The Panikhida (Service for the Departed)

The memorial service for the dead, served at the grave, in the church, and on the appointed days: the third, the ninth and the fortieth after a death, the anniversaries, and the Soul Saturdays when the whole Church remembers everyone at once. Boiled wheat is brought, because the grain must fall into the ground and die. The prayers ask for rest in a place of light where there is no pain or sorrow or sighing, and they say plainly that no one lives and does not sin, that God alone is without sin. The Orthodox Church prays for the departed and refuses to describe the mechanism by which the prayer helps them, which is where it parts from the Latin doctrine of purgatory.