Whenever someone passes away, the Orthodox say eternal memory (or eonia i mnimi in Greek). It is important to note that we are not saying “may we never forget them”. The Greek word mnimi means remembrance. But not in the sense of forgetting; in the sense of knowing. So what we are really trying to say is: May they come to know the Eternal. May they come to know God.
When we pray for someone dead - or living for that matter - our prayer transcends time. It reaches back to the very beginning, as God creates the very universe. It reaches back before they were born, when they are five years old, when they are fifteen, fifty and so on throughout their lives. It’s as if we are saying to God from the beginning of time, “Help them come to know You in their life, and come back to You, so that your presence will be to them eternal joy, peace, repose and heaven.”
The Orthodox believe in heaven and hell not as places, but as experiences or reactions to the fullness of the presence of God. That is, the full presence of pure, unadulterated, love. God’s presence - which is total unrelenting love - will either be total magnificence or totally unbearable for us. It would be like looking into the eyes of someone of pure innocence after you have spent your life hurting and neglecting them, and they still love you infinitely and unconditionally, and you can’t look away from that light. “Hell fire” or “green pastures” are metaphors, which Catholicism unfortunately built up into literal places and became the prevalent view. The Orthodox have never seen it this way.
When a person dies, we believe they are raised up again. That is the fundamental belief of Christians. We await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the Kingdom to come. Everything and everyone is restored and transfigured, and we are fully in the presence of God. The Kingdom to come is a metaphor for a renewed and transfigured universe. We say eternal memory - may they come to know God - so that in the new eternal life, they are not a stranger to the light, but they belong to it.
When we pray for someone dead - or living for that matter - our prayer transcends time. It reaches back to the very beginning, as God creates the very universe. It reaches back before they were born, when they are five years old, when they are fifteen, fifty and so on throughout their lives. It’s as if we are saying to God from the beginning of time, “Help them come to know You in their life, and come back to You, so that your presence will be to them eternal joy, peace, repose and heaven.”
The Orthodox believe in heaven and hell not as places, but as experiences or reactions to the fullness of the presence of God. That is, the full presence of pure, unadulterated, love. God’s presence - which is total unrelenting love - will either be total magnificence or totally unbearable for us. It would be like looking into the eyes of someone of pure innocence after you have spent your life hurting and neglecting them, and they still love you infinitely and unconditionally, and you can’t look away from that light. “Hell fire” or “green pastures” are metaphors, which Catholicism unfortunately built up into literal places and became the prevalent view. The Orthodox have never seen it this way.
When a person dies, we believe they are raised up again. That is the fundamental belief of Christians. We await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the Kingdom to come. Everything and everyone is restored and transfigured, and we are fully in the presence of God. The Kingdom to come is a metaphor for a renewed and transfigured universe. We say eternal memory - may they come to know God - so that in the new eternal life, they are not a stranger to the light, but they belong to it.