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Literature
She burst into tears at the sight, and in heaven, as she had done when a little child on earth, she wept and prayed for poor Inge. Her tears and her prayers echoed through the dark void that surrounded the tormented captive soul, and the unexpected mercy was obtained for it through an angel's tears. As in thought Inge seemed to act over again every sin she had committed on earth, she trembled, and tears she had never yet been able to weep rushed to her eyes. It seemed impossible that the gates of mercy could ever be opened to her; but while she acknowledged this in deep penitence, a beam of radiant light shot suddenly into the depths upon her.
"She isn’t wicked: she’s only a silly, garrulous old woman who has got into a habit of grumbling, and one feels that a little kindness, and rest, and change would put her all right."
"That is what she once was. That is maybe what she still is. If so, she certainly will be cured."
"That is what she once was. That is maybe what she still is. If so, she certainly will be cured."
—The Narrator and George Macdonald discussing the trope, The Great Divorce
Religion
According to the Orthodox teaching, it is possible to be freed from the torments of hell: the practice of praying for the departed and even for 'those in hell' at Pentecost vespers is based on this.
— Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), Eschatology (in: The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology)
