On the week of the Prodigal Son, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the church of the Representative Office of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District

March 3, 2024 – week of the Prodigal Son; the day of remembrance of the apostles of the 70 Archippus and Philemon, and the Monk Theodore of Sanaksar.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church in the name of the holy martyrs Faith, Hope, Love and Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion of the city of Moscow - the Representative Office of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District.

On the second preparatory Sunday for Lent during the Divine Liturgy, the Gospel parable “About the Prodigal Son” is read (Gospel of Luke: chapter 15, verses 1 to 32). The Church sets an example of God's inexhaustible mercy towards all sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance. The fullness and joy of life lie in a gracious union with the Lord and in constant communication with Him, and removal from this communication is the source of all kinds of disasters.

The previous evening, at Matins, during the performance of the polyeleos psalms, in accordance with the liturgical Charter, Psalm 136, “On the Rivers of Babylon,” was sung for the first time this year. With these psalm verses, the Church mourns the human soul, which is in captivity of passions and sins, and calls believers to spiritual liberation.

His Eminence was served by: assistant to the Head of the Metropolitan District, Hieromonk Anthony (Drobyazko) and clergy of the metochion.

The church choir sang under the direction of Anna Rozhnova.

The Hierarch offered prayers for the increase of love and the eradication of all hatred and malice.

At the end of the service, Metropolitan Alexander addressed the clergy and believers with words of teaching.

“The parable of the Prodigal Son tells about the plight, tragic situation of every sinner, which, unfortunately, he does not realize for a very long time. True repentance is born when a person comes to the realization of bitterness from separation from God, pain from seeing the garments of his soul stained by passions and wasted spiritual and mental gifts and strength, grief from the understanding that many years of life have been lived meaninglessly and thoughtlessly. Like the prodigal son, each of us must awaken from sinful oblivion and make the journey of returning to the home of a loving Heavenly Father. In the context of thinking about repentance as a return to the father's home, we should pay attention to one of the liturgical features of this Sunday. At Matins, after the joyful and solemn psalms of polyeleos, the 136th psalm, full of sadness, “On the rivers of Babylon” is performed. This is a lamentable song of exiles, telling about the hardships of Babylonian captivity, about longing for the Fatherland, for the holy city of Jerusalem. For you and me, that Old Testament captivity is a symbol of spiritual captivity - an image of a soul enslaved by sins, vanity, and despondency. By singing this psalm, the Church encourages everyone to free themselves from everything that makes them alien to God, from everything that prevents a person from living worthily and righteously in peace with his conscience and with his neighbors. Lent, thus, becomes for everyone a long-awaited time of deliverance and return to the house of a loving Father - to the Divine Kingdom.” From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.