“Building a church is certainly important, but becoming a church is much more important.” «Եկեղեցի շինելը բնականաբար կարեւոր է, սակայն եկեղեցի դառնալը շատ աւելի կարեւոր է:» -Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia

Do goodness and cast onto the waters; if the fish don’t know, God does. Լավութիւն արա, ջուրը գցի, ձուկը չիմանայ, Աստուած կ’իմանա:

The love of God is not taught. No one has taught us to enjoy the light or to be attached to life more than anything else. And no one has taught us to love the two people who brought us into the world and educated us. Which is all the more reason to believe that we did not learn to love God…

“The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the person who is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor. The acts of charity you do not perform…

Therefore, he (Jesus) taught all the people a simple remedy that is useful for everyone and cures all pains; that is, to pray…Here you have a medicine that is easy to find, simple, applicable to everything, and always readily available; to which there is no impediment and no difficulty.  For concerning fasting, you may make the excuse, “I am weak,” and so…

“Just as one learns an art from someone and applies it in practice for a time, and only then learns more of the particulars of that art than one had been taught by one’s master, so do you make for yourself the work of tearful prayers, and it will teach you by itself.” — Anania Narekatsi, 10th Century

“Fasting is not simply about eating or not eating food, but has to do with the obliteration of sins. Not talking much and needlessly is fasting.  Fasting is poverty and cessation of coveting things, not worrying about additional gain but finding a daily sustenance and asking God just for that.” –Hovhan Mayravanetsi, 7th century