What you need to know about the Ecumenical “meat-free” parental Saturday. Ecumenical parental (meat-free) Saturday

On certain days of the year, the Church commemorates all the departed fathers and brothers in faith. The memorial services performed at this time, specified by the charter, are called ecumenical, and the days on which the commemoration is performed are called ecumenical parental Saturdays. The first universal parental Saturday occurs on Meat Week, before the start of Maslenitsa, which prepares believers for Lent.

Why is Ecumenical Parental Saturday celebrated a week before Lent? The Sunday before Maslenitsa is dedicated to the remembrance of the Last Judgment: although everyone is still preparing for the festive fun of Maslenitsa, this joyful fun is gradually joined by the solemn and repentant mood of the beginning of Lent. “Remember the hour of death and you will never sin,” they said in ancient times, therefore the fun of Maslenitsa should not be a crazy orgy, but should be a time of joyful communication with others.

The history of the establishment of the Ecumenical Parental Saturday

The establishment of meat-and-eating Saturday goes back to the apostolic tradition, which is confirmed by the charter of St. Church, set forth in the 5th century by the Monk Savva the Sanctified on the basis of ancient tradition, and the custom of ancient Christians to flock to the cemetery on certain days to commemorate the dead, of which written evidence has been preserved from the 4th century.

The basis for the establishment of this commemoration was the fact that on the Sunday of the week of the Meat of St. The Church commemorates the second coming of Christ, and therefore - on the eve of this day, as if on the day preceding the Last Judgment of Christ, and - moreover - bringing closer to the spiritual exploits of St. Lent, when we must enter into the closest union of love with all members of the kingdom of Christ - both the Saints, the living and the dead, the Church intercedes for everyone, from Adam to this day, who have fallen asleep in piety and the right faith, our forefathers, fathers and brothers of all generations. : from the line of kings, princes, monks, laymen, youths and elders, and all... - who suddenly died and were left without a legal burial - intercedes, begging the Righteous Judge to show them His mercy on the day of impartial retribution for all.

The meaning of Ecumenical Parental Saturday

Why "parental"? After all, we remember not only our parents, but also other people, often not connected to us by any family ties? For different reasons. First of all, not even because parents, as a rule, leave this world before their children (and therefore too, but this is not the main thing), but because in general our first priority prayer duty is for our parents: of all the people whose temporary earthly life is over, we first of all owe it to those through whom we received this gift of life - our parents and forefathers.

In the synaxarion for this day it is written “The Holy Fathers legitimized the commemoration of all the dead for the following reason. Many quite often die an unnatural death, for example, while traveling in the seas, in impassable mountains, in gorges and abysses; It happens that they die of hunger, in fires, in wars, or freeze. And who can count all the types and types of unexpected and unexpected deaths? And all such are deprived of legalized psalmody and funeral prayers. That is why the holy fathers, motivated by love for mankind, established, based on the apostolic teaching, to perform this general, universal commemoration, so that no one, no matter when, where and no matter how he ends his earthly life, would be deprived of the prayers of the Church.”

It’s not often, but we hear from people: “Why pray for the dead, after all, the Lord Himself told us: “What I find, in that I will judge,” what is the meaning of such a prayer?”

Indeed, if these words of Christ are attributed to the moment of human death, then the funeral prayer has no meaning for anyone. But do we understand these words correctly?

This phrase does not refer to Scripture, but to an agraph written by the martyr Justin the Philosopher. It is consonant with the word of Scripture: “Watch therefore, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). This means that we are not talking about the fact that the Lord will find us with our death at one moment or another, but about something completely different, about the fact that we cannot indulge in carelessness. It is clear that the deceased can hardly be careless in the face of Eternity.

After death, according to the words of the holy fathers (St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Alexandria, Ignatius Brianchaninov and many others), the soul meets the angelic world (here both God’s angels and demons begin the struggle for the soul). This is the moment of contact of the soul with Eternity, but not the end yet.

The soul goes through ordeals, it takes some time. A private judgment begins for the soul, but this is not the final determination for a person, otherwise there would not be a Last Judgment at the Second Coming of Christ. The Lord gives time to the human soul for correction, but the whole sorrow is that the soul is not the whole person. It may be more difficult to sin without a body, but it is also more difficult to correct oneself without a body. But there is a way out of this!

The Apostle James commands us: “Pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

But it is not so much the body that needs healing, but the soul, because the source of all our illnesses is concentrated in it - sin. That is why the Church’s prayer for the deceased is effective, because it is a prayer for deliverance from the root cause of suffering - sin.

Our deceased relatives are not yet completely human, because man is a three-part being. Only then is a person human when the spirit, soul and body are alive. The dead are dead in body, although they are alive in soul, which means they have time to repent. And we, their still living relatives, loved ones, neighbors, simply brothers in Christ, can help them. Diligent prayer and generous alms can truly perform miracles. And the main miracle - the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of the soul happens unnoticed by us, but this does not make it lose its importance. After all, prayers for the repose of our souls will soon be very, very important to us.

Why is it so important to Christians and how is it related to the theory of the immortal soul? Ecumenical Parents' Saturday, we will tell you what needs to be done on this day in the article. Parents' Saturday is the day when every believer remembers deceased relatives; they are in every family. If the parents are alive, then grandparents, aunts and uncles, it doesn’t matter that the event is called “parental”. We are talking rather about all the dead Christians, whose loved ones can perform a funeral service and pray for their souls, which have already been transported to other worlds.

The priests bless the brought kutia, then hold a large-scale memorial service, which is dedicated to all the dead. It was the Holy Fathers who once legitimized this event, because not every person dies peacefully, surrounded by relatives or in a hospital. Many disappear and then their fate is unknown. Relatives have been searching for the missing for years, but they rarely find them, and when they do find them, it’s only bodies. The police then open cases, trying to track down the perpetrators and find out the circumstances of the death. Others die somewhere in the mountains or drown in the ocean.

There are countless victims of shipwrecks, lonely people who died, for whom there was no one to order a memorial service. Many children die before they are born. Lonely old people, homeless people, people from distant, disadvantaged countries are dying. Some die in fires, freeze somewhere in the north, or fall from mountains, in gorges, or wander through forests. It’s impossible to count all the unfortunate people, and no one will be able to create a single system that would indicate the name, then the date of death of absolutely every person.

Before God, everyone is equal, everyone has the right to a funeral service, except for suicides, whose funeral service the priests refuse. Therefore, the holy fathers legitimized the new custom. It doesn’t matter when and where a person died, he did not lose his right to the prayer of the church, given that, according to the teachings of Christians, prayers greatly help people who have already fallen beyond the brink of life. They become closer to the right path, the Father finds them. Prayer is like a kind word, a sign that they have not been forgotten.

With special zeal, the holy fathers pray for the unfortunate who were once kidnapped and died somewhere in a foreign land, without relatives, forgotten, for victims of fires or wars, disasters, natural disasters. About everyone who somehow did not receive the posthumous funeral service that is done at every funeral. Believing church visitors pray together with the priests for their relatives, also for everyone who once died in their family, their ancestors. After all, people cannot know all their ancestors. Also for friends, relatives, and families of acquaintances.

Also, in addition to the memorial service, the church reminds everyone alive about the frailty of life, that they must remember the inevitability of death and live their lives profitably, value their time.

It’s another matter when people ask: “Why do we even need to pray and ask the Almighty for something, if he himself said that he would judge everyone according to their deeds?” does this mean that the result of the Court is predetermined and prayers can change little at all?”

Yes, Christ really said this, but do people understand the meaning of these words correctly? In reality, the Lord spoke about the value of time, that one cannot live carelessly, without thinking about tomorrow, as if death will come anyway. Moreover, the deceased will no longer be able to carefreely wait for the arrival of the Judgment.

If you look at the legends from the holy fathers, then death does not become a point at all. The soul first leaves the body, then it is met by angels. A person has Guardian Angels who take care of him throughout his life. But people also have demons, they constantly push them to do bad things, instill bad thoughts. And when the soul appears before them, the angels begin to fight with the demons for it. This is how the soul comes into contact with the great Eternity for the first time, but this is only the beginning of its new path.

The soul, for the first forty days after the death of the body, visits all places that are important to itself, says goodbye to all loved ones. Then they celebrate accordingly for seven days, then forty days. People remember the deceased, tell their friends about him, and pray to help the soul. The deceased goes through serious ordeals, this is a private court in which the entire life lived is considered, what it did, bad or good.

But the priests also emphasize that this is not the last judgment for the soul. She will face the Last Judgment, when Christ will appear for the Second Time and the general Judgment of all the dead and living will begin, because the border between the dead and the living will be erased, because all the dead will rise. Therefore, the Lord, until that day comes, gives each soul time. Accept the deeds she has done, correct herself, cleanse herself.

But the soul is not the whole personality of a person. It is difficult for her to correct what she has done without her body, but it is possible.
It’s not for nothing that the Apostle James said that prayer helps heal the soul. This applies not only to the living, for whom prayer eases mental pain and numbs wounds. But also dead. True, they cannot pray fully, their bodies are dead, and a person is considered a complete being when his body is alive and his soul is alive, his spirit is alive.

This is the threefold beginning. Therefore, the living must help their dead relatives. Prayer makes their way easier, corrects their actions and brings them closer to the Father. After all, according to Christ, every person is like a lost sheep that must find the right way home. And “house” is God.

Ecumenical Parents' Saturday

2018 - February 10.

On certain days of the year, the Church commemorates all the departed fathers and brothers in faith. The memorial services performed at this time, specified by the charter, are called ecumenical, and the days on which the commemoration is performed are called ecumenical parental Saturdays.

The first universal parental Saturday occurs on Meat Week, before the start of Maslenitsa, which prepares believers for

GREAT POST.

On this day, memorial services are held in all churches according to a special charter; thousands of believers go to the temple to pray for the souls of the dead and light a candle for them, as well as offer a prayer service for them.

Ecumenical Parental Saturday is always celebrated 7 days before the start of Lent. The fact is that the Sunday before Maslenitsa week is dedicated to the Last Judgment: despite the fact that the festivities in honor of Maslenitsa are just getting ready, this enthusiasm is joined by the repentant mood of the beginning of Great Lent, a time of spiritual enlightenment and abstinence from animal food, as well as fun. In ancient times they said: “Remember the hour of death and you will never sin,” therefore Maslenitsa should not become an orgy, but should pass peacefully, cheerfully and in joyful communication with loved ones.

Religious meaning of Ecumenical Parental Saturday.

Firstly, why is this day called “parental”, because, as a rule, they commemorate all those who have already passed on to another world? Firstly, this can be explained by the fact that, as a rule, parents leave our world first, and therefore children pray for them. But this is not the main reason. The fact is that in the religious world, the initial duty of a Christian’s prayer is to pray for the parents who gave life. That is, of all those who have passed into another world, the first prayer is always for the parents, since it was they who became the guides to life.

What to do on Ecumenical Meat Saturday.

The clergy take upon themselves the responsibility of praying on this day for all dead Christians, but what should a believer do on this day?

First, you should go to church, and it is advisable to stand through the entire service, praying with the priest. Also, you should order a mass or commemoration for the deceased.


If for some reason you can’t go to church, you can pray for the dead at home, choosing a quiet and peaceful place so that no one interrupts the prayer. Special prayers for the Ecumenical Meat Week can be found in church calendars or prayer books; you can also read the “Our Father.”

Prayer for the departed.

Rest, O Lord, the souls of Your departed servants: my parents, relatives, benefactors(their names), and all Orthodox Christians, and forgive them all sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant them the Kingdom of Heaven.

It is known that you cannot pray for those who committed lynching, for women who died due to abortion, the unbaptized, unbelievers and heretics. In this case, alms should be distributed to the needy in order to honor the memory of the listed souls.

Although you can’t indulge in fun, you can’t be sad and grieve either. The fact is that memory and grief are not the same thing. Grief, sadness and sadness are negative emotions that clog the soul, while memory is a bright and worthy cause. No matter how difficult the loss may be, the dead must be remembered with warmth and a smile, this gives peace not only to the living soul, but also to the soul that is in the other world.

How to prepare kutya for Memorial Day

In ancient times, Kutya was called kolivo, which means boiled millet with honey.This dish is traditional for funeral litia and memorial services and serves as a reminder of the Resurrection of the deceased. This memory is hidden in the fact that just as a grain, in order to ripen and become an ear, must be laid in the soil and decay, so the body of the deceased must be consigned to the earth and experience decay in order to rise for another life. Honey here personifies the sweetness of the new life of the soul.
For a funeral meal, you must make kutya; on Ecumenical Saturday it is placed near the candles, even in churches.

Despite the fact that millet is traditionally used in the kutia recipe, it is not always available, so as an alternative, you can take pearl barley or makerice kutya. The selected cereal must first be soaked for several hours. Next, you need to cook porridge from the selected grain so that the grains are crumbly and do not stick together, that is, each grain is separate. When the porridge is ready, it can be supplemented; in the classic version, the addition is honey, but you can also add raisins or other dried fruits, any nuts, seeds, poppy seeds, pieces of fresh fruit, and even marmalade. The selected filler (or you can add everything at once, it all depends on personal tastes) should be ground like this. To make the porridge convenient to eat. Next, the porridge is mixed with the filling and placed in a convenient container to be taken to church and blessed.

The meal on Ecumenical Saturday must begin with kutya, once again praying for those who are in the other world.

Why is it important to pray for the dead on memorial days?

As already noted, first of all, you need to pray for your parents and grandparents, and if they are alive, then remember other relatives, even distant ones, friends, acquaintances. The fact is, love for neighbors lives as long as the memory of them remains in the soul. The prayers of the living help souls find peace and find their way in another world. The living cannot give anything more than prayers to the dead.

The fact is that the body of the deceased no longer feels anything, his eyes do not see, so he cannot feel and see how his grave is decorated, what flowers they bring him, and what the gravestone looks like. But their soul can hear prayer and follow the call of prayer, which, unlike the body, continues its life in the other world.

Meat Saturday, or Ecumenical Parental Saturday, is celebrated two days before Maslenitsa. In 2019 it falls on February 18th. This is a day of special remembrance of the dead. Saturday is called Meat Saturday because it precedes Meat Week (Sunday) - the last day before Lent, when it is allowed to eat meat products. It was called “parental” because Christians first of all remembered their deceased parents or due to the tradition of calling the deceased “parents” - those who went to their fathers. It received the name “Ecumenical” because on this day all baptized Christians are remembered.

Traditions and rituals of the holiday

On Meat Saturday, the Orthodox Church commemorates all dead Christians, especially those who died suddenly. On Friday evening, a great funeral service (parastas) is celebrated in churches. On Saturday morning, the funeral Divine Liturgy and general memorial service for the departed are celebrated. Believers bring funeral products to the funeral table, light candles for the repose, and submit notes with the names of deceased baptized relatives so that they can be mentioned at the liturgy.

On this day, people have a tradition of baking pancakes. People take the first pancake to the cemetery and leave it on the graves of their parents. Others give it to children, beggars and nuns and ask them to remember the person.

On Meat Saturday it is customary to remember deceased relatives. The whole family gathers for the funeral dinner. Housewives place an unpaired number of dishes and a jar with a lit candle on the table. A little from each prepared dish is left for the deceased. Before dinner begins, a prayer is said. The main funeral dish is kutia.

What not to do on Meatless Saturday

The church prohibits drinking alcoholic beverages at graves on this day. It is undesirable to clean the house, do laundry, or work in the garden. You cannot remove the dishes after the funeral dinner until the next morning.

Signs for Meatless Saturday

• If the first pancake falls to the floor while frying, it can only be picked up after reading the protective words. Otherwise, you can go after your deceased ancestors.
• Getting married on this day means disaster.

Prayer for everyone who has died

Remember, O Lord our God, in the faith and hope of the life of Thy eternally departed servant, our brother (name), as Good and Lover of mankind, forgiving sins and consuming untruths, weaken, forsake and forgive all his voluntary and involuntary sins, deliver him from eternal torment and the fire of Gehenna, and grant him the communion and enjoyment of Your eternal good things, prepared for those who love You: even if you sin, do not depart from You, and undoubtedly in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, You are glorified God in the Trinity, faith, and the Unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is Orthodox even until his last breath of confession. Be merciful to him, and have faith in You instead of deeds, and rest with Your saints as You are Generous: for there is no man who will live and not sin. But You are the One besides all sin, and Your truth is the truth forever, and You are the One God of mercies and generosity, and love for mankind, and to You we send glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Orthodox calendar has special days for church-wide commemoration of the departed. These days are called parental Saturdays. On February 18, 2017, Ecumenical Parental Meat and Eating Saturday is celebrated.

The rector of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Metropolitan of Vyshgorod and Chernobyl, Vladyka Pavel, told Vesti readers about the holiday.

What happens to a person's soul after death

“By the grace of God, we, dear brothers and sisters, have come almost close to the beginning of Great Lent. The Lord, as He said to Moses at Kupina, has no dead, but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God of the living, that is, those people who were born before us, live among us and will live after us - the Lord is One for all,” the Metropolitan said.

He emphasized that the Holy Church does not forget a single person, no matter what his nature, origin, education, no matter what he does, he still has a chance to have eternal life.

The first requirement is that a person must be baptized in the Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, the Church that Christ founded, which he established with His blood, which he provided with all the spiritual means necessary for our salvation.

The second quality that is extremely necessary for the salvation of a person’s soul is communion of the Mysteries of Christ, which is accompanied by repentance. A person must realize his ignorance, must realize that he himself cannot do anything without God. “And this is really so. The powers that be thought that they could do everything - live two or three periods of life (two or three centuries), but some are 50, some are 60, and some do not live up to this age. Everything is in the hands of the Lord. And as in the parable about the rich man and Lazarus, when the soul of Lazarus after death is carried by the Angels to the bosom of Abraham, and when the stingy rich man dies, he is buried, he ends up in hell and there is an abyss between them,” Vladyka Paul recalled.

The third thing is that it is necessary for our meeting to be with God and in God - it is not enough just to be baptized, it is not enough just to die, but we need to be in the Church of Christ after repentance and confession, partake of the Mysteries of Christ (the Body and Blood of the Lord), repenting without hypocrisy before the Judge The Lord, the priest, the Cross and the Gospel. The Lord said: “Whoever eats My Body and drinks My Blood, he abides in Me and I in him.”

“That is, the Lord has already given a guarantee of eternity in the fact that the person who lives the life of the Church, if he receives communion worthily, and we all receive communion unworthily, but trust in the mercy of God. Not a single person can be saved by his own works, only all-forgiving love "God elevates us to the rank of holiness and makes us heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. A person who partakes of the Body and Blood, he is united with Christ, he has hope for eternal life," said Metropolitan Paul.

The time comes for our meeting with the Lord, when the sentence is carried out, a person is taken from the earth and after the fall returns to the earth, he receives the inheritance that he took for disobedience. The body becomes lifeless, dead, it becomes the property of worms and non-worms, as stated in the funeral canon, it changes in an instant, and, unfortunately, even those who loved, hugged, kissed are afraid at times to approach the coffin and take the hand, because that the fear of death overcomes every person.

"The path to ignorance, and many people think that this is the end of our earthly life. If there is sunrise, there is day, if there is day, there is evening twilight, then night comes. And one thing changes the other. So it is in life - if there is human life, there is death and there is life again,” said the rector of the Lavra.

Man received a body from God - taken from the earth to the earth you will return. Next comes the question of the spiritual. The Lord breathed into man the spirit of life, and we became like God. We are akin to God, therefore Christ, as God, leaves heaven, descends to earth and takes on human flesh in order to unite and unite with us in order to introduce us to the first property.

“We have sinned, we have lost this breath, this holiness of the Divine breath, and today a person in the Sacrament of Baptism is renewed by the Spirit in the Holy Church. And the soul goes to worship God. According to the teachings of the Church, according to church tradition, for the first three days the soul is at the tomb, located in those places where she loved to visit during her life, and on the third day she goes to worship God, she sees Christ. She sees, if she lived piously, what she gained and, if she lived sinfully, what she lost. From the third to the ninth day, according to the human dimension, because God has neither day nor night, neither future nor past, there is only the present, these six days the soul goes around the abodes of Paradise. She sees, if she is worthy, the Mother of God, the Holy Saints, those holy people who lived here on earth, who were like us, but whether she wants it or not, she still sees Christ, her Creator, her God, her Creator,” said Bishop Pavel.

Soul after death: 9 days

On the ninth day, the soul goes to worship God, if it has received joy, forgiveness of sins, prayerful intercession of family and friends, it bows to God and then the Guardian Angel leads it on a long, difficult and terrible path.

For a whole month, for thirty days, the soul goes through ordeals. She sees her sins, remembers, and if she doesn’t remember, she will be reminded of what she sinned.

“The devil will not allow it just like that, knowing that he is dying, but someone else has received salvation. He will remind himself that you are his fiend of hell, you are his illegal inheritance, but leaning towards him. As we see at the entrance to the Near Caves and on Mount Athos there is an image after the death of the ordeal of Theodora and the life, holiness of St. Basil... It all begins with a small sin - disobedience and ends with Sodomy, mortal sins - sins of unforgiveness, unmercy... At every air ordeal, at every stop, the torture of the human soul takes place. It’s good if they pray for you, give alms. It’s good if your spiritual father bows his knees before the Lord for you at the proskomedia, liturgy, funeral service and asks God for the forgiveness of your sins. And if you are a “barren fig tree”, if you are a “withered “field,” if you are a “hardened stone,” who will pray for you? Who will cry for you and light a candle? Then the devil’s rage comes even more to that person,” the Metropolitan stated with regret.

Soul after death: 40 days

A person comes again on the fortieth day to worship God. And he can compare what he has gained and what he has lost.

“It is difficult to judge and difficult to say about people who do not believe. But I will tell you this short story. An atheist comes to the Apostle Peter and says: “I am an atheist, I do not believe in God, but they say that He exists and I want to see Him.” The apostle approached to the Lord and says: “Lord, the atheist wants to see you.” To which God replied: “You tell him that I don’t exist.” That’s all. Hell has no bottom, man descends into the underworld of the earth, which he has prepared for himself and cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, because he is not in this great and divine regiment, he has not been renewed from original sin. I will not list all the movements and religions that appear today, like weeds in an unplowed field, and drag more and more people away from Christ and the Holy Church,” said the rector of the Lavra.

And he warned: “It’s even worse for those people who challenged and committed suicide. These are those who hanged themselves, who drank deadly poison, who threw themselves under a car, someone shot themselves... Those who challenged God and did not want to continue living in this world. All their earthly trials ended in cowardice, unpreparedness to fight their own weaknesses and sin. Their outcome is very deplorable - they fall from temporary earthly trials into eternal torment. The Church does not pray for such people and there is no forgiveness for them. Because they they have despised the image and love of God, their Savior and their Christ."

Ecumenical Parents' Saturday 2017

“Dear brothers and sisters, on this day the Holy Church reminds us that the time will come for us to appear before God. Tikhon of Zadonsk says that the body must be resurrected and then united with the soul. Just as Adam once became a man, so too Now both the righteous and sinners will accept the image that has just been changed, they will become immortal. Some for eternal life, others for torment and suffering," the Metropolitan noted.

Therefore, this Saturday and subsequent memorial days in Lent, we have the opportunity to help our family and friends, remember our parents, remember our mentors.

“The Lord said: “As you want to be treated, do so.” If today you light a candle for those who have left this temporary earthly life, believe me, our turn will come, and someone will accidentally light a candle for us. Or passing by a tombstone cross, he will say: “Remember, Lord, this man who once did something in my life - he was a teacher, he was a father, he was a friend, a mentor, maybe he gave me a penny for food, or maybe showed me the road that leads home, or maybe he took me by the hand and led me across the road so that I would not get into some kind of trouble, catastrophe, or maybe with his prayer and sigh before the Lord he did something that has the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, we must remember the dead, because our time will come to appear before God,” Vladyka Paul urged.

Meat Saturday 2017

Meatless Saturday is called Meatless Saturday because the Sunday following it is called “Meatless Week” - the day on which meat food is allowed for the last time before Lent. Sunday is also called Little Maslenitsa, as it precedes Maslenitsa week.

On this parental Saturday, they especially pray for those who suffered an untimely death in a foreign country, far from their relatives, at sea, in the mountains, from hunger or infectious diseases, in battle, during natural disasters, who did not have time to repent before death and over whom no funeral rites were performed.

Parents' Saturday: what not to do and how to spend it

On the eve of parental Saturday, that is, on Friday evening, a great memorial service is served in Orthodox churches, which is also called the Greek word “parastas”. And on Saturday morning they serve the funeral Divine Liturgy, followed by a general memorial service.

On this day, one should remember their deceased parents in church - people submit notes with the names of loved ones of the deceased and pray for the repose of their souls in the afterlife.

You cannot grieve beyond measure these days: remembering does not mean being sad. After all, according to Christian beliefs, the soul is immortal, which means it simply passed into a world unknown to us. If a person led a righteous life, then his soul arrives in an eternal state of love, harmony, joy, the so-called paradise. If a person, on the contrary, has committed sinful acts, his soul languishes in a worse world and experiences endless torment.

Many people believe that they should not work or do household chores on this day. However, that is not the case. The ban on cleaning the house on this day is nothing more than a superstition. Of course, you need to start the day by visiting a temple, praying, visiting a cemetery, but after that, if necessary, you can also do your usual household chores.

Also on this day, it is customary to give alms to the poor with a request to pray for the deceased.

After visiting churches, Orthodox Christians go to the cemetery, read prayers for the repose of the souls of deceased relatives, and tidy up the graves.

The clergy believe that on this day it is more important to hold a service in the church than to go to the cemetery, since our prayer for deceased relatives and friends is much more important than visiting the grave. But if it is not possible to visit the temple and cemetery these days, you can pray for the repose of the deceased at home.

Parents' Saturday: what to bring to church

According to the old church tradition, Lenten foods and wine are brought to the temple for the liturgy, which are blessed during the service, and then distributed to those who wish.

Please note that it is not acceptable to bring strong alcoholic drinks, such as vodka or cognac, as a donation.

Meat-eating Saturday: what you can eat

In the old days, it was customary to eat kutya on parental Saturdays - an obligatory dish for a funeral meal. Sweet porridge was usually prepared from whole grains of wheat or other cereals with the addition of honey, as well as raisins or nuts. But today few people follow this custom.

Prayer for the departed

Children's prayer for deceased parents

Lord Jesus Christ our God! You are the keeper of the orphans, the refuge of the grieving and the comforter of the weeping. I, an orphan, come running to You, groaning and crying, and I pray to You: hear my prayer and do not turn Your face away from the sighs of my heart and from the tears of my eyes. I pray to You, merciful Lord, satisfy my grief over separation from my parent (matter) (name), and his soul (her), as if she has gone to You with true faith in You and firm hope in Yours accept philanthropy and mercy into Your Heavenly Kingdom. I bow before Your holy will, which was taken away from me, and I ask You not to take away from him (her or them) Your mercy and mercy. We know, Lord, that You, the Judge of this world, punish the sins and wickedness of the fathers in children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even to the third and fourth generation: but you also have mercy on the fathers for the prayers and virtues of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. With contrition and tenderness of heart, I pray to Thee, merciful Judge, do not punish with eternal punishment the deceased, unforgettable for me, Your servant (s), my parent (mother) (name), but forgive him (her) all his (her) sins, voluntary and involuntary, in word and deed, knowledge and ignorance, committed by him (her) in his (her) life here on earth, and according to Your mercy and love for mankind, prayers for the sake of the Most Pure Mother of God and All saints, have mercy on him (you) and deliver him from eternal torment. You, merciful Father of fathers and children! Grant me, all the days of my life, until my last breath, not to cease to remember my deceased parent (mother) in my prayers, and to beg Thee, the righteous Judge, to order him (s) in a place of light, in a place cool and in a calm place, with all the saints, from where all illness, sadness and sighing have escaped. Merciful Lord! Accept this day for Thy servant (Your) (name) my warm prayer and give him (her) Your reward for the labors and cares of my upbringing in faith and Christian piety, as having taught me first of all to lead You, my Lord, pray to You in reverence, trust in You alone in troubles, sorrows and illnesses and keep Your Commandments; for his (her) concern for my spiritual progress, for the warmth of his (her) prayer for me before You and for all the gifts he (she) asked me from You, reward him (her) with Your mercy, Your heavenly blessings and joys in Your eternal Kingdom. For you are the God of mercies and generosity and love for mankind. You are the peace and joy of Your faithful servants, and we send glory to You with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.