Victim Remembrance - Armenian Genocide of 1915

05/14/2026

Just taking a moment to ponder today's important Dominical Feast Day of the Ascension of our Lord. It sometimes does not get the attention it deserves.

Always occurring on the fortieth day after Holy Easter, and always on a Thursday, this midweek feast can get lost on the calendar.
It's always been interesting to me that the Gospels provide us with a rich amount of description and stories of the life of our Lord prior to Holy Week and the Crucifixion/Resurrection details, but is fairly scant on the forty days after. Seems like those 40 days with the Lord would produce a lot of material to think/talk/write about.

Maybe it's like professional sports......big build up during the season leading to the playoffs, then the final game, and then a few recap/interviews/commentary articles (maybe a parade in some places) and then that's it. (Must be a good analogy somewhere there.)

The various apocryphal gospel accounts provide some interesting reading, but they do not yet count.

04/22/2026

04/02/2026

Have you ever said, "Where are you?"

03/27/2026

Armenian Orthodox will find inspiration in the coming days as Great & Holy Week is observed.
Find the time.
Find a parish.
Find a Worship Service.
Inspire your faith as the week unfolds telling the story of our Lord and Savior during the final days of his earthly life.
If time, locale, schedules present big obstacles for you, take a few minutes to read the Scriptures concerning what Great & Holy Week is all about.
You just might find out it's about you.

02/11/2026

VARTANANTZ......what happened at Avarayr
("Reader's Digest" version)

https://stsvartanantz.com/index.php?option=com_sppagebuilder&view=page&id=107

01/21/2026

Who is Holy?

The Divine Liturgy of the Armenian Orthodox Church presents many moments for deep reflective thought. One such moment is toward the end of liturgy.

At the altar, the celebrant priest first raises up the N'shkar/Communion (bread) and then the wine-filled chalice while intoning the declaration "Holiness for the Holy / Ee Surpootiun Surpotz."

It's fairly obvious what the "Holiness" is - the N'shkar (body of Christ) and the wine in the chalice (blood of Christ) raised up for all to see.

Who/what is "the Holy"?

Is it God? The celebrant priest raises the "Holiness" (bread and wine) up at the altar, where God is invisibly enthroned. Is it offering "Holiness" to the Almighty? To the most Holy? To Christ our savior?

It may appear that way, but no.

The 'Holy' is the people - those who prepared and have come to participate in Divine Liturgy and receive the Body and Blood of Christ in communion. It is through the mystery of the Badarak/Divine Liturgy that the believers, with faith and repentance, are made holy. “Holiness for the holy” is the original invitation for the faithful (“the holy”) to come forward to receive communion (“holiness”). It is a relic from an earlier time when Holy Communion was distributed at this point in the Divine Liturgy.

Immediately after the celebrant's words, the people (or by proxy, the choir, and best not a soloist) respond in acclamation with the Hymn of Elevation - "The one holy, the one Lord, Jesus Christ, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. (Meeayn Soorp, meeayn Der, Heesoos Kreesdos ee pars Asdoodzo Hor. Amen.) This special hymn, which comes to us from St. Cyril of Jerusalem in the 4th century, acknowledges that only Jesus Christ is perfectly holy and the source of all holiness, and that it is through Christ that the faithful ("the holy") can partake in the sacrament.
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