Indeed all that glitters is not gold, and where did this gold medal come from anyway? Well it was not from the original Greek Olympics, whose first place prize which was not a gold medal but a laurel wreath. These crowns of flowers are splendidly beautiful today, but they are gone tomorrow—a wise reminder that…
We are a mystery to ourselves. Neither science nor Google can deal with mysteries, but praise God, the Armenian Church does. The Armenian Church says that you are a mystery to yourself, so stop trying to grasp yourself from other things, people, even God. Instead, start trying to give yourself away to other things, people…
The moral of this powerful story is clear and always relevant. There is no venom quite so deadly as mistrust and fear. Fear of the unknown; fear of the other; fear of failure; fear of death—nothing causes spiritual and emotional paralysis more effectively than fear. It corrodes faith, cuts off our pathways for giving and…
One of the old names for our church is the Armenian Apostolic Church. We very much like to stress that our church has a direct connection with the apostles who had a direct connection with our Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the Gospels, we emphasize that other aspects of our faith; sacraments, church hierarchy…
Fences and wells. That’s the analogy that will govern this sermon and which reveals a fundamental truth about our spiritual maturity and openness to God’s blessing at church, at work and at home. Here is how the fences and wells analogy goes. If you are a farmer with a ranch, you can build fences to…
Fr. Richard Rohr, a Catholic spiritual writer and Franciscan monk, tells a powerful story about father’s day from his first days in prison ministry; work he would continue for 15 years. He recalls the first time that mothers’ day came around, how the inmates were all eager to write a letter back home to mom.…
“Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.” (Mt 12:2) Today’s Gospel reading could make a fine episode of Law & Order, and framing it in this way reveals something profound about our quest for righteousness in this world. The first part of today’s reading is all about the…