Entries by stjohn

PRIMATE’S EASTER 2024 MESSAGE

For weeks now, throughout the Armenian Church, our faithful have prepared for Easter with great anticipation, from Holy Etchmiadzin, to St. Vartan Cathedral, to every local parish. But wherever you are on that day, we all stand together as witnesses to the glory of our Lord’s Resurrection. On Easter Sunday we all proclaim with the apostle: “Glory to God—the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in His mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!

Today is Great and Holy Saturday, and we sing our resurrectional hymn: “CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD! He trampled down death by death, and by His Resurrection, He granted life unto us.”
Today is a day for new beginnings! The good news of our Lord’s glorious Resurrection offers each of us an opportunity to see life from a fundamentally new perspective and begin life with a fresh and new start!

GREAT AND HOLY WEDNESDAY

In the Gospel of Matthew 26:6-16, we see the unknown woman’s salvation contrasted with the chosen disciple’s tragic fall. The woman offered her precious gift to the Lord Jesus and was saved through her repentance, while the chosen apostle betrayed Christ for only thirty pieces of silver and, instead of repenting, took his own life. One received the inheritance of the Kingdom, while the other was condemned.

According to the Gospel, the apostles (possibly including the money-loving Judas) criticized the woman for wasting the precious oil by anointing Jesus; they suggested that the oil could have …

GREAT AND HOLY TUESDAY

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten young women took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those young women got up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps …

GREAT AND HOLY MONDAY

In St. Matthew’s account, Jesus, after spending the night in Bethany, returns to Jerusalem in the morning and feels hungry. On the way, he saw a fig tree and approached it but found nothing but leaves on it. Jesus then said to the fig tree, “Henceforth bear no fruit forever,” and the tree withered immediately (Matthew 21:18-22).

This fig tree with leaves but no fruit symbolizes those who outwardly pretend to be pious and religious but do not have the fruit of good deeds. Nominal and formal Christianity is unworthy of the Kingdom of God. “Faith without works is dead,” the Apostle James says (James 2:26).

PALM SUNDAY | ԾԱՂԿԱԶԱՐԴ

Our Lord Jesus Christ, like all believers of his time, went to Jerusalem as a pilgrim to participate in the Easter celebration. However, the difference was that he went as a “New Passover Lamb” to sacrifice his life on the Cross and free humanity from the captivity of sin through the shedding of his life-giving blood. He entered Jerusalem as the “Lamb of God,” who, through the sacrifice of his person, would tear the veil of sin between man and God and open the doors of the kingdom leading to God.

LAZARUS SATURDAY

On Saturday before Palm Sunday, we commemorate the Resurrection of Lazarus, the seventh and last sign of our Lord Jesus Christ described in the Gospel of John (John 11:1-46).

Jesus Christ freed Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, from the grasp of death and restored him to life through the power of His word: “Lazarus, come out!” The same voice that brought the universe to life now called Lazarus from the darkness of death to the light of life.

HOLY WEEK | ԱՒԱԳ ՇԱԲԱԹ

We are now entering the most solemn period for Christians—Holy Week—leading us to our most sacred holiday, Easter and the Resurrection. The week before Easter marks a series of events in the life of Jesus that were ordained or prophesied.

DEATH OF BERTHA MORLEY

An American educator and relief worker, Bertha B. Morley headed schools and orphanages in the Ottoman Empire and rescued children from the Armenian Genocide, writing down journals that became an important eyewitness account.
Bertha Morley was born on June 21, 1878, in Mentor, Ohio. She attended Oberlin College (1895–1898) but did not complete her studies due to poor health. From 1898 to 1900, she attended Lake Erie Conservatory of Music and joined the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston (1904). She was appointed teacher at the American Missionary Association boarding school (Pleasant Hill, Tennessee) from 1905 to 1910.