Our Savior Jesus Christ taught us to pray for all people - both because we are all children of the Heavenly Father and brothers among ourselves, and because the more God sends His mercies to people on earth through common prayers, the better we will live. But God, children, is so merciful to us, sinners, that he allowed us to pray for each of us separately - both for ourselves and for our closest people and benefactors. Each of us has such people.
First of all, our spiritual father, that parish priest who prays to God in church for all of us and in confession, in the name of God Himself, forgives us the sins of which we repent to God before him, and then partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; our parents, father and mother, through whom God brought us into the world and who, from the day of our birth, constantly take care of our happiness, providing us with everything we need for a prosperous and calm life; and our other closest relatives: brothers, sisters, uncles, grandmothers, living with whom we use their services; those benefactors who secretly or openly help us, such as our elder friends, teachers and many others. In a word, for everyone who provides us with special service or help, we must pray to God with the following short prayer: Save, Lord, and have mercy on my spiritual father, my parents, relatives, bosses, benefactors and all Orthodox Christians.
It’s good to live, children, with parents, close relatives and good friends, to use their help, affection and love, but we don’t always have to live with them for a long time. It happens that they die before reaching old age, and thus are separated from us. It is bitter to see off beloved parents, sincere friends and benefactors to the grave, and then endure the inevitable hardships of orphanhood and remember with sorrow in our hearts how happy we were, living together. Heavenly Father has given us, children, the consolation to pray to Him for the repose of the souls of deceased relatives and benefactors, so that God would forgive the sins they committed on earth. After all, the soul of a person - this invisible vital force that controls the human body, thinks, feels and strives for God - never ceases to live, does not die like the body, but immediately after separation from the body ascends to heaven and there, according to God’s definition, begins a new life together with disembodied spirits, joyful and blissful or sorrowful and painful, depending on what the person has done more here - good or evil.
Sins, children, even here on earth torment a person and deprive him of peace of mind, and there, in heaven, they will torment him even more, because for sins the soul of a person will be deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and imprisoned in a place of torment with evil spirits. The merciful God commanded us to pray this way for the dead: Remember, Lord, the souls of your departed servants (you can call them by name) and all my departed relatives and benefactors, and forgive them all their sins, voluntary and involuntary, and grant them the Kingdom of Heaven. The word remember means remember; deceased means deceased; the dead are called asleep or asleep, because they will rise and be resurrected when it pleases God, on the day of the general Resurrection; sins - sins, bad deeds; grant - what prayer was this word in?
How did Jesus Christ teach us to pray to God? Is it possible to pray to God separately for people close to us? How to pray for them? What should we do when we lose our loved ones? What is the human soul? What happens to the soul after a person dies? Do not a person’s sins hinder his bliss in heaven? How should we pray for the dead? What does the word remember mean? Why are the dead called deceased? What does sin mean? Grant what? Repeat prayers for the living and the dead.