A monk was once threatened with death by a bandit. The monk said to the bandit, “If you are going to kill me, be good enough to fulfill my dying wish. Cut off the branch of that tree.” One slash of the sword, and it was done! “What now?” asked the bandit. “Put it back…

Today’s reading from Acts gives us an even older and simpler description of this body that we partake of here at St. Hagop Armenian Apostolic Orthodox church.  Even before followers of Jesus were known as “Christians,” before dioceses, councils or even churches as we know them, the followers of Jesus were known simply as ‘People…

One cold January afternoon in 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 out of LaGuardia Airport in New York heading to Charlotte landed instead in the waters of the Hudson River after losing power from a bird strike. Most of you remember that event. If you don’t, there is a movie ‘Sully’ starring Tom Hanks who plays…

Today God has the message, God is the message. Don’t grasp at it, but rather allow yourself to be grasped by it. Yes today is and continues to be the greatest day in history. But much like the Sun, don’t look straight at it, it will blind you.   Instead realize that everything you see is…

What is it exactly that the children are able to see that the adults cannot? In a word, love. Yes, Shakespeare wrote beautifully about love.  Troubadours like Sayat Nova and Charles Aznavour gave song to love.  Moses and Mohammed gave laws about love. But Jesus, like no one before him or since, embodied love-lived it…

6 Week Lenten Sermon Series (February 15th-March 22nd) Worship in the Armenian Church is a life-giving encounter with God, but only as much as we’ve learned it’s language, movements and meaning.  After our shorter Lenten Badarak, and in place of a sermon, Fr. Hovnan will lead an interactive study to help us find our voice…

6 Week Lenten Sermon Series (February 15th-March 22nd) Worship in the Armenian Church is a life-giving encounter with God, but only as much as we’ve learned it’s language, movements and meaning.  After our shorter Lenten Badarak, and in place of a sermon, Fr. Hovnan will lead an interactive study to help us find our voice…