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Τρίτη 26 Αυγούστου 2025
The Toll-Houses and Orthodox Teaching
In Orthodox Tradition, the departure of the soul from the body is the most decisive moment of human life. At that time, man leaves the present life and sets out toward eternity. The Holy Fathers teach us that, at this threshold, the demons appear, trying to hinder the soul and drag it into perdition. These dark powers and evil thoughts are called “toll-houses.”
What Are the Toll-Houses?
According to the patristic teaching, the toll-houses are spiritual forces of darkness that examine the soul for every sin. As in an ambush or in a court of justice, they demand an account and accuse man of his transgressions, invoking violations of God’s commandments. For this reason, the Tradition of the Church speaks of “twenty-four toll-houses,” corresponding to different passions and sins (pride, greed, fleshly sins, lying, judgmentalism, etc.).
The Role of the Angels
The soul, however, is not alone. It is accompanied by the Angels of God, who support, protect, and strengthen its hope in Christ’s mercy. The Holy Fathers describe how the Angels present the works of repentance—confession, prayer, almsgiving, and mercy—as a response to the accusations of the demons.
The Passage
The trial of the toll-houses is not meant to frighten the faithful, but to remind them of the need for repentance in this present life. A person who lives within the Church, who confesses, partakes of the Holy Mysteries, and entrusts his life to Christ, has no reason to be afraid. Then the soul passes in peace, and the toll-houses, with all their snares, remain powerless.
Conclusion
The teaching on the toll-houses calls us to live with repentance, to guard ourselves from sin, and to entrust our soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ, as the Righteous Judge and Savior, is the One who ultimately grants true justice and bestows eternal life.
Where does a story like this rest on what this spiritual
world looks like? He was a
young man for many years, a very good man, and he reached his last days and was dying, and his soul did not come out.
He was struggling, he was tortured, and he started seeing demons who told him We will take you with
us to hell. With kids, everyone knows he's going to
hell, but he's so selfish, he doesn't apologize.
If he apologized, Christ would forgive him.
They laugh, he says, and tell me they will take me to hell, you called his spiritual. The
spiritual sage knew him to be a good
man. He was confessing and taking communion. I'm telling you what's happening now because his soul
is being tortured, so he was in the hospital.
Well, another spiritualist passed by. It's not a coincidence; nothing is a coincidence. So
nothing is accidental. Well, he saw the priest there, the sad one.
He says to him, "Father, why are you so upset?" He says, "What can I tell you, he says, to have this eye on the man over here and his soul does not come out."
He says, "Let's go see." Eh, he goes inside, he says, "What do you see?", he says,
"I see the demons; they are next to me. Eh, they are laughing and threatening me and telling me
they will take me to hell with them. They are also reading a paper, he says. I have a
paper pinned to my back, and they are telling me that because of this paper, they will
take me to hell. He says to him An angel, you don't see, he says I see, but the angels are gone, as the spiritual world seems.
Eh, "You can tell the angels
to read this paper that you have on your back,
" he
muttered. "Yes, it says to me, 'I
have committed an old sin
And I am told that I will be taken to hell.
'"
You are ashamed to say them first
, but they don't forget them,
So the priest says to the others
"Go out and
confess the sin."
A very great change,
amid the sweat
He became calm, quiet,
He says to him Now what do you see, he says to him The
capacitative wish, he reads the capacitative wish to him,
He says, growling, very angry
because I confessed the
sin
The devil knows that every time we commit
a
sin, he takes it as his own.
And because he knows that the devil is
, he goes
and says, "Look,
This one is mine.
" He can go to Christ, because that's what happened to him.
The angels are gone.
They came to me
and said, "You know what this sin is on my
back
. "
The spiritual is loaded, and the Spirit is
now given to give God about this man and this sin. So it's not
a psychological discussion when we go to confess. Nor let's say
our suffering is that some go to say their illnesses. Some say
nothing. They say go read a wish to socialize. This is not
a migraine. So it's nothing, I have nothing. He says every day. What will be
so much so, should this be done right, to cut off the devil's rights? Otherwise, we do nothing.
So this is how we understand from this all what the spiritual
world looks like. As we said last time, when the soul of man comes out.
So now we need the weapons, the spiritual weapons, to defeat the
devil. Because essentially this is our enemy, and what we call the paths
and habits that we have inside us have demons behind us that
preceded us. Of course, it's our fault too because we accept them.
But when you fight the devil, you slowly overcome the bad
habits. How do you fight the devil with the mysteries? So, mainly by
confessing your rights, with repentance, with tears,
with violence to yourself, little by little, you overcome the bad habit. Because
it is not enough to confess. Nice. You go to confession. Some
even go with a lot of papers, so pages upon pages of detail, and
so on. Yes. But after everything you said, you decided to stop, and
that's the important thing. You did well to say it. Not because
you shouldn't say them, but you should be careful and then not do them again.
And that's the hard part. Well, the guilt went away when
the spiritualist read you the forgiving wish, but the habit doesn't go away. The bad habit.
You see a person who smokes has a bad habit. The vicar may
confess it, he repeats it, but the habit is not easy to
overcome, and he is tormented and wants to rape himself. As we said, the
queen is rushing him. You can go to the beach and swim. If you want to
conquer heaven, well, you will be tortured because you are not allowed to
have passions over there. You see these passions, the bad habits that are; these
are what take us to hell. Because these are the ones who will torture us with
death. Because with death, you cannot satisfy your passions. If you don't get them
out of this life, whatever it is, any bad habit.
Then you won't be able to satisfy it, and these
Passions will work like hell.
So we need the weapons to fight our enemies, the
demons, and to become as God wants
us to be, fit for the kingdom of God. That is why the apostle says Put on the
armor of God. God gives us armor.
To the power of us, what is to the devil's methods
so that we can resist the methods. Well, the devil has
methods. In other words, he has cunning; he has cunning methods to defeat us.
He also does his tricks, as we say, his strategies.
What does it do? Let me give you an example. It can give you a
dream. Many believe in dreams and that they
seduce you through a dream. You know, last night I saw my mother, let's say she
died. So I will die too, let's say I saw
my uncle dead, and so on. And all this is nothing like that
because the devil does not know the future. Most dreams are about this future.
It is from the devil. The devil just wants to trouble us.
It always has us in confusion, in a mess.
Or he may show you your mother-in-law casting magic on you, let's say, in
your dream, and you say, Look, I saw her now.
Well, even if you hate her and dislike her, let's say, because you had a
bad dream that it was from the devil. What else does man suffer, let alone
those who go to the magicians? That's how battles work. You know why they are
servants of the devil. Once you get over there, all the wizards will tell you the same
thing. You know what all wizards say they've all cast spells on you now. That's
what everyone says. Well then, they tell you you know who has done magic. It is close to you. He's there, he's like that, and he gives you negative
feelings about your neighbor, your mother-in-law, your brother,
your wife. He can put you with your husband. Let's say what makes
your wife a witch. Or your husband or your mother-in-law, usually your mother-in-law.
Well, yes. And then there's that daughter-
in-law syndrome, you know, that they can never reconcile. Well, they are the
methods of this devil, and he has many methods. Well, how will
we resist if we wear this armor? He says.
That is, if you don't have armor, think of a soldier, let's say, who goes to the front
line where cannons are falling, the enemy hits there, let's say he goes without
a weapon, without cover, without anything, they won't eat him. Yes.
