Does the Church pray

gregorytheSinner

Does the church pray over those who died in sin?

A voice in the back of my head keeps nagging at me and saying it doesnt, i'm not to sure if i heard this before or not.
However, i was just reading how Billy Mays (the pitchman) died due to the effects of cocaine?

So would the church pray over someone, who went on drinking binge, and died as a result? 

Unknown

Absolutely, why not?  God is the only one to judge as he knows the hidden. Maybe Billy Mays did good things that we don’t know about!! God won’t forget the good slightest actions we do. God never gives up on anyone and so does the church (during his life off course).

If we as humans empathize with Billy, how much more God empathizes with His own creature.

sodr2

no it doesnt...

if someone lets say was climbing a house to rob it and died falling off, the church would not pray for him/her...or suicide, or anything like that... thats not from me, thats from the pope...

cocaine, im not sure...it is illegal, but i dont think its a sin

lol..i was just reading the synixar for today:

The righteous woman Salomi, encouraged them until they had fulfilled their martyrdom. Then, she also cast herself in the fire without waiting for them to throw her into it. Thus, they received the crown of martyrdom.

i guess there are exceptions...

socoolbishoy

the church does not pray ONLY if one of her followers committed suicide!

not that I'm saying the pope didn't say that... but I never heard it, so forgive me... I'm just stating what I know!

cocaine IS a sin... but if someone dies while in addiction, you never know maybe he or she were in the process of repentance and quitting... the same with smoking and any other sin...


which brings me to a question... how can we know the person that committed suicide didn't repent in the last second?! I know its the rites of the church, but this one I always have a hard time with!

Akhadna el baraka, neshkor Allah!

sodr2

dang nab it, i cant open pdf files...

http://www.copticpope.org/modules.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=viewlink&cid=7&min=20&orderby=titleA&show=10

^^ this topic is found in one of the popes books called "problems with people"...pretty sure

Let us suppose that a person has died suddenly without having
had a chance to confess, or that he has forgotten to confess
some sins, and therefore hasn't received an absolution for them.
The Church can give him absolution and asks forgiveness for
him, in the Prayer for the Departed.

The Church, therefore, prays for the sake of the departed
out of a kind of compassion, because no-one is without sin,
even if his life on earth lasts only one day (and this is a
phrase which comes in part of the Prayer for the Departed).
David said: "If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord who
could stand? But with You there is forgiveness... " (Ps. 129:3-
4) And he also said: " Do not enter into judgment with Your
servant, For in Your sight no one living is righteous. " (Ps.
143:2) So if this is the situation, that there is no servant without
a fault, and no master who is not forgiving, we pray for those
who have passed away [Being human beings who put on the
body and lived in the world].

We pray for everyone in this state, since only God is good.
We ask for forgiveness and then leave the matter to God,
always knowing that any human being might perhaps have
repented even if it was at the hour of his death.

But for those who have died in the act of committing a
deliberate sin, without having repented, we do not pray, since
our prayers in these circumstances would be going against
God's goodness and justice.

aidan

In the Russian Orthodox Church we comemorate the living and the dead during the liturgy by sending up a list of names to the altar BUT ONLY ORTHODOX NAMES. Or,more accurately, only those in communion with the Russian Orthodox church (that would include Antiochenes, Greeks, Finns etc). I would not be able to write the names of any non-Chalcedonians, RCs, protestants  or unbelievers on my list. For me this is a big problem since the large bulk of people I know belong to the latter category. I can pray PRIVATELY for all people but not liturgically.

When I have been to a liturgy in a Coptic church I have noticed a list of names appearing on the power point. Are these names exclusively members of your church or can you throw in the names of those outside you wish to remember?

peterfarrington

I pray for all people at the altar and during the liturgy when we list the intentions of the people in the congregation.

I know that the Eastern Orthodox are rather strict on praying only for people in communion with them, and I can imagine that historically if you are in a village where everyone is part of the Church except for those under some sort of discipline then that works fine. But as a priest and even as just an Orthodox Christian I do believe that we should pray liturgically for all those whom the Lord puts on our hearts.

It does not seem to me that this diminshes our ecclesiology at all. We are just asking the Lord to have mercy on all those on whom we desire him to have mercy. We are not telling him what to do. We are not saying - everyone is in the Orthodox Church.

I have certainly prayed privately as I have received communion, as a lay man and then as a reader and subdeacon, that in some way God would grant that the blessing and life I received might also be to the benefit of some other person or persons on my heart. That seems entirely Christian. While we bear the burden of praying for others we cannot suddenly forget them at the Liturgy.

As a priest, it seems to me that I should feel even more keenly the absence of faces at the liturgy, and should wish to remember them, whatever their circumstances.

Father Peter

aidan

' Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me...' (Rom 15.30)

Bless Father Peter

The whole business of intercessory prayers is a difficult one for me. It seems that God wants me to pray for those few hundred people I am in contact with at Church, home and work plus celebs I feel concerned over such as Michael Jackson.

I think I'm looking for a quantifiable result such as the conversion of those dear to me. Since we don't expect God to work according to our time scales one (me) has to constantly suppress a feeling of impatience, 'Come on, Lord, give me the company of my family and friends in Your Kingdom!' But then am I a City set on a Hill? I don't think so.

Lord have mercy.

Can we ask those of you who have devout parents, siblings, friends etc to contribute advice on this one.

peterfarrington

I feel exactly the same.

I pray and pray for years and do not see the results anywhere I expected and desire.

What can I do except pray and pray more. I have come to understand that it is 'the prayers of a righteous man' which are heard and so I have learned that my spiritual state has an impact on the lives of those I pray for. Nevertheless it is a hard thing to have many family and friends who are always on our hearts and for whom we pray constantly without seeing great results.

Perhaps we must console ourselves with the thought that God's ways are not our ways and continue to strive in prayer, but leaving the weight of the burden upon His shoulders rather than our own. I have often walked in the shopping centres and felt the burden of all those busy souls who do not know Christ, but I cannot bear this burden, it is too much for a man, but God can bear it, and we can be fellow-ministers with Him in His work of salvation. If we feel that we must bear the burden alone it will crush us.

Let us keep praying. I will pray for your family, do pray for mine.

Father Peter

mabsoota

lovely posts.
i will join my small prayers to yours. may God transform our lives to be more like Him so our loved ones and the people we pass in the street will be blessed by our lives and our prayers. People are often touched by our witness more than we realise, yes, it takes a lot of patience.
Yes, it is God's burden, a great reminder not to be too depressed by the state of the world.
Lord have mercy