That’s the only birthday gift we need, and unlike any other gift, the more you give this one away the more there is…you never run out. That’s why there is fire and flames during Pentecost and maybe why we use candles on a birthday cake. Fire on a candle gives light by itself, right? But…
Today, St. John gives us one of the boldest promises in all of Scripture that: ‘If we ask anything (in prayer) according to His will, He hears us and we know we’ve obtained what we’ve asked for.’ That seems like we’ve won the lottery, and we have, but only if we submit ourselves to how…
Every mother since Mary has echoed that yes, in her own way. Not always with words. Sometimes with tears. Sometimes with whispered prayers. Sometimes with fierce protection. Sometimes with a little guilt. But always with love. And that love—like all real love—like Christ’s love-comes with a cost. A mother’s love is the first love that…
In our search for dramatic wonders, we often overlook the ordinary ones. The Easter season keeps reminding us of this. The Resurrection was glorious, but Scripture gives us no eyewitness to the moment itself. Instead, the risen Christ appears in simple, earthly settings—walking on a dusty road, cooking fish on the beach, speaking in a…
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…