Old Calendarists in Communion with the EP switch Calendars??

[Bogatyr]

The local goa parishes are not whom the JP targets. They target antiochians and converts. SCOBAn solidarity underlies their lack of content with the situation; however, the jurisdiction is overseen by Constantinople. They weren't too happy with +spyridon either. As far as Mr. Puhalo is concerned--he was deposed as a Deacon while in ROCOR for fomenting rebellion against the Synod of Bishops and disobedience--his disciples like the jurisdiction hopping reader constantine wright are right in the mix of the JP situation. Hence, their stance, that of their converts, on such things as the Patristic Teaching of The Toll Houses.
Orthodoxia I Thanatos!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky

[fserafim]

I am confused. I have never heard from Met Damaskinos about targeting anyone. Where does Lev Puhalo fit into all this? He's now a retired bishop with the OCA. As for Rdr C.Wright, he does not officially represent the JP. His opinions (re Tollhouses) are his own.

I certainly do not target anyone personally but I do welcome people who join us from time to time. Their origins? Mainly MP, i.e. immigrants and a handful of converts and quite recently a family from the Serbs. Laiety are not governed by the same rules as clergy. They are free to worship where they wish unless of course they are a fee-paying members of GOA.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Serafi

[Bogatyr]

Evlogeite Pater. (If you are a Priest)

The JP situation as you know gains its momentum from the tragic circumstance that occured at Ben Lomond. That is an epicenter of JP activity. Moreover, there are many Orthodox Palestinians in the antiochian archdiocese. I recall, honestly, how once when I spoke with people from the Ben Lomond community about reconsidering there move not to go to ROCOR, they told us that that is not what they had a blessing for. Moreover, they said that +archbishop spyridon was working out a way for the JP to set up a jurisdiction here. This work was fostered by those who were once loyal to him and solidified with the accession of +demetrios. The antiochians even protested these things in their scoba meetings with vain threats. If your parish is not speaking specifically to the antiochians and their converts, then I can understand your confusion.
As far as the reader constantine is concerned, at least one of your parishes/missions has declared itself a "toll house free zone". This person is one of your clergy, and like it or not, what he says reflects on your jurisdiction. He is influenced by Mr. puhalo. The jurisdiction hopping and outright poison of some prominent persons in your jurisdiction is what keeps me away from it here in America. I wish I could embrace the Holy See of Jerusalem as a matter of fact, but its structure is run by/of/for another agenda and its interlocutors are people who wish to do things their way, doctrine and the canons be forgotten. Once last thing, Father, tell me: do you consider ROCOR ordinations valid? Their depositions? How is it that a DEPOSED DEACON is now an archbishop?! Then Mr. podmoshensky must still be a priest in your eyes?!
Orthodoxia I Thanatos!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
PS Father, what did you think of +Patriarch Diodoros' denunciations of ecumenism and his attempts to unite the old calendarist resisters? Is this something you think is appropriate?

[fserafim]

O Kyrios!

Let me try to answer your questions. Firstly, JP is in communion with ROCOR and for me there is no problem serving with their clergy.
I would find it difficult to serve with unshaven, secular calendar clergy, but that would be the decision of my bishop. By the grace of God, JP is no longer a member of WCC and it would now be good for union with some Greek Traditionalists. Unfortunately the situation in US is chaotic due to the warring juridictional factions. We have a new bishop. He is primarily a monk and has no hidden agendas. I often wonder what he will make of the political hierarchs here. From personal experience I don't know of any heirarchs in US who are not primarily politicians. Some how the Church survives. When I was in Etna a few yrs ago I venerated the relics of Fr Christophoros (Met Kyprian's father). The blagoukhanie was similar to the relics of St Siluan on Athos and St Alexander Svirsky in Russia.

I am concerned that the Puhalo point of view has poisoned some of our clergy. I think you will find this happening in all jurisdictions.
However give our Metropolitan a chance to get established. I don't envy him the ship he's taking over and I pray that he will be firm when dealing with some of our clergy.
When we probe deeply we find all kinds of vermin beneath the long beard and outward ascetic observances. But then we are all human and in need of regular confession and obedience to our spiritual father - not popular these days.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Serafi

[Bogatyr]

Evlogeite Pater.

It is welcome that the Holy Church of Jerusalem is still interested in resistance. Let us hope that as old alliances fade, new ones of some sort could be formed.
Happy Thanksgiving To All!
Orthodoxia I Thanatos!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky

[costaswright]

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!

As far as the reader constantine is concerned, at least one of your
parishes/missions has declared itself a "toll house free zone". This
person is one of your clergy, and like it or not, what he says reflects on
your jurisdiction. He is influenced by Mr. puhalo.

Thank God for tollhouse-free zones! I know the parish in question which is why I choose to respond here, and it is a very spiritual place... devoid of the despair generated by the tollhouse myth (where it's believed even among those jurisdictions which officially hold to it). The priest is a wonderful, pastoral, caring Orthodox fellow... hardly "vermin" as described below. God grant that we have many more such parishes and missions in the JP, to spread - as Archbishop Lazar has so rightly put it - "Traditionalism not Conservatism." Or, as I would put it, "not Fundamentalism."

I am concerned that the Puhalo point of view has poisoned some of our
clergy. I think you will find this happening in all jurisdictions. When we
probe deeply we find all kinds of vermin beneath the long beard and >outward ascetic observances.

Do you not believe in addressing Orthodox hierarchs properly, Father? Archbishop Lazar is a retired hierarch of the OCA.

Nor is it proper to describe it as "his point of view." It is the Orthodox point of view, before the influence of gnosticism and western legalistic and dualistic thinking. Archbishop Lazar is merely the lover of the Orthodox Faith who calls us all back to our authentic beliefs.

with the OCA. As for Rdr C.Wright, he does not officially represent the
JP. His opinions (re Tollhouses) are his own.

It is true; I am not an official spokesman for the JP in America. I am, however, a similar lover of the Orthodox Faith who desires that we should all come back to our authentic beliefs. Defending the Faith against the tollhouse myth isn't a "Jerusalem thing" or a "Greek thing" or a "Russian thing." It is an Orthodox thing. My "opinions" re the tollhouse myth aren't my own but the authentic teaching of the Church concerning the Particular Judgment by CHRIST OUR GOD and not by the demons.

In Christ,
Rd. Constantine

[Bogatyr]

:ohvey: Before any of this goes too far, what follows is the testimony of the Saints throughout the history of the Church who have taught the Orthodox eschatology of the Toll Houses. The list is a who's who of Fathers who lend the teaching the function of a PATRISTIC CONSENSUS, meaning that it is not just a theologoumenon taught by this or that Saint but rather it represents a teaching that through time and place has affirmed the reality of life after death. It is Orthodox doctrine. It is the teaching held on MT Athos. Why not ask Elder Ephraim and his disciples their point of view or READ MONASTIC WISDOM?! It is the teaching of the Kollyvades Fathers. THEY MAINTAIN THERE ARE NO DEAD IN CHRIST JESUS AND AFFIRM THE TEACHING OF THE TOLL HOUSES, are they, now as the st. vlad's crowd maintains, in error?! It is the teaching of the Paissian Renewal in Russia. St. Ignatios Of Stavropol, St. Makarios of Moscow--the noted theologian and dogmatician, The Holy Optina Elders, St. Theophan the Recluse AFFIRM IT. Are they now "conservatives" who need to be taught by people propagating heretical notions of soul sleep and quack ideas that the Fathers were infected with gnosticism?! Now, specifically, this teaching was arrived at not by vain speculations and quasiprotestant logic games, but the living experience of THEOSIS where one sees the Uncreated Light, holds converse with Divinity and sees creation as it is. The Hagioritic Tome affirms this and places an anathema on those who would discount or deride the reality of the experience of the Vision of God in the Uncreated Light and the revelation of reality as it is thereby.
Lastly, Mr. puhalo WAS DEPOSED AS A DEACON by ROCOR. The only way to recognize his kheirotonia is to maintain that ROCOR wasn't Orthodox when it originally consecrated him. By this same logic, Mr. podmoshensky must also be a priest. Moreover, puhalo's teaching and those of his followers is not held by ANY Father and directly contradicts the very liturgical structure and witness of the Saints. The fact that a parish declares itself a "toll house free zone" is like having a parish declare itself a 40 Day Liturgy and Kollyva free zone. It is pure and simple protestantism and not Orthodoxy. The despair that is vexing them is not the toll houses but rejection of Orthodox ontology, doctrine and preparation for the world to come.
ORTHODOXIA I THANATOS!
Rostislav Mikhailovich Malleev-Pokrovsky
PS The mindset of jurisdiction hoppers, who have separated not on matters of doctrine or principle, who simply want a place to make it up as they go along is precisely why the JP in America is lagging right now and not actually growing and attracting converts. The quackery of some is by no means Orthodoxy--it is protestant baggage which can only be exorcised by OBEDIENCE to a spiritual authority or at least THE SPIRITUAL TRADITION OF ORTHODOXY. It simply turns people away.
PPS What would truly be beneficial to the JP here in America, that no more harm be done, would be to simply relate the Teachings of the Holy Church of Jerusalem and the teaching of her Patriarchs through the centuries on the topic. That is where the puhalo party rightly is rejected like the protestant apologists of Tubingen all those centuries ago. Neo-makrakisism in the Orthodox diasporan conversation, if only in the notion of how new doctrines are contrived and propagated, must be thoroughly rejected by the Church, OLD, NEW, whatever Calendar.
http://www.orthodox.net/articles/life-after-death-john-
maximovitch.html
Life After Death
by St. John Maximovitch
A description of the first 40 days after death.
Limitless and without consolation would have been our sorrow for
close ones who are dying, if the Lord had not given us eternal life.
Our life would be pointless if it ended with death. What benefit
would there then be from virtue and good deed? Then they would be
correct who say: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

But man was created for immortality, and by His resurrection Christ
opened the gates of the Heavenly Kingdom, of eternal blessedness for
those who have believed in Him and have lived righteously. Our
earthly life is a preparation for the future life, and this
preparation ends with our death. "It is appointed unto man once to
die, but after this the judgment" (Heb 9:27). Then a man leaves all
his earthly cares; the body disintegrates, in order to rise anew at
the General Resurrection. Often this spiritual vision begins in the
dying even before death, and while still seeing those around them and
even speaking with them, they see what others do not see. [1]

But when it leaves the body, the soul finds itself among other
spirits, good and bad. Usually it inclines toward those which are
more akin to it in spirit, and if while in the body it was under the
influence of certain ones, it will remain in dependence upon them
when it leaves the body, however unpleasant they may turn out to be
upon encountering them. [2]

For the course of two days the soul enjoys relative freedom and can
visit places on earth which were dear to it, but on the third day it
moves into other spheres. [3] At this time (the third day), it passes
through legions of evil spirits which obstruct its path and accuse it
of various sins, to which they themselves had tempted it.

According to various revelations there are twenty such obstacles, the
so-called "toll-houses," at each of which one or another form of sin
is tested; after passing through one the soul comes upon the next
one, and only after successfully passing through all of them can the
soul continue its path without being immediately cast into gehenna.
How terrible these demons and their toll-houses are may be seen in
the fact that Mother of God Herself, when informed by the Archangel
Gabriel of Her approaching death, answering her prayer, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself appeared from heaven to receive the soul of His
Most Pure Mother and conduct it to heaven. Terrible indeed is the
third day for the soul of the departed, and for this reason it
especially needs prayers then for itself. [4]

Then, having successfully passed through the toll-houses and bowed
down before God, the soul for the course of 37 more days visits the
heavenly habitations and the abysses of hell, not knowing yet where
it will remain, and only on the fortieth day is its place appointed
until the resurrection of the dead. [5] Some souls find themselves
(after the forty days) in a condition of foretasting eternal joy and
blessedness, and others in fear of the eternal torments which will
come in full after the Last Judgment. Until then changes are possible
in the condition of souls, especially through offering for them the
Bloodless Sacrifice (commemoration at the Liturgy), and likewise by
other prayers. [6]

How important commemoration at the Liturgy is may be seen in the
following occurrence: Before the uncovering of the relics of St.
Theodosius of Chernigov [7], the priest-monk (the renowned Starets
Alexis of Goloseyevsky Hermitage, of the Kiev-Caves Lavra, who died
in 1916) who was conducting the re-vesting of the relics, becoming
weary while sitting by the relics, dozed off and saw before him the
Saint, who told him: "I thank you for laboring with me. I beg you
also, when you will serve the Liturgy, to commemorate my parents" --
and he gave their names (Priest Nikita and Maria). "How can you, O
Saint, ask my prayers, when you yourself stand at the heavenly Throne
and grant to people God's mercy?" the priest-monk asked. "Yes, that
is true," replied St. Theodosius, "but the offering at the Liturgy is
more powerful than my prayer."

Therefore, panikhidas (i.e., Trisagion Prayers for the Dead) and
prayer at home for the dead are beneficial to them, as are good deeds
done in their memory, such as alms or contributions to the church.
But especially beneficial for them is commemoration at the Divine
Liturgy. There have been many appearances of the dead and other
occurrences which confirm how beneficial is the commemoration of the
dead. Many who died in repentance, but who were unable to manifest
this while they were alive, have been freed from tortures and have
obtained repose. In the Church prayers are ever offered for the
repose of the dead, and on the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit,
in the kneeling prayers at vespers, there is even a special
petition "for those in hell."

Every one of us who desires to manifest his love for the dead and
give them real help, can do this best of all through prayer for them,
and particularly by commemorating them at the Liturgy, when the
particles which are cut out for the living and the dead are let fall
into the Blood of the Lord with the words: "Wash away, O Lord, the
sins of those here commemorated by Thy Precious Blood and by the
prayers of Thy saints."

We can do nothing better or greater for the dead than to pray for
them, offering commemoration for them at the Liturgy. Of this they
are always in need, and especially during those forty days when the
soul of the deceased is proceeding on its path to the eternal
habitations. The body feels nothing then: it does not see its close
ones who have assembled, does not smell the fragrance of the flowers,
does not hear the funeral orations. But the soul senses the prayers
offered for it and is grateful to those who make them and is
spiritually close to them.

O relatives and close ones of the dead! Do for them what is needful
for them and within your power. Use your money not for outward
adornment of the coffin and grave, but in order to help those in
need, in memory of your close ones who have died, for churches, where
prayers for them are offered. Show mercy to the dead, take care of
their souls. [8]

Before us all stands the same path, and how we shall then wish that
we would be remembered in prayer! Let us therefore be ourselves
merciful to the dead.

As soon as someone has reposed, immediately call or inform a priest,
so he can read the Prayers appointed to be read over all Orthodox
Christians after death.

Try, if it be possible, to have the funeral in Church and to have the
Psalter read over the deceased until the funeral.

Most definitely arrange at once for the serving of the forty-day
memorial, that is, daily commemoration at the Liturgy for the course
of forty days. (NOTE: If the funeral is in a church where there are
no daily services, the relatives should take care to order the forty-
day memorial wherever there are daily services.) It is likewise good
to send contributions for commemoration to monasteries, as well as to
Jerusalem, where there is constant prayer at the holy places.

Let us take care for those who have departed into the other world
before us, in order to do for them all that we can, remembering
that "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

---

---

Footnotes:
[1] But his soul continues to live. Not for an instant does it cease
to exist. Our external, biological and earthly life ends with death,
but the soul continues to live on. The soul is our very existence,
the center of all our energies and our thoughts. The soul moves and
gives life to the body. After its separation from the body it
continues to live, to exist, to have awareness.

St. Theophan the Recluse, in a message to a dying woman, writes: "You
will not die. Your body will die, but you will over to a different
world, being alive, remembering yourself and recognizing the whole
world that surrounds you."

St. Dorotheos (6th century) summarizes the teaching of the early
Fathers in this way: "For as the Fathers tell us, the souls of the
dead remember everything that happened here -- thoughts, words,
desires -- and nothing can be forgotten. But, as it says in the
Psalm, 'In that day all their thoughts shall perish' (Psalm 145:5).

The thoughts he speaks of are those of this world, about houses and
possessions, parents and children, and business transactions. All
these things are destroyed immediately when the soul passes out of
the body. But what he did against virtue or against his evil
passions, he remembers and none of this is lost. In fact, the soul
loses nothing that it did in the world but remembers everything at
its exit from this body."

St. John Cassian (5th century) likewise teaches: "Souls after the
separation from this body are not idle, do not remain without
consciousness; this is proved by the Gospel parable of the rich man
and Lazarus (Luke 16:22-28). The souls of the dead do not lose their
consciousness, they do not even lose their dispositions -- that is,
hope and fear, joy and grief, and something of that which they expect
for themselves at the Universal Judgment they begin already to
foretaste."

[2] He who departs from this world experiences much consolation when
he sees friendly people surrounding his dead body. Such a person
discerns in his beloved friends' tears of pain their love and sincere
dedication. The greatest earthly joy is undoubtedly the realization
that we die honored and appreciated by all who knew us.

But just as at the hour of death the dead body is surrounded by
relatives and friends, so also is the soul, which abandons the body
and is directed towards its heavenly homeland, accompanied by the
spiritual beings related to it.

The virtuous soul is surrounded by bright angels of light, while the
sinful soul is surrounded by dark and evil beings, that is, the
demons.

St. Basil The Great (4th century) explains it this way: "Let no one
deceive you with empty words; for destruction will come suddenly upon
you; it will come like a storm. A grim angel (i.e., a demon) will
come to take and drag violently the soul that has been tied to sins;
and your soul will turn toward here and will suffer silently, having
already been excluded from the organ of mourning (the body). O how
you will be troubled at the hour of death for yourself! How you will
sigh!"

St. Macarius Of Egypt writes of this: "When you hear that there are
rivers of dragons and mouths of lions (cf. Heb 11:33, Ps 22:21) and
dark powers under the sky and burning fire (Jer 20:9) that crackles
in the members of the body, you must know this: unless you receive
the earnest of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5), at the hour when
your soul is separated from the body, the evil demons hold fast to
your soul and do not suffer you to rise up to heaven."

This same Father also teaches us: "When the soul abandons the body a
certain great mystery is enacted. If the deceased has departed
unrepentant, a host of demons and rejected angels and dark powers
receive that soul and keep it with them. The completely opposite
happens with those who have repented: for near the holy servants of
God there are now angels and good spirits standing by, surrounding
and protecting them, and when they depart from the body, the choir of
angels receive their souls to themselves, to the pure aeon."

The champion of Orthodoxy against the Nestorian heresy, St. Cyril Of
Alexandria likewise teaches: "When the soul is separated from the
body it sees the fearful, wild, merciless and fierce demons standing
by. The soul of the righteous is taken by the holy angels, passed
through the air and is raised up."

St. Gregory The Dialogist writes: "One must reflect deeply on how
frightful the hour of death will be for us, what terror the soul will
then experience, what remembrance of all the evils, what
forgetfulness of past happiness, what fear, and what apprehension of
the Judge. Then the evil spirits will seek out in the departing soul
its deeds; then they will present before its view the sins towards
which they had disposed it, so as to draw their accomplice to
torment. But why do we speak only of the sinful soul, when they come
even to the chosen among the dying and seek out their own in them, if
they have succeeded with them? Among men there was only One Who
before His suffering fearlessly said: 'Hereafter I talk not much with
you: For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me
(John 14:30)."

This truth is confirmed by various liturgical services. For example,
in Small Compline we ask THE MOTHER OF GOD to "be merciful to me not
only in this miserable life, but also at the time of my death; take
care of my miserable soul and banish far from it the dark and
sinister faces of the evil demons."

In a prayer of the Midnight Service of Saturday (addressed to THE
SAVIOUR) we pray: "Master, be merciful to me and let not my soul see
the dark and gloomy sight of the evil spirits, but let bright and
joyous angels receive it."

Again, in another hymn to THE THEOTOKOS (from the Monday Matins
service) we pray: "At the fearful hour of death free us from the
horrible decision of the demons seeking to condemn us." Similar
prayers, addressed to the Lord and to the Holy Angels, are found
throughout the service for the Repose of the Dying.

[3] Here, St. John is simply repeating a teaching common to the
Church. St. Macarius Of Alexandria (having received the teaching not
from men but from an angel) explains: "When an offering (i.e., the
Eucharist) is made in Church on the third day, the soul of the
departed receives from its guardian angel relief from the sorrow it
feels as a result of the separation from the body.

In the course of two days the soul is permitted to roam the earth,
wherever it wills, in the company of the angels that are with it.
Therefore, the soul loving the body, sometimes wanders about the
house in which its body has been laid out, and thus spends two days
like a bird seeking its nest.

But the virtuous soul goes about those places in which it was wont to
do good deeds.

On the third day, He Who Himself rose from the dead on the third day,
commands the Christian soul, in imitation of His Resurrection, to
ascend to the Heavens to worship the God of all."

St. John Of Damascus vividly describes the state of the soul, parted
from the body but still on earth, helpless to contact the loved ones
whom it can see, in the Orthodox Funeral Service: "Woe is me! What
manner of ordeal doth the soul endure when it is parted from the
body! Alas! How many then are its tears, and there is none to show
compassion! It raiseth its eyes to the angels; all unavailing is its
prayer. It stretcheth out its hands to men, and findeth none to
succor. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, meditating on the brevity of
our life, let us beseech of Christ rest for him who hath departed
hence, and for our souls great mercy."

St. Theophan, in writing to the brother of a dying woman, says: "Your
sister will not die; the body dies, but the personality of the dying
one remains. It only goes over to another order of life. It is not
she whom they will put in the grave. She is in another place. She
will be just as alive as you are now. In the first hours and days she
will be around you. Only she will not say anything, and you won't be
able to see her; but she will be right here. Have this in mind."

[4] There is absolutely no doubt that the teaching of the toll-houses
is the teaching of the Orthodox Church. We find this teaching in Holy
Scripture (cf. Eph 6:12), the writings of all the Church Fathers
(both ancient and modern) and throughout the prayers of the Church.

St. ATHANASIUS THE GREAT, in his famous life of St. Antony, describes
the following:

"At the approach of the ninth hour, after beginning to pray before
eating food, Antony was suddenly seized by the Spirit and raised up
by angels into the heights. The aerial demons opposed his progress:
the angels disputing with them, demanded that the reason of their
opposition be set forth, because Antony had no sins at all. The
demons strove to set forth the sins committed by him from his very
birth; but the angels closed the mouths of the slanderers, telling
them that they should not count the sins from his birth which had
already been blotted out by the grace of Christ; but let them
present -- if they have any -- the sins he committed after he entered
monasticism and dedicated himself to God.
In their accusation the demons uttered many brazen lies; but since
their slanders were wanting in proof, a free path opened for Antony.
Immediately he came to himself and saw that he was standing in the
same place where he had stood for prayer. Forgetting about food, he
spent the night in prayer with tears and groanings, reflecting on the
multitude of man's enemies, on the battle against such an army, on
the difficultly of the path to heaven through the air, and on the
words of the Apostle who said: 'Our wrestling is not against flesh
and blood, but against the principalities and powers of the air' (Eph
6:12; Eph 2:2).

The Apostle, knowing that the aerial powers are seeking only one
thing, are concerned over it with all fervor, exert themselves and
strive to deprive us of a free passage to heaven, exhorts: 'Take up
the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day (Eph 6:13), that the adversary may be put to shame, having no
evil thing to say of us (Tit 2:8)."

St. John Chrysostom, describing the hour of death, teaches:

"Then we will need many prayers, many helpers, many good deeds, a
great intercession from angels on the journey through the spaces of
the air. If when traveling in a foreign land or a strange city we are
in need of a guide, how much more necessary for us are guides and
helpers to guide us past the invisible dignities and powers and world-
rulers of this air, who are called persecutors and publicans and tax-
collectors."
St. Isaiah The Recluse (6th century) teaches that Christians should

"daily have death before our eyes and take care how to accomplish the
departure from the body and how to pass by the powers of darkness who
are to meet us in the air."
St. Hesychius, Presbyter of Jerusalem (5th century) teaches:

"The hour of death will find us, it will come, and it will be
impossible to escape it. Oh, if only the prince of the world and the
air who is then to meet us might find our iniquities as nothing and
insignificant and might not be able to accuse us justly."
St. EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN (4th century) thus describes the hour of death
and the hour of judgment at the toll-houses:

"When the fearful hour comes, when the divine takers-away command the
soul to be translated from the body, when they draw us away by force
and lead us away to the unavoidable judgment place -- then, seeing
them, the poor man comes all into a shaking as if from an earthquake,
is all in trembling. The divine takers-away, taking the soul, ascend
in the air where stand the chiefs, the authorities and world-rulers
of the opposing powers. These are our accusers, the fearful
publicans, registrars, tax-collectors; they meet it on the way,
register, examine and count all the sins and debts of this man -- the
sins of youth and old age, voluntary and involuntary, committed in
deed, word and thought. Great is the fear here, great the trembling
of the poor soul, indescribable the want which it suffers then from
the incalculable multitudes of its enemies surrounding it there in
myriads, slandering it so as not to allow it to ascend to heaven, to
dwell in the light of the living, to enter the land of life. But the
holy angels, taking the soul, lead it away."
St Cyril of Alexandria explains this further:

"As the soul ascends, it finds tax officials guarding the ascent,
holding and preventing the souls from ascending. Each one of these
custom stations presents its own particular sins of the souls.
But, by the same token, the good angels do not abandon the soul to
these evil stations. At the time of its accounting the angels offer
in turn the soul's good works.

In fact, the holy angelic powers enumerate to the evil spirits the
good acts of the soul that were done by word, deed, thought and
imagination. If the soul is found to have lived piously and in a way
pleasing to God, it is received by the holy angels and transferred to
that ineffable joy of the blessed and eternal life.

But, if it is found to have lived carelessly and prodigally, it hears
the most harsh word: 'Let the ungodly be taken away, that he not see
the glory of the Lord' (Isa 26:10).

Then the holy angels with profound regret abandon the soul and it is
received by those dark demons so that may fling it with much
malevolence into the prisons of Hades."

An early Church catchiest, referring to custom officials who
collected taxes, relays to us the common Church teaching:

"I know of other tax collectors who after our departure from this
present life inspect us and hold us to see if we have something that
belongs to them." The same catchiest goes on to say: "I wonder how
much we must suffer at the hands of those evil angels, who inspect
everything and who, when someone is found unrepentant, demand not
only the payment of taxes simply, but also seize and hold us
completely captive" (Origen).
This view is upheld by our great Father, St. Basil. Speaking about
the courageous athletes of the faith, he teaches that they too will
be scrutinized by the "revenue officials," that is, by the evil
spirits. The same Father also says that the evil spirits observe the
departure of the soul with so much more vigilant attention than do
enemies over a besieged city or thieves over a treasury house. St.
John Chrysostom likewise calls demons "revenue officials" who
threaten us and who are "overbearing powers with a fearful
countenance that horrifies the soul that looks upon them."

In another place St. John says that these evil spirits are
called "persecutors and revenue officials and collectors of taxes in
the Sacred Scripture." According to St. John, even the souls of
innocent infants must pass through these toll-houses, for the all-
evil devil seeks to snatch their souls, too. However, the infants
make the following confession (according to St. John): "We have
passed by the evil spirits without suffering any harm. For the dark
custom officials saw our spotless body and were put to shame; they
saw the soul good and pure and were embarrassed; they say the tongue
immaculate and pure and blameless and they were silenced; we passed
by and humiliated them. This is why the holy angles of God who met
and received us rejoiced, the righteous greeted us with joy and the
saints with delight said, 'Welcome, the lambs of Christ!'"

Probably the clearest and most comprehensive account of the toll-
houses is that given by an angel of the Lord to St. Macarius Of
Egypt:

"From the earth to heaven there is a ladder and a each rung has a
cohort of demons. These are called toll-houses and the evil spirits
meet the soul and bring its handwritten accounts and show these to
the angels, saying: on this day and such and such of the month this
soul did that: either it stole or fornicated or committed adultery or
engaged in sodomy or lied or encouraged someone to an evil deed. And
everything else evil which it has done, they show to the angels.
The angels then show whatever good the soul has done, charity or
prayer or liturgies or fasting or anything else.

And the angels and the demons reckon up, and if they find the good
greater than the evil, the angels seize the soul and take it up the
next rung, while the demons gnash their teeth like wild dogs and make
haste the snatch that pitiable soul from the hands of the Angels. The
soul, meanwhile, cowers and terror encompasses it, and it makes as if
to hide in the bosom of the Angels and there is a great discussion
and must turmoil until that soul is delivered from the hands of the
demons.

And they come again to another rung and there find another toll-
house, fiercer and more horrible. And in this too, there is much
uproar and great and indescribable turbulence as to who shall take
that wretched soul. And shouting out aloud, the demons examine the
soul, causing terror and saying: 'Where are you going? Aren't you the
one who fornicated and thoroughly polluted Holy Baptism? Aren't you
the one who polluted the angelic habit? Get back. Get down. Get
yourself to dark Hell. Get yourself to the outer fire. Get going to
that worm that never sleeps.'

Then if it be that that soul is condemned, the demons bear it off to
below the earth, to a dark and distressing spot. And woe to that soul
in which that person was born. And who shall tell, holy Father, the
straits in which the condemned souls will find themselves in that
place!

But if the soul is found clean and sinless, it goes up the Heaven
with such joy."

Descriptions of the aerial toll-houses may also be found in the
following Saints' lives:

St. EUSTRATIUS THE GREAT MARTYR (4th century)
St. NIPHON OF CONSTANTIA in Cyprus (4th century)
St. SYMEON THE FOOL FOR CHRIST (6th century)
St. JOHN THE MERCIFUL (7th century)
St SYMEON OF THE WONDROUS MOUNTAIN (7th century)
St. MACARIUS THE GREAT (4th century)
St. COLUMBA (6th century)
St. ADAMNAN (8th century)
St. BONIFACE (8th century)
St. BASIL THE NEW (10th century)
The Soldier TAXIOTES
St. JOHN OF THE LADDER (6th century)
This very ancient teaching of the early Church Fathers and ascetic
Saints is confirmed by the experience and teaching of saints more
modern.
St. Seraphim Of Sarov relates:

"Two nuns passed on. Both had been abbesses. The Lord revealed to me
that their souls were having difficulty getting through the aerial
toll-houses. Three days and nights, I, a lowly sinner, prayed and
begged the Mother Of God for their salvation. The goodness of the
Lord, through the prayers of the Most Holy Mother Of God, finally had
mercy upon them. They passed the aerial toll-houses and received
forgiveness of sins."
Likewise, St. Theophan The Recluse writes:

"No matter how absurd the idea of the toll-houses may seem to
our 'wise men,' they will not escape passing through them.
What do these toll-gatherers seek in those who pass through? They
seek whether people might have some of their goods. What kind of
goods?

Passions.

Therefore, in the person whose heart is pure and a stranger to
passion, they cannot find anything to wrangle over; on the contrary,
the opposing quality will strike them like arrows of lightning.

To this someone who has a little education expressed the following
thought: The toll-houses are something frightful. But it is quite
possible that the demons, instead of something frightful, might
present something seductive. They might present something deceptive
and seductive, according to the kinds of passions, to the soul as it
passes through one after the other.

When, during the course of life, the passions have been banished from
the heart and the virtues opposed to them have been planted, then no
matter what seductive thing you might present, the soul, having no
kind of sympathy for it, passes by it, turning away from it with
disgust. But when the heart has not been cleansed, the soul will rush
to whatever passion the heart has most sympathy for; and the demons
will take it like a friend, and then they know where to put it.

Therefore, it is very doubtful that a soul, as long as there remain
in it sympathies for the objects of any passion, will not be put to
shame at the toll-houses. Being put to shame here means that the soul
itself is thrown into hell."

In another place, St. Theophan (continuing his letter to the brother
of the woman who was about to die) writes:

"In the departed there soon begins the struggle of going through the
toll-houses. Here she needs help! Stand then in thought, and you will
hear her cry to you: Help! This is where you should direct all your
attention and all your love for her. Immerse yourself in prayer for
her in her new condition and her new, unexpected needs.
Having begun thus, remain in unceasing crying out to God to help her,
for the course of six weeks, and indeed for longer than that.

In the account of Theodora, the bag from which the angels took in
order to be separated from the tax-collectors was the prayers of her
elder. Your prayers will do the same; do not forget to do this. This
is love!"

Significantly, all of this testimony is confirmed by the liturgical
prayers of the Church. St. Ignatius Brianchaninov cites over 20
examples of references to the Toll-houses in the Divine service books
and this is not a complete list!

[5] According to the revelation of the angel to St. Macarius, the
Church's special commemoration of the departed on the 9th day after
death (apart from the general significance of the ranks of angels)
occurs because up to then the soul is shown the beauties of Paradise,
and only after this, for the remainder of the forty days, is sown the
torments and horrors of hell, before being assigned on the fortieth
day to the place where it will await the resurrection of the dead and
the Last Judgment.

[6] The Church's teaching on the state of souls in heaven and hell
before the Last Judgment is set forth in its clearest fashion by St.
Mark Of Ephesus in his dialogue with the Roman Catholics over the
Roman doctrine of Purgatory (which the Orthodox reject as false). It
is an extensive collection of writings, and much of it is beyond the
focus of this limited study. The following should suffice, however,
to illustrate the Orthodoxy of St. John Maximovitch's words:

"Those reposed in faith are without doubt helped by the Liturgies and
prayers and almsgiving performed for them, and that this custom has
been in force from antiquity, there is the testimony of many and
various utterances of the Teachers, both Latin and Greek, spoken and
written at various times and in various places.
But that souls are delivered thanks to a certain purgatorial
suffering and temporal fire which possesses such (a purgatorial)
power and has the character of a help -- this we do not find in
either Scripture or in the prayers and hymns for the dead, or in the
words of the Teachers.

But we have received that even the souls which are held in hell and
are already given over to eternal torments, whether in actual fact
and experience or in hopeless expectation of such, although not in
the sense of completely loosing them from torment or giving hope for
final deliverance.

And this is shown by the words of the great Macarius the Egyptian
ascetic who, finding a skull in the desert, was instructed by it
concerning this by the action of Divine Power.

And Basil The Great, in the prayers read at Pentecost, writes
literally the following:

'Who also, on this all-perfect and saving feast, are graciously
pleased to accept propitiatory prayers for those who are imprisoned
in hell, granting us a great hope of improvement for those who are
imprisoned from the defilements which have imprisoned them, and that
Thou wilt send down Thy consolation' (Third Kneeling Prayer at
Vespers).
But if souls have departed this life in faith and love, while
nevertheless carrying with themselves certain faults, whether small
ones over which they have not repented at all, or great ones for
which -- even though have repented over them -- they did not
undertake to show fruits of repentance: such souls, we believe, must
be cleansed from this kind of sins, but not by means of some
purgatorial fire or a definitive punishment in some place (for this,
as we have said, has not at all been handed down to us).

But some must be cleansed in the very departure from the body (as St.
Gregory The Dialogist literally shows); while others must be cleansed
after the departure from the body, before they come to worship God
and are honored with the lot of the blessed, or -- if their sins were
more serious and bind them for a longer duration -- they are kept in
hell, but not in order to remain forever in fire and torment, but as
it were in prison and confinement under guard.

All such ones, we affirm, are helped by the prayers and Liturgies
performed for them, with the cooperation of the Divine Goodness and
Love for mankind.

And so, we entreat God and believe to deliver the departed (from
eternal torment), and not from any other torment or fire apart from
those torments and that fire which have been proclaimed to be
forever."

St. MARK further explains the state of the departed in this way:

"We affirm that neither the righteous have as yet received the
fullness of their lot and that blessed condition for which they have
prepared themselves here through works, nor have sinners, after
death, been led away into the eternal punishment in which they shall
be tormented eternally.
Rather, both the one and the other must necessarily take place after
the Judgment of that last day and the resurrection of all.

Now, however, both the one and the other are in places proper to
them: the first, in absolute repose and free, are in heaven with the
angels and before God Himself, and already as if in Paradise from
which Adam fell and often visit us in those temples where they are
venerated, and hear those who call on them and pray for them to God,
having received from Him this surpassing gift, and through their
relics perform miracles and take delight in the vision of God and the
illumination sent from Him more perfectly and purely than before,
when they were alive;

while the second, in their turn, being confined to hell, remain
in 'the lowest pit, in darkness and in the shadow of death' (Ps
87:7), as David says, and then Job: 'to the land where the light is
darkness' (Job 10:21-22).

And the first remain in every joy and rejoicing, already expecting
and only not having in their hands the Kingdom and the unutterable
good things promised them;

and the second, on the contrary, remain in all confinement and
inconsolable suffering, like condemned men awaiting the Judge's
sentence and foreseeing the torments.

Neither have the first yet received the inheritance of the Kingdom
and those good things 'which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered into the heart of man' (1 Cor 2:9); nor have the second
part yet been given over to eternal torments nor to burning in the
unquenchable fire. And this teaching we have as handed down from our
Fathers in antiquity and we can easily present it from the Divine
Scriptures themselves."

St. GREGORY THE GREAT, in answering the question, "Is there anything
at all that can possibly benefit souls after death?" teaches:

"The Holy Sacrifice of Christ, our saving Victim, brings great
benefits to souls even after death, provided their sins (are such as)
can be pardoned in the life to come. For this reason the souls of the
dead sometimes beg to have Liturgies offered for them. The safer
course, naturally, is to do for ourselves what we hope others will do
for us after death. It is better to make one's exit a free man than
to seek liberty after one is in chains. We should, therefore, despise
the world with all our hearts as though its glory were already spent,
and offer our sacrifice of tears to God each day as we immolate His
sacred Flesh and Blood. This Sacrifice alone has the power of saving
the soul from eternal death, for it presents to us mystically the
death of the Only-begotten Son."
Many incidents from the Lives of Orthodox saints and ascetics confirm
this teaching.

[7] The Apostolic Constitutions (1st/2nd century) teach that
Memorials for the dead be served with "psalms and readings and
prayers" on the third day after the death of our beloved one, on
account of the Lord Jesus "who rose after three days."

They prescribe Memorials on the ninth day "as a reminder of the
living and the dead," as well as "on the fortieth day after death
according to ancient practice."

This is how the people of Israel mourned for the great Moses. In
addition to these we must have annual Memorials in remembrance of the
deceased. This teaching is also given by St. Isidoros Of Pelusium,
St. Symeon The New Theolgian and St. Gregory The Theologian.

In addition to these Memorials, our holy Church has ordained that the
Sabbath (Saturday) be a day of commemoration of the Holy Martyrs and
of all the deceased. For the Sabbath, as the seventh day from the
beginning of creation, is the day which saw bodily death, imposed
upon man by the righteous God. This day is continued, in as much as
the death of man is also continued at the same time, Sunday, however,
is the "day of the Resurrection, the eighth day, which symbolizes the
anticipated age of eternity, the resurrection of the dead and the
endless kingdom of God."

Our Mother Church has also ordained common Memorials twice a year: on
the Saturday before Meatfare Sunday and on the Saturday before the
great feast of Holy Pentecost.

St. John Of Damascus adds: "the Apostles who speak for God and the
spirit-bearing Fathers have decreed this with inspiration and in a
manner pleasing to God."

http://stmichaelacademy.org/theo/stjd.htm
STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH ACCORDING TO THE TEACHINGS OF SAINT JOHN DAMASCENE

by Hieromonk Dionysios

-This article is reprinted from the University of Scranton’s DIAKONIA journal for Eastern Christian Studies

The Orthodox view of the state of the soul after death is presented in the teachings and writings of Saint John of Damascus. The Orthodox world has debated the state of the soul after death (active versus soul slumber) and the tollhouses (real or imaginary). It is thus my intent to draw mainly from the writings and hymnology of Saint John of Damascus to show what the Orthodox view actually holds and the reality of the toll houses. I will also discuss the resurrection of the dead, a resurrection of soul AND body when the resurrected enter the joy of their Lord or suffer eternal torment.

In the Octoechos attributed to Saint John of Damascus, we find a clear reference to the tollhouses. The eigth canticle from the canon at Matins reads, "O Virgin, in the hour of death rescue me from the hands of the demons, and the judgment, and the accusations, and the frightful testing, and the bitter tollhouses and the fierce prince, and the eternal condemnation, O Theotokos." By this hymn, we see clearly Saint John of Damascus’ belief in a judgment at death. This judgment involves some type of meeting with demonic spirits (rescue from the hands of demons, the fierce prince) and the testing of souls. It is the testing of souls itself, which occurs at the various tollhouses. The tollhouses are the places of judgment of the soul after death. The questions then become: what judgments actually occur, who is the judge, and who does the accusing.

In another hymn attributed to Saint John of Damascus we read, " When my soul shall be released from the bond with the flesh, intercede for me, O Sovereign Lady.. that I may pass unhindered through the princes of darkness in the air." Last among these canticles of Damascene is "Grant me to pass through the noetic satraps and the tormenting aerial legions without sorrow at the time of my departure, that I may cry joyfully to Thee, O Theotokos, who heard the cry, ‘Hail’:Rejoice, O unshamed hope of all."

Bishop Ignatios Brianchaninov states that the teaching of the tollhouses is an accepted teaching throughout the Divine Services of the Orthodox Church. It certainly is made clear in numerous hymns attributed to Damascus. Father Seraphim Rose states the teaching of the tollhouses is given to us that we might learn to struggle against the demons of the air in this life and in our meeting with them at death obtain victory. The Orthodox teaching taught and held by Saint John of Damascus according to Father Seraphim is that the tollhouses are indeed real, not imaginairy places. These tollhouses are a series of judgments and the angels are the judges. They also stand to defend the soul against the false accusations of the demonic spirits. In reality, however, it is the persons themselves who determine their own fate, for the soul will cling to that which fits it nature, be it the nature of the demons or the heavenly nature of the angels. The accusers are the demons who stop us at various tollhouses and continue to tempt us and show forth how by our actions we lived as one of them and not as a true servant of God. The first two days after death, the soul spends on earth, visiting places with which it was familiar. At the third day, it begins its ascent through these aerial tollhouses, being tested by the various legions of demonic spirits. This is what Saint John of Damascus refers to when he speaks of the ‘princes of the air’ and the ‘frightful testing’. Until the ninth day, the soul is given a glimpse of the beauty of Paradise prepared for those who loved and served the Lord. At the ninth day, the Orthodox Church holds a special commemoration for the soul, as it is from this time forth until the fortieth day that the soul sees the torments of Hell, this is the ‘eternal condemnation’ to which Saint John of Damascus refers. At the fortieth day, the judgment is complete, the soul has either a foretaste of Heaven (its fulfilment in the Second Coming of Christ) or a foretaste of Hell. Saint John goes further in his explanation of the mystery of death:

Truly most frightening is the mystery of death, how the soul is violently separated from the body, and by divine decree, the most natural bond of their cohesion is severed. Wherefore, we implore Thee, O Giver of Life who loves mankind, to grant rest to the soul to the newly departed one in the dwelling of the righteous.

Vespers of Friday of the Plagal Tone (Tone 1), not written by Saint John of Damascus but closely related to the theme of his hymnology, states, "O Christ, spare me, thy servant, when my soul is separated from the body at the command given by Thee, Who didst unite dust and spirit by divine beckoning, spare me from the assault and ill treatment of invisible enemies that lie in wait to wrench me away mercilesly." From this, the time of our death rests in the will of God. At the separation of the soul from the body, we see the demonic spirits mentioned again, the invisible enemies who wait to take our souls to their abode.

Can the soul after leaving earth and passing through the judgment experience any change in its state? Indeed, according to Saint John of Damscus, until the time of the Second Coming and the general judgment of Christ the state of the soul can be changed for the better. He states:

Do not reject bringing oil for the sacred lamp at the tomb and lighting candles there when entreating Christ God, for these are acceptable to God and bring great return. For the oil and wax are sacrifices of a burnt offering, the bloodless sacrifice (Eucharist) is an expiation, and benevolence extended to the poor are an addition to every good return.

2 Maccabees 12:44 attests to the offering of prayer for the sake of souls, for its benefit even after death. "For if he had hoped that they who were slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead" The Gospel of Matthew also attests to this: "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scripture, nor the power of God…God is not the God of the dead, but the living." The implication here is that the dead are truly alive. I will deal with this further in my discussion of ‘soul slumber.’

The soul thus can change its state as it awaits the General Judgment. At the General Judgment all things are final, all things are sealed, and the state of the soul at this time determines the state of the resurrected person for eternity. The resurrection, the uniting of the soul and body once again, occurs at the Second Coming of Christ and the General Judgment as Damascus states:

We also believe in the resurrection of the dead. For in truth it will happen, there will be a resurrection of the dead. But when we say resurrection, we mean a resurrection of bodies. For resurrection is a second standing of that which has fallen. And souls are immortal, hence, how can they rise again? For if death is defined as a separation of soul from body, resurrection is surely the rejoining of soul and body and the second standing of the dissolved and fallen creature. It is, then, the very body that is corrupted and dissolved that will resurrect incorruptible. For He who formed it in the beginning from the dust of the earth is not incapable of raising it up again after it has again been dissolved and returned to the earth from which, by decision of the Creator it was taken. Therefore, there will be, indeed, there will be a resurrection. For God is just, and He is the rewarder of those who await Him patiently. Now, if the soul had engaged in the contests for virtue itself, then it would be crowned alone. And if it indulged in the pleasures, then it alone would be justly punished. But since the soul pursued neither vice nor virtue without the body, it will be just for them both together to receive that which is their due. Moreover, the divine Scriptures also witness that there will be a resurrection of bodies. Therefore we shall rise again, with our souls once more united to our bodies, which will have become incorrupt and put off corruption. And we shall stand before the fearful judgment seat of Christ.

It is necessary now having examined what occurs to the soul to define the nature of the soul according to Saint John of Damascus. The soul is not contained; it is immaterial yet intimately connected to the body.

Every man is a combination of soul and body…The soul is a living substance, simple and without body, invisible to the bodily eyes by vir of its peculiar nature, immortal, rational, spiritual, without form, using the bodily organ, in which it occassions for growth, sensibility, and productiveness. The mind is not something apart from the soul, but its purest part, since what the eyes are to the body, such is the mind to the soul. The soul is independent, with a will and energy of its own, and changeable, capable of altering itself, since it is a created thing.

Thus, the soul is connected to the mind.

Within the body, and as Damascus states, the soul changes form, as a result of its being a created thing, and having free will. The soul is a reflection of the nature of God, and while immortal, is still a created thing, subject to change, and connected intimately with the body.

Bodily place is the limit of that which contains, by which that which is contained is contained: for example, the air contains but the body is contained. But it is not the whole of the containing air which is the place of the contained body, but the limit of the containing air, where it comes into contact with the contained body…But there is also mental place where mind is active, and mental and incorporeal nature exists; where mind dwells and energizes and is contained not in a bodily but in a mental fashion…But the (soul) is circumscribed alike in time and in place and in apprehension.

There are some Orthodox who have argued that the soul does not pass through the tollhouses, but rather is in a state of slumber. This term ‘slumber’ means that the soul is inactive, and as Father Michael Azkoul, one of the proponents of the soul slumber theory states, "(the soul) is in a condition of inactivity, a sort of inactivity in which it does not function, hear, or see." Father Seraphim argues against this notion, comparing it to the common misconceptions of the Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses. He states rather that the souk is quite alive and aware. To give evidence to this argument he qoutes from Saint Dorotheos, "(the soul) remembers everything at its exit from this body and more clearly and distinctly once freed from the earthliness of the body." He cites Saint John Cassian, " (the soul) becomes yet more alive (after death)." We must ask if the idea of soul slumber is true, then what is the purpose of prayer for the dead if they are in a state in which their souls are inactive and cannot change state. The reasoning of Father Michael Azkoul and those ahderents to his position has no solid patristic basis nor is it sensible in light of the Church’s prayer for the dead. Also we must realize that even Christ Himself descended to Hades, and that his soul was certainly not inactive after his death that was life-restoring. In the Divine Liturgy, the priest prays, " In the tomb with the body, in Hades with the soul, on the throne with the Father and the Spirit, was thou, O Christ infinitely filling everything." This prayer in itself disproves any notion of soul slumber. Lastly as recorded in Saint Archbishop John Maximovitch’s writing on the Life After Death, he argues as well that the soul does remain conscious. He also quotes from Saint John Cassian who sets forth clearly the active state of the soul: " Souls after the separation from this body are not idle, do not remain without consciousness; this is proved by the Gospel of the rich man and Lazarus…The souls of the dead not only do not lose their consciousness, they do not even lose their dispositions."

A final argument among the Orthodox is whether or not the tollhouses are real or imaginary Father Azkoul rejected the notion of the reality of the toll houses, stating not only that they are not present in the Church;s tradition (this has been addressed in the above arguments) but stating as wel that such an idea must be rejected because it makes the demons as the determiners of one’s salvation, and through ‘excess merits’ of saints, the ‘toll’ is paid. He thus rejects the tollhouses believing it to parallel the Latin idea of Purgatory.

Father Seraphim Rose refuted this idea of comparing the tollhouse to purgatory as farfetched in that the toll houses are part of the Orthodox ascetic teaching and have to do solely with the testing of man for his sins committed by him. There is no idea whatsoever he states of there being a satisifaction to God, ‘excess merits’, and the purpose is certainly not ‘torture’ as Father Michael Azkoul suggested. Within the Church’s tradition in regards to the reality of the toll houses exist not only the previous mentioned hymnology and quotations from the Fathers, but also detailed descriptions of the dying experiences and the passages through the tollhouses by such holy ones as Saint Theodora. Saint Theodora gives a detailed account of the reality of the toll houses and her passage through them before her soul returned to her body. Saint Makarios of Egypt gives a clear __expression of the reality of these tollhouses:

When the soul of a man departs out of the body, a great mystery is there accomplished. If it is under the guilt of sins there come bands of devils, and angels of the left hand, and powers of darkness that overtake the soul, and hold it fast on their side. No one ought to be surprised at this. If, while alive in this world, the man was subject and compliant to them, and made himself their bondsman, how much more, when he departs out of this world, is he kept down and held fast by them."

He continues in Homily 43: "Like tax collectors sitting in the narrow ways, and laying hold upon the paserby, and extorting from them, so do the devils spy upon souls, and lay hold of them: and when they pass out of the body, if they are not perfectly cleansed, they do not suffer them to mount up to the mansions of Heaven and to meet their Lord, and they are driven down by the devils of the air. We can find numerous references to the reality of the tollhouses within the writings of the Philokalia. One example is from Saint Hesychios in which he states:

If the soul has Christ with it, it will not be disgraced by its enemies even at death, when it rises to heaven’s entrance; but then, as now, it will boldly confront them…the hour of death will come, and we will not escape it. May the prince of the world and of the air find our misdeeds few and petty when he comes, so he will not have good grounds for convicting us.

This quotation from the Philokalia this shows what occurs at death, and that there is indeed a confrontation (the toll houses) with demonic spirits. Saint John of Karpathos states:

When the soul leaves the body, the enemy advances to attack it, fiercely reviling it and accusing it of its sins in a harsh and terrifying manner. But if a soul enjoys the love of God and has faith in Him, evne though in the past it has often been wounded by sin, it is not frightened by the enemy’s attacks and threats. Strengthened by the Lord, winged by joy, filled with courage by holy angels that guide it, encircled and protected by the light of faith, it answers the malicious devil with great boldness. When the soul says all this fearlessly, the devil turns his back…"

The tollhouses and the judgment of the soul is and was nothing imaginary to the Fathers such as Saint Hesychios and John of Karpathos who described these things, but rather as a true spiritual reality.

In conclusion, the toll houses are indeed real and a part of the entire teaching of the Orthodox Church in regards to the state of the soul after death. Saint John of Damascus as well as other Church Fathers and the hymnology of the Church all attest to the judgment after death, the frightful testing, and our warring with the spirits in the air. The toll houses are not imaginary, and the soul is not in a state of slumber but active, hence the reason for the Church’s prayers for the dead, as the state of the soul can continually be effected upon until the final judgment.

http://pages.prodigy.net/frjohnwhiteford/tollhouses.htm

Evidence for the Tradition of the Toll Houses found in the
Universally Received Tradition of the Church

Note: What follows is not a comprehensive collection of evidence for
the Toll Houses, but evidence that I have repeatedly posted in
discussions with those who oppose the idea that the Toll Houses are a
legitimate image of what occurs after death, which the Church has
embraced. Rather than continue to repost it, I have compiled it here.

Patristic Evidence:

St. Mark of Ephesus:

"But if souls have departed this life in faith and love, while
nevertheless carrying away with themselves certain faults, whether
small ones over which they have not repented at all, or great ones
for which – even thought they have repented over them – they did not
undertake to show fruits of repentance: such souls, we believe, must
be cleansed from this kind of sin, but not by means of some
purgatorial fire or a definite punishment in some place (for this, as
we have said, has not been handed down to us). But some must be
cleansed in they very departure from the body, thanks only to fear,
as St. Gregory the Dialogist literally shows; while others must be
cleansed after the departure from the body, either while remaining in
the same earthly place, before they come to worship God and are
honored with the lot of the blessed, or – if their sins were more
serious and bind them, for a longer duration – they are kept in hell
[i.e., Hades], but not in order to remain forever in fire and
torment, but as it were in prison and confinement under guard" (First
Homily: Refutation of the Latin Chapters concerning Purgatorial Fire,
by St. Mark of Ephesus. Qtd. In "The Soul After Death, p 208f).

St. Boniface (8th Century Anglo-Saxon) records the following account
of a monk who died and came back to tell of his experiences:

"Angels of such pure splendor bore him up as he came forth from the
body that he could not bear to gaze upon them… "They carried me up,"
he said, "high into the air…" He reported further that in the space
of time while he was out of the body, a greater multitude of souls
left their bodies and gathered to the place where he was than he
thought to form the whole race of mankind on earth. He said also that
there was a crowd of evil spirits and a glorious choir of higher
angels. And he said that the wretched spirits and the holy angels had
a violent dispute concerning the souls that had come forth from their
bodies, the demons bringing charges against them and aggravating the
burden of their sins, the angels lightening the burden and making
excuses for them. He heard all his own sins, which he had committed
from his youth on and had failed to confess or had forgotten or had
not recognized as sins, crying out against him, each in its own
voice, and accusing his grievously… Everything he had done in all the
days of his life and had neglected to confess and many which he had
not known to be sinful, all these were now shouted at him in
terrifying words. In the same way the evil spirits, chiming in with
the vices, accusing and bearing witness, naming the very times and
places, brought proofs of his evil deeds… and so, with his sins all
piled up and reckoned out, those ancient enemies declared him guilty
and unquestionably subject to their jurisdiction. "On the other
hand," he said, "the poor little virtues which I had displayed
unworthily and imperfectly spoke out in my defense… And those angelic
spirits in their boundless love defended and supported me, while the
virtues, greatly magnified as they were, seemed to me far greater and
more excellent than could have ever been practiced in my own
strength."" (The Letters of Saint Boniface, tr. Ephraim Emerton,
Octagon Books (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux) New York, 1973, pp 25-27.
Qtd in The Soul After Death, by Fr. Seraphim (Rose).

St. Athanasius the Great, in the Life of St. Anthony the Great:

"For once, when about to eat, having risen up to pray about the ninth
hour, he perceived that he was caught up in the spirit, and,
wonderful to tell, he stood and saw himself, as it were, from outside
himself, and that he was led in the air by certain ones. Next certain
bitter and terrible beings stood in the air and wished to hinder him
from passing through. But when his conductors opposed them, they
demanded whether he was not accountable to them. And when they wished
to sum up the account from his birth, Antony's conductors stopped
them, saying, 'The Lord hath wiped out the sins from his birth, but
from the time he became a monk, and devoted himself to God, it is
permitted you to make a reckoning.' Then when they accused him and
could not convict him, his way was free and unhindered. And
immediately he saw himself, as it were, coming and standing by
himself, and again he was Antony as before. Then forgetful of eating,
he remained the rest of the day and through the whole of the night
groaning and praying. For he was astonished when he saw against what
mighty opponents our wrestling is, and by what labours we have to
pass through the air. And he remembered that this is what the Apostle
said, 'according to the prince of the power of the air [10].' For in
it the enemy hath power to fight and to attempt to hinder those who
pass through. Wherefore most earnestly he exhorted, 'Take up the
whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day
[11],' that the enemy, 'having no evil thing to say against us, may
be ashamed [12].' And we who have learned this, let us be mindful of
the Apostle when he says, 'whether in the body I know not, or whether
out of the body I know not; God knoweth [13].' But Paul was caught up
unto the third heaven, and having heard things unspeakable he came
down; while Antony saw that he had come to the air, and contended
until he was free. . And he had also this favour granted him. For as
he was sitting alone on the mountain, if ever he was in perplexity in
his meditations, this was revealed to him by Providence in prayer.
And the happy man, as it is written, was taught of God [14]. After
this, when he once had a discussion with certain men who had come to
him concerning the state of the soul and of what nature its place
will be after this life, the following night one from above called
him, saying, 'Antony, rise, go out and look.' Having gone out
therefo