On Sunday, marked by the memory of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene, Metropolitan Alexander celebrated the Liturgy in the main church of the Southern capital

August 4, 2024 - the 6th week after Pentecost; the day of remembrance of the myrrh-bearer Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene and the holy martyr priest Alexy Ilyinsky, who suffered for Christ in Karlag in 1931.

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in the Ascension Cathedral in the city of Almaty.

The head of the Metropolitan District was assisted by: Archbishop Amphilochius of Ust-Kamenogorsk and Semipalatinsk, Bishop Chrysanthus of Chimkent and Turkestan; the sacristan of the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Uralsk, Archimandrite Feodosiy (Kuryanov), the head of the information department of the Metropolitan District, Archpriest Evgeniy Ivanov, the secretary of the Kostanay Diocese, Hieromonk Gennady (Burduzha), the head of the personal secretariat of the Metropolitan, Hieromonk Prokhor (Endovitsky), the head of the administrative secretariat of the Head of the Metropolitan District, Priest Georgy Sidorov; Protodeacon Nikolai Grinkevich, the head of the protocol service of the Metropolitan, Protodeacon Roman Golovin, the secretary of the Ust-Kamenogorsk Diocese, Deacon Ilya Kvan, and Deacon Alexander Piven.

The following prayed at the service: the secretary of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Patriarchal Council for the Development of Church Singing, O.N. Ovchinnikov; Abbess of the Pokrovsky Monastery in Uralsk, Abbess Varvara (Morozova); employees of the Alma-Ata Diocesan Administration, Sunday school students and parishioners of the cathedral.

Liturgical chants were performed by the choir of the main church of the Southern capital under the direction of N. Zubrevich.

Archpriest Evgeny Ivanov delivered a sermon on the communion verse.

After the Liturgy, Metropolitan Alexander performed a memorial litany for Archpriest Andrei Kazarin, who died in 2013. Father Andrei was an assistant to the Head of the Metropolitan District during his tenure as Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich and performed various diocesan obediences.

At the end of the service, the Head of the Metropolitan District congratulated those gathered on the day of remembrance of the Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene and delivered a sermon.

"It is deeply regrettable that some Orthodox Christians have lost their zeal for attending church, especially on the eve of Sundays and great holidays. Many reasons are given to justify this - work, household chores, and physical fatigue. But if we are impartial to ourselves and count how much time most of us devote to God and our immortal souls per week, we will get a very small number of hours and minutes. Indeed, the rhythm of life today is very different from the last century or the century before last, the bustle has intensified, the number of worries has grown and time has seemingly decreased, but St. John Chrysostom suggests taking a different look at this problem, to see its true causes: "That is why many things in public and private affairs do not go according to our wishes, because we do not care about the spiritual in advance, but about the mundane." The Lord Himself commanded us: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and at the same time promised that everything connected with the earthly aspect of our existence would be added to us. Blessed Augustine interpreted this Gospel verse as follows: "If God be in the first place, then everything else will be in its place." We all need to truly realize that our life with its joys and experiences, its spiritual and material components are exclusively in God's hands, because He is the Almighty, the Creator of the visible and invisible. One of the main tasks of the feats of fasting is to return to our minds and hearts the awareness of these great and sublime truths." From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.