The head of the Metropolitan District held a meeting with the nuns of the monastery in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”

February 27, 2024. Astana. Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan held a meeting with the nuns of the monastery in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost.”

Present at the meeting were the dean of the Astana church district, Archimandrite Sergius (Karamyshev) and the confessor of the monastery, Hieromonk Modest (Drozdov).

Metropolitan Alexander preceded his communication with the monastics by performing a funeral litany for the newly departed abbess, Abbess Raphaila (Vasilenko). Funeral chants were performed by the sisters of the monastery.

During the conversation, the archpastor consoled the nuns of the monastery, who were grieving the death of their mother abbess, who had led the monastery for a quarter of a century.

The Metropolitan noted the importance of preserving in the monastery dedicated to the Queen of Heaven the ancient traditions of piety bequeathed by the ever-memorable founder of the monastery, Archimandrite Kirill (Borodin). Metropolitan Alexander especially emphasized the need to take care of prayer, which, according to the word of St. John Climacus, is the mother of all virtues. “It is very significant for monastics to attend the Liturgy every day, to pray both in church and in their cells. The fulfillment of all obedience must be accompanied and sanctified by prayer living in the mind and heart. It is the monastics’ love for worship that determines the correct structure of the monastery,” said the archpastor. “Continuously remaining in prayer and standing before God at divine services is not an easy task. How not to lose the fire of zeal and love for prayer? Are there any means for this? The Holy Fathers and teachers say that there is. The more monastics learn obedience, which in its inner essence is cutting off one’s own will and fulfilling the will of God, done with joy, in a peaceful spirit, for the sake of love for Christ, the more continuous and fervent the prayer becomes,” the hierarch emphasized in his speech.

The head of the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan introduced to the nuns the acting abbess of the monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” - nun Sevastiana (Plotnikova).

At the end of the meeting, Metropolitan Alexander gave nun Sevastiana (Plotnikova) and the sisters of the monastery an archpastoral blessing.