Our children are brushing up on the Hayr Mer in Sunday School, which led to a good question from the kids: Why do we open our arms and turn up our palms as we pray the Lord’s Prayer? I don’t know if you have wondered that, but there is much significance in this detail. Because…
May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Gal 6:14-15 The inside joke about rap is that while everyone in civilized society pretends to be humble and righteous; in reality, we all have a rapper within. This…
“What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” –Mk 10:9 Our church operates in the world of contracts, but we aim for something higher than contractual relationships with each other. Can you imagine what would happen if we had a no-show policy for church? At $50 per person, per Sunday, we would…
So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. -Jn 3:14-15 Exaltation, exaltation, exaltation. Exaltation, exaltation, exaltation. Don’t worry, I am ok, I am just repeating the name of today’s feast so that we can recover its rightful place in history and our lives. You see,…
‘Godly grief.’ That’s a phrase to memorize, post on Instagram or tattoo on your leg! These two words of St. Paul brilliantly captures the spiritual growing pains that all Christians feel as they mature into the love of God. What are the occasions for this grief? For Paul it was division in his church family.…
‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’ –Mk 4:40 Some people and some priests truly are disciplinarians, some are thinkers, some are all heart. A friend of ours from Yerevan told us that when she lived there, she and her friends knew all the priests and their personalities, and would pick where…
‘Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.’-Je 15:16 Jeremiah, the prophet whose feast we commemorate this week in the Armenian Church and whose words I began with, recommends we consume the books of the Bible again and again. ‘Your words…