The state of souls until the Final Judgment

Some souls are (after the forty days) in a state of anticipation of eternal rejoicing and bliss, while others are in a state of terror because of the eternal torments they will fully suffer after the Final Judgment. Until then it is still possible to change their condition, especially through the offering of the Bloodless Sacrifice (memorial at the Mass), and likewise through other prayers.

The benefits of prayer, both communal and individual, for souls in hell have been described in many lives of saints and ascetics as well as in patristic texts. In the life of the 3rd-century martyr Perpetua, for example, we read that the condition of her brother Demetrius' soul was revealed to her by the image of a cistern full of water, but it was so high that she could not reach it from the filthy, hot place where she was confined.

Thanks to the fervent prayer of Perpetua for a whole day and night, the Democrat reached the cistern and saw him in a bright place. From this Perpetua understood that her brother had been freed from the sufferings of hell.

A similar case is mentioned in the life of an intern who died only in the 20th century. It is about St. Athanasia (Anastasia Logacheva), the spiritual daughter of St. Seraphim of Sarov. As we read about her life:

"Anastasia had a brother named Pavlos. Paul was once drunk and hanged himself. And Anastasia decided to pray a lot for her brother. After his death, Anastasia went to the monastery of St. Seraphim in Diveyevo to find out exactly what she had to do to improve the condition of her brother, who had ended his life in a disgraceful and disgraceful way...

She wanted to meet Pelagia Ivanovna and ask her advice... Anastasia visited Pelagia. She told her to shut herself up in her cell for forty days, to pray and fast for her brother, and to say every day one hundred and fifty times: "O Most Holy Theotokos, rest thy servant."

When the forty days were up, Anastasia had a vision. She found herself in front of an abyss. At the bottom was a rock of blood. On the rock lay two men with iron chains around their necks. One was her brother.

Anastasia told the vision to Pelagia and she told her to continue fasting and praying.

Forty more days of fasting and prayer ended and Anastasia saw the same vision. The same abyss and the rock on which the two men were lying with chains around their necks. But this time her brother was standing. He was walking on the rock, falling and getting up again. The chains were still around his neck.

Pelagia Ivanovna, to whom Anastasia again resorted, told her to repeat the same exercise for the third time.

When the third fortnight of fasting and prayer was over, Anastasia had the same vision again. The same abyss, the same rock. But now there was only one man on the rock, a stranger to her.

Her brother had been released from the shackles. He was nowhere to be seen. The unknown man was heard to say: "You're lucky you. You have very powerful brokers in the land."

Anastasia mentioned to Pelagia Ivanovna her third vision and she replied:

"Your brother has been delivered from suffering. But he did not enter the bliss of Paradise."

Many similar incidents are mentioned in the lives of Orthodox saints and ascetics. In case one is inclined to interpret such visions literally, perhaps it should be noted that of course the images in which such visions appear, usually in dreams, do not necessarily "photograph" the soul's mode of existence after death.

They are more like images that convey the spiritual truth of the improvement of the state of the soul in the next world through the prayers of those who remain in this world.