My Grandmother was a Whisperer, and now they've Refused to Hold a Funeral Service for her

Question for a priest.

Archpriest Andrei Efanov

My grandmother died. In life, she was a “whisperer” (sorcerer). The priest didn't hold a funeral service for her and didn't even allow me to buy candles at the church. I go to church, and my children and I attend confession and communion. It pains me greatly that now I can't even submit a commemoration note for her at the church. Are there any prayers that can be read for such people? Is it possible to hold a memorial service?

Answered by Archpriest Andrei Efanov, 2014-06-13

I would distinguish two main types of so-called "whisperers." There are people who cast spells out of superstition. They believe that saying certain words in a certain sequence is enough to trigger a particular desired effect. Often, a person doesn't even intend to appeal to any force, believing that the words themselves have the power. Sometimes even the words of prayer are interpreted as a spell, and people who believe in the magic of words seek "special, powerful prayers" to achieve results. There is even a so-called "prayer of opposition"—a classic spell that, through an oversight, has even found its way into some prayer books. The second type of people who practice spells are classic magicians and sorcerers. These people, to a greater or lesser extent, understand that they are turning to demonic help. Of course, this is a far greater sin than superstition. But a person who foolishly or knowingly practices magic is always outside the Church of Christ. That is why the priest refused to perform the funeral service for your relative. All you can do is pray for her at home with the words of the prayer of St. Leo of Optina: Seek, O Lord, the lost soul of Thy servant (name): if it be possible, have mercy. Thy judgments are unfathomable. Do not account this prayer of mine as a sin, but may Thy holy will be done.

Source 

False Orthodox "Healer" Offered Sodomy

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov). "Orthodox sorcerers" – who are they?"

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov)

What spiritual trouble a person can get into if even for a moment he allows himself to be spiritually careless is told by a young parishioner V.:

"Once, when I was in Orekhovo-Zuevo, I complained to a woman I knew about my passion for the wine drinking, which was bothering me from time to time. 

- You should go to Strunino, to Schemamonk Theodosius," she said, "he's an elder, fool for Christ, he heals with prayer, and predicts the future. 

When she saw that I was hesitant, she added: 

- Have no doubt, both teachers and professors from Moscow go to him - he is such a wonderful clairvoyant elder! 

I did not risk going without the blessing of my spiritual advisor and told him about the Monk Theodore, or simply "Father Theodosius". All he said was, "Be careful," but then something distracted him and there was no time for the discussion. But I was so eager to get to "the elder" and get help as soon as possible, and I lied to my conscience – I convinced myself that my confessor had nevertheless blessed me to go to Strunino. 

However, I met Theodosius for the first time in Orekhovo-Zuevo, when there were a lot of people there. They talked excitedly about his miracles: his mind-reading, and how he stopped a train. One woman didn't listen to him and went without his blessing. "You won't get there," said the elder. And sure enough – there was a broken wire, and the train stopped. "It was HE who broke the wire," the women said. 

Woman Considered herself a Healer

Question to Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko).

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Question: Irina

City: Syktyvkar

Dec 21, 2020

Hello Father, after Olga Asouliak's courses, my mother-in-law considered herself a healer that "cured" people and thought that she helped them. Occasionally she gives some information that comes to her from the outside. Isn't it all sinful? Or is it some form of schizophrenia? Although she goes to church and prays.

Answer: Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Hello Irina, This is obviously a sin that is turning into "some form of schizophrenia." We assume that your mother-in-law went to Mrs. Asauliak of her own free will, in her right mind and full memory, which actually determines the sinfulness of her deed. But then, when we perceive a lie as the truth, processes begin to occur in the spiritual domain, which affect, among other things, a person's mental state. It breaks up. Not to mention the direct demonic possession, when in the course of false spiritual practices demonic suggestions are perceived as some kind of divine revelations. Your mother-in-law, unfortunately, is in great trouble – in spiritual delusion, to put it in church terms, considering that despite all her reckless experiments she still somehow manages to pray and go to church.

Source

A Woman Heals with Prayers

Question to a Priest on the website of the New Jerusalem Monastery.

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

March 7, 2013

Question: Natalia, Moscow

Hello Father. My question to you is this. I have been able to heal myself and heal my loved ones by reciting prayers. Is it allowed to do this on Great Feast days, on Fasts, and on Sundays?

Answer: Hegumen Daniel

Natalia, that is a bold statement you've made. And what are these "wonder-working prayers" that help you achieve such remarkable results? In fact, there were saints who received the gift of healing from God after a lifetime of rigorous asceticism, sometimes decades, and yet they carefully concealed it because they understood that pride and vanity that might accompany such a gift are the passions that destroy human souls. And let me express my doubt that your "gift," if indeed it is a gift, is the one from God. And so I would strongly advise you not to use it not only on Sundays and holy days, but at all other times. Unless, of course, you prefer to be spiritually damaged...

Source

How to Tell if a Monk or a Priest Has the Gift of Healing

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Questions to a priest.

Question: Anastasia

Hello. Bless me, Father. They say that epilepsy is treated only spiritually, not with medicines. Does this apply to all diseases or only to epilepsy? And how to tell if a monk or a priest has the gift of healing? Thank you.

Answer: Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Hello Anastasia, Some things we are told are not true. And it is advisable to be treated not by some mythical healers and miracle workers, but by ordinary good, and honest doctors. Generally speaking, if a priest or monk advertises his extraordinary healing or other abilities, he is a classic scoundrel, either pursuing his own self-interests or being inflated by an exorbitant sense of his own importance, and that might be even worse. God's true servants are humble people who carefully conceal their gifts of grace, who only manifest them through love, prayer, and in such a way that those who receive help from them do not always immediately realize it.

Source

Woman Thinking that Healing and Biolocation Come from God

Question to a priest.

Hegumen Daniel (Gridchenko)

Question: Anastasia

Hello dear Father,

I have a question that has been bothering me for a very long time: my mother believes that a person can be healed by biolocation, that besides the physical body, a person has other bodies (like the halo of saints, where one can see them), and that if there is a hole in the body, it can be "patched up" and thus heal the person. A book she reads (or rather, has read before) was written by a certain woman who was a mathematician and designed spaceships, she was a Christian, and somehow calculated it all with mathematics, as I have understood it. A pendulum is also used in this system, I don't know if I should call it a science. She used to practice it for a while, then she gave it up (thank God!). The woman who wrote the book left behind her disciples; I think there is even an institute for self-knowledge in Russia that deals with these matters. My mother believes that all this knowledge is given to us by God, and that she thanks Him for His help. I don't know what stimulated her interest, but one day her child (that is me) stopped talking as a result of a strong fright (it happened, as I now reflect at my current age, out of sheer foolishness, to be honest). When she tried everything, and nothing worked, with the help of her friends she found a man who could help her. After a while it helped and the child started talking, but she got hooked on it and became interested. She is a very religious person and believes that all this knowledge only comes from God (we go to church, but not that often, we don't go to confession, but we always ask God's forgiveness and pray and try not to do anything wrong). However, the fact that, for example, when she has inflammation of a gland of her eyelid and immediately takes out a book and reads a "prayer" to "an old man the witch doctor," should be added to this, and also her belief that old women who heal all kinds of diseases are also Christians.

Unwillingness to Lose "Gifts" is a Sign of a False Healer

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov). "Orthodox sorcerers" – who are they?"

Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov)

Repentance is extremely frightening to the enemy of mankind, for it deprives him of his power over the human soul. I can recall a sincere conversation with a very experienced healer, who knew a lot of herbs, naturopathic treatment methods, diet, detoxification, and was conscientious and selflessly kind to people. She was unbaptized and could hardly go to church. She could go only when there was no service, because, as she said, those prayers "disturbed" her. 

- Why don't you get baptized, Marina? 

It is surprising that she was not at all mistaken about the source of the power she used in the treatment and diagnosis: 

- Yes, I am aware that my actions, from the perspective of God, are wrongful, that it may have other consequences than we expect in eternity. But I believe that we should live here and now. And to get baptized... One must repent in order to do so. Could it happen that after I am baptized I will lose these powers? I don't want that... 

So we see that the fear of repentance, the unwillingness to lose those wrongful "gifts" drives an outstanding, gifted person to atheism – the denial of God. 

Source

Old Lady Heals with Prayers

Question from a reader of Foma Magazine:

At my neighborhood there is an old lady who treats children (hernia, fright, hiccups, joints, sore throat and constipation), and she reads Orthodox prayers during the treatment. People are certainly grateful and pay her; she saves a little money from each treatment and gives it to the local church and writes commemorations for the health of the children. She's almost 90 and she doesn't always go to church herself. We had a new priest, and the new priest did not take the money, would not read the commemorations and said that the old lady should give up her healing, and if she wouldn't give up, she shouldn't go to church. The old lady got very upset. She really helps the children. Is our priest right, and what should she do?

Olga

Answer of Protopriest Peter Guryanov:

Hello Olga, In order to answer your question, I need to know what prayers the old lady recites. Your priest is partially right! The Orthodox Church has a very negative attitude toward spells, considering them to be a form of magic, which is always soul-destroying, even if it is white. They cure with the help of the devil, and cripple the soul. Herbalists, healers, and other psychics are all servants of the devil.

Let me repeat: the Church has a negative attitude towards witch doctresses, wisewomen, old ladies who heal with prayers, because they heal with the help of the devil, and prayers, icons, etc. they use as a disguise to deceive people, especially Orthodox Christians. Such healers have nothing in common with the Church and Orthodoxy, it's a trap! Hernia, fright, hiccups, joints, sore throat and constipation should be treated by a qualified doctor! 

Source

Patriarch Alexy II about False Healers

Patriarch Alexy II

From an interview for "Profile" journal, 2000.

Your Holiness, our society today is simply sick with interest to various kinds of folk healers. How justified is the sharply negative attitude of the Church to healing, when you consider that many of the healers are religious? It is known, for example, that Gregory Rasputin successfully treated Tsarevich Alexei. Many saints possessed the gift of healing. Is it possible today to separate the orthodox healers from charlatans?

Alexy II: Yes, many saints healed –with the prayer in the first place. They also helped the sick with spiritual advice, because very often our illnesses come from the sins, from poor lifestyle choices. Similarly, there are now pastors and laity sometimes endowed with the gift of prayer for the sick and the gift of instruction. However, the phenomenon of healing must be approached very cautiously. If there is magic, there is any magical manipulation with icons, crosses, pictures, we usually face charlatanry abusing the authority of the Orthodox Church that has unlimited confidence. As a result, people may initially feel some relief, and then even more suffer spiritually and physically.

How to Distinguish Whether the Gift Is From God or From the Devil

Question to Archbishop Vikenty of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye in the air of TV channel "Soyuz". April, 2008.

Archbishop Vikenty (Morar')

In the studio: Archbishop Vikenty and Hegumen Dimitry (Baibakov).

- Please tell how to distinguish the gift of God from what gives the sly one?

- First, God's gifts God gives to man for the great labors, feats, renunciation of oneself, from all worldly things, for the feat of humility. The basis of these gifts - humility. Because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble – when there is a virtue of humility and the man no longer is proud of his achievements. When he thinks that they are not his but belong to God, then the Lord gives some gifts: the gift of healing, the gift of insight, the gift of advice, many, many gifts. And, of course, the person who is working on himself and tills the soul, eradicates all the weeds, does not think how to get any gifts. He thinks of salvation, and the Lord Himself gives him. And it often happens that he does not want it and does not see, but people notice it. And he says, 'This is not mine - this is the Lord".

- He runs away from this glory...

- Yes, he runs from this glory. The Lord is merciful, He wants to give a benefit to someone who needs through that person. Now extrasensory individuals believe that they have gifts from God. This way they only believe, and this is actually not the case. They wave their hands, foresee, see, hear, notice something and think that it is from God. They have a candle lit as well, and an icon next to it, "Behold, I am with God's help". There are no such gifts. According to my knowledge of the Holy Fathers, they reached such gifts only with labors.

- And with incredible labors!

- Yes, with incredible labors. Take St. Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov. For example, a man came to St. Sergius, brought a sick baby, and the baby died. And the man in despair and grief threw it to the saint: do what you want. Sergius went and prayed, and the Lord heard his prayer. And he said to the man, "Go home, but do not say anything to anyone while I'm alive". He went with joy that his son was revived and recovered. Of course, it is a great joy. Here the Christ the Savior Himself was saying: "Do not tell anyone what I've done". Here is an example of how the Lord shows us how to receive the gifts and to have them in a contrite, humble heart. But when a person receives the gifts is such simple way...

- And travels on tour between the concert halls...

- Yes, all painted, overdressed. What is his feat, a feat for which he received these gifts? Received for his pride? Yes, received for the pride, not from God but from the Devil. There is no third power: there is Divine one and demonic one.

- Either, or...

- The Divine power can only be obtained through humility, through a great feat, and demonic - safely and easily...
http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/505-how-to-distinguish-whether-the-gift-is-from-god-or-from-the-devil

Pride after Praying - a Sign of Help from the Demons

Saints Barsanuphius and John. "Guidance Toward Spiritual Life: Answers to the Questions of Disciples.".

Letter 421.

Question: "When I am afflicted in regard to something and am praying, if the ineffable goodness of God assists me, my thought is elated as having been heard. So what should I do?"

Response. When you have been praying and feel that your prayer has been heard, if indeed you are elated, it is clear that you have neither prayed according to God nor have you received the help of God, but rather the feeling that worked in you was from the demons so that your heart might be elated. For whenever assistance comes from God, the soul is never elated; instead, it is always humbled.

The soul will be amazed at how the great mercy of God condescends to show mercy on sinners, who are unworthy and who always irritate him. And that soul offers exceeding thanks to his glorious and ineffable goodness; for he has not handed us what accords with our sins, but rather, in his great forbearance, he shows long-suffering and mercy. And so the soul is no longer elated, but [only trembles] and gives glory.

http://oprelesti.ru/index.php/kinds-of-spiritual-delusion/136-healing-ability-from-demons/382-pride-after-praying-a-sign-of-help-from-the-demons