On Meatfare Saturday for the Commemoration of the Departed, Metropolitan Alexander Celebrated the Liturgy at the Representation of the Metropolitan District in Moscow

February 22, 2025 – Universal Commemoration Saturday (Meatfare).

The Holy Church, dedicating the final preparatory week before Great Lent to the remembrance of the Last Judgment of Christ, has established this Saturday as a time of intercession for all “who have reposed from ages past, having lived in piety, of all generations, ranks, and conditions,” especially for those who have departed unexpectedly. The Synaxarion (liturgical instruction) of Meatfare Saturday states: “The Holy Fathers, moved by their love for mankind, have established, based on apostolic teaching, this universal commemoration, so that no one—whenever, wherever, and however they may have ended their earthly life—would be deprived of the prayers of the Church.”

Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyrs Faith, Hope, Love, and Sophia at the Patriarchal Metochion in Moscow—the Representation of the Kazakhstani Metropolitan District.

Concelebrating with the archpastor were: Protopriest Andrey Pavlenko; Vice-Rector of the Almaty Theological Seminary, Candidate of Theology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Hegumen Agafangel (Gagua); the sacristan of the church, Hieromonk Antony (Drobyazko); and clergy of the metochion.

The choir of the church, under the direction of Anna Rozhnova, sang during the service.

Praying at the service were staff of the Representation and parishioners of the church.

During the commemoration litany, prayers were offered for all “Orthodox Christians who have departed from ages past until this day”; special prayers were said for the newly departed Archbishop Serapion of Kokshetau and Akmola, for the late rector of the Church of St. Sophia, Protopriest Boris Prisyazhnyuk, through whose labors the parish was revived, for the ever-memorable builders and beautifiers of the church, for the reposed Kazakhstani hierarchs and clergy, and for those buried at the Miusskoye Cemetery in Moscow, among whom is A.F. Vedernikov, People’s Artist of the USSR—the “Golden Bass of Russia.” Prayers were also offered for all who were innocently martyred and slain in the years of godless persecutions, those who perished from hunger, cold, wounds, disease, and heavy labor, as well as for the leaders and warriors who laid down their lives on the battlefield for faith and the Fatherland.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy, the archpastor addressed those gathered with a sermon on the importance of commemorating the departed, after which a Panikhida (memorial service) was served for all “Orthodox Christians who have reposed from ages past until this day.”

“The Church possesses great power and an extraordinary authority given to her by God to change the fate of her departed children. We bring to the temple notes with the names of those dear to our hearts, fervently praying for the forgiveness of the voluntary and involuntary sins of ‘our predecessors and departed relatives and loved ones,’ and we offer prosphora, from which particles are taken during the Proskomedia at the beginning of the Liturgy and placed on the holy altar. At a crucial and spiritually significant moment of the Divine Service, all these particles are immersed in the chalice containing the Most Pure and Life-Giving Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. At that moment, the priest recites the prayer: ‘Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those here commemorated with Your Precious Blood, through the prayers of Your saints.’ Saint John Chrysostom bears witness to this sacred action: ‘The Holy Apostles did not establish in vain the custom of commemorating our departed loved ones during the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Apostles established this because they knew that these prayers bring great benefit and great aid to the departed.’ Our relatives, loved ones, and acquaintances, whose names are written in the memorial lists, receive grace, sanctification, and remission of sins through the Bloodless Sacrifice offered on the Altar. Those righteous ones to whom, by special Divine providence, the mysteries of the afterlife have been revealed, testify that the souls of the departed experience the greatest consolation and ineffable joy when the Church prays for them and offers the Bloodless Sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist on their behalf.” — From the sermon of Metropolitan Alexander.