Messages Written by Bishop Mesrop Parsamyan

DRIVEN BY LOVE

One night, a man was driving down a dark, lonely highway. It was late, and there wasn’t a soul in sight. Suddenly, he heard a loud thud. Startled, he pulled over and saw a figure lying by the roadside. He realized he had accidentally struck a hitchhiker who had been standing too close to the road.

In that moment, fear gripped his heart. He wanted to jump into his car and drive away. But then, as he turned to get back into his car, he heard a faint, desperate voice. The injured man whispered, “For the love of God, help me.” The driver resisted his fearful temptation and returned to help.

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STOP GOING IN CIRCLES

A man who was on a diet decided to pray for guidance. He said, “Lord, if You don’t want me to get donuts this morning, let there be no parking spots in front of the donut shop.” But he had to give in to the donuts because, sure enough, after his 20th time around the block, there was a parking spot right in front of the door.

Isn’t that how we can be sometimes? We pray for direction, for God to help us make the right decisions, but if we’re honest, sometimes we already have our minds made up. We circle the same situations, looking for a way to justify doing what we want, rather than what’s best for us.

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THE FEAST OF THE HOLY TRANSLATORS

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Translators. When we hear the word “translator,” we might think of someone who takes words from one language and turns them into another, making sure the message is clear. But the work of our Holy Translators goes much deeper than that. It’s not just about words on a page—it’s about taking the living, breathing Word of God and making it come alive, making it real and relevant in the hearts and lives of people.

We remember and honor giants like Sts. Sahag, Mesrop Mashdots, Yeghishé, Movses the Grammarian, and David the Invincible, these heroes from the 5th century who gave us the Armenian alphabet.

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DON’T MISS THE MELODY OF HOPE

Back in 2007, right in the heart of Washington, D.C., a busy subway station buzzed with life. It was a chilly January morning, and commuters rushed by, eager to get on with their day. There, against a wall, stood a man with a violin. For 45 minutes, he played six beautiful, intricate classical pieces. Over 1,000 people passed by him, but only a handful stopped to listen. At the end of his performance, this man had collected just $32 in his violin case.

What those commuters didn’t know is that this wasn’t just any violinist. This was Joshua Bell, a world-renowned classical violinist. He was playing a violin worth $3.5 million, and the pieces he performed are considered some of the most challenging and beautiful ever composed.

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THE HEAVEN ON EARTH

Every Sunday, when we come to the Lord’s Table and receive the Holy Communion, we step into something that goes beyond this world. God invites us to step out of our daily routines, out of our worries and concerns, and into something that transcends everything else. We step into a divine mystery where heaven meets earth.

In our Badarak, we hear these incredible words: “Having come down from heaven, He is distributed among us.” What a beautiful reminder! We are receiving heaven itself right here on earth. The bread we take isn’t just bread—it’s the very body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the wine? It’s His precious blood. It’s not just a reminder of something that happened 2,000 years ago. It is the living presence of Jesus Christ with us.

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RIBBONS OF LOVE

I read this story about a traveler who found himself sitting next to a man on a train. The man looked burdened, weighed down by something heavy—something no one should carry alone. After sitting in silence for a while, the man finally opened up. He had just been released from prison and, in that moment of vulnerability, also admitted that his imprisonment had brought shame on his family and that they had neither visited him nor written much.

He tried to convince himself that maybe they were just too poor to make the trip or too uneducated to write. And before his release, he wrote one last letter to his family suggesting that if his family had forgiven him, they should put up a white ribbon in the big apple tree near the tracks as a signal. If they didn’t want him back, they were to do nothing; he would understand, stay on the train, and head West.

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THE BOY AND THE BOAT!

I love the story of the little boy who built a toy sailboat. He put his heart and soul into making that boat just right. He crafted it with care and eagerly anticipated the day he could sail it. When that day finally came, he set his little boat in the water and watched with pride as it floated out. But in a moment, the wind picked up and swept the boat downstream, out of sight. The boy chased after it, searching, but it was gone.

Weeks later, as he walked by a pawnshop, something caught his eye. There in the window was his very own boat! Excitedly, he rushed inside and asked the shopkeeper for his boat. But the shopkeeper said, “Sorry, son, I bought that boat. If you want it back, you’ll have to pay the price.”

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THE LIVING STONES

“You are living stones that God is building into his spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5).

What a beautiful image St. Peter gives us of our lives, our faith, and our purpose! He calls us “living stones”, being built up into something incredible—a spiritual house for the Lord. When St. Peter wrote these words, he must have been thinking about the magnificent Temple from the Old Testament, a place where God’s presence dwelled.

When King Solomon built the Temple, there was something remarkable about the process. The Bible tells us that he arranged the construction in such a way that there was only peace and quiet on the construction site: “In building the temple, only blocks dressed at

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THE BALM OF HEALING

During the Blessing of the Holy Muron Service, I had the immense honor of holding a special container carrying the precious Balm oil. As I handed it to His Holiness Karekin II, I watched as it was mixed with olive oil and other sacred ingredients. And in that moment, something stirred within me. I couldn’t help but reflect on the deeper significance of what was happening.

This balm is one of the main ingredients of the Holy Muron and represents the healing. In the book of Jeremiah, chapter 8, verse 22, the prophet cries out, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is there no healing for the wound of my people?” Jeremiah was lamenting the spiritual brokenness of God’s people. He was asking, “Why are we still suffering if healing is available?”

Isn’t that a question we all face at some point in our lives? After my car accident two years ago, I grappled with these very questions. For a time, I wondered if I would ever fully recover—if the healing I desperately prayed for would ever come.

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THE BLESSING OF THE HOLY MURON

Today is a day like no other—a day filled with God’s presence, His anointing, His grace, and His Holy Spirit! We have gathered here, at the very heart of our faith, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, for a sacred moment—the Blessing of the Holy Muron by the hand of His Holiness Karekin II Catholicos of All Armenians.

Throughout Scripture and history of the Christian Chruch, the oil has been used for anointing. Kings and prophets were anointed with oil, patriarch and priests were anointed with oil, children at their baptism and even the sick were healed by anointing with oil. The oil represents the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, moving in our lives, empowering us, and marking us as God’s chosen people. And today, this Holy Muron, this sacred oil, is a sign that God’s Spirit is alive and working in His church and in each of us.

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