a 20% oil solution of vitamin E, 1 capsule 2 times a day, in combination with a solution of retinol acetate, 1 capsule (50 thousand IU) 1 time a day for 20-30 days, or multivitamin preparations (“Undevit” 1 each) is indicated tablets 3 times a day or “Dekamevit” 2 tablets 2 times a day for 30 days). From stimulants nervous system, usually use tinctures of ginseng, Chinese magnolia vine, Eleutherococcus 20-25 drops 3 times a day, as well as pantocrine 30 drops 3 times a day for 20-30 days.

The prescription of hormonal drugs is justified only for sexual infantilism, ovarian-menstrual cycle disorders, and endocrine diseases. Treatment is carried out according to generally accepted regimens for each disease. Of the androgenic drugs that usually increase libido, methyltestosterone 0.005 g 2 times a day sublingually can be used, but it is prescribed only for a normal menstrual cycle and well-developed secondary sexual characteristics. Of the physiotherapeutic procedures, warm douching has the most pronounced stimulating effect on sexual desire and reactivity. mineral water, vaginal mud packs, gynecological and underwater massage and some hydrotherapy treatments.

It should be remembered that treatment of frigidity is always long-term and can only be successful with active participation in curing the patient herself. Even in cases where it is not possible to awaken sexual desire in an extremely cold woman, she still needs reasonable advice and help in overcoming her aversion to sexual intercourse in order to normalize the intimate relationships of the spouses.
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