In front of him there was a big field, sowed with wheat, which had only begun to come up. He was standing near a wall that surrounded the field. Lighting candles, he stuck them to the wall. He did this in memory of the departed, as in reality he had a custom of lightning candles for the whole suffering world — for the living and the departed.
To the left of the field there was a wild and deserted place, dark, without any traces of greenery, full of rocks and stones. A continuous earthquake shook it, and a loud roar was heard everywhere. The Elder listened more attentively to it and determined that it was made up of the thousands of blood-curdling shrieks. He did not know their origin, but suffered greatly when he heard them.
There, where he was, perplexed with the meaning of that vision, he heard a voice explaining to him, that the field, sowed with wheat which had not yet matured, symbolized the tomb of the souls of the departed that will be resurrected. And the terrible place on the left was where the souls of the children, killed through abortions, were gathered. The Elder suffered so greatly because of what he had seen that, after the vision, in spite of the fact that he was exhausted, he could not lie down to sleep a little.
Elder Paisios
