Saint Hagop Armenian Church

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… The post Holy Badarak: Learn your Part, Shape your Heart-Session...

A woman is walking on the beach with her little grandson. Suddenly a huge wave sweeps the boy out to sea. Desperate, the woman looks up to heaven and says, “God, please rescue my grandson, my only grandson, the light of my life!” Miraculously, the next big wave deposits the little boy at her feet,… The post The Need Beneath the Want first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

As I often say, where a lot of other churches modern churches just say and understand things, old churches like ours actually recall, represent these holy people and places in icons, worship and architecture-as living realities that are still with us. We shape our church, then our church shapes us. The post We Shape Our Church-Our Church Shapes Us first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

Life is full of turning points and so are our Holy Scriptures.  There are always points in life where you might have gone one way or the other, and in choosing, things were never the same again.  Or, as is often the case, we don’t choose events–sometimes events chose us.  The post The Turning Point of Grace first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

The Armenian Church reminds us today that this birth is neither sentimental nor symbolic. Trees, gifts nativities, these are just trifles, things. Christmas is the turning point of history-Asdvadzahaytnutyun-theophany, when God pours himself into his broken creation, filling and fulfilling what was lost. Before Bethlehem, humanity waited. After Bethlehem, humanity is invited. The post Love Poured...

Our altar servers, who are lovers of mixed martial arts and all things Armenian, tell me that Armenian UFC fighter Arman Tsarukyan will be wrestling Lance Palmer in Sunrise FL next Saturday night January 10th. I know very little about MMA or wrestling, but I am a big fan of one of the greatest wrestling match… The post The Fight of Your Life first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

The story is indeed about us, not about the investments we make, but the investments we are.  Each of us is, first and foremost, an investment by God. Our lives, our talents, our families, churches, ethnic background, health, etc. are all given to us by God.  This is his investment in each of us.  We… The post Faithful With What You Have first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

In our culture, waiting has come to feel like missing out like weakness.  And yet today’s reading for Advent and Christmas we are reminded of the opposite-that waiting is strength. ‘But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,’ says the Prophet Isaiah, ‘they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall… The post Where Patience Meets Power first appeared on St. Hagop A...

A wise man said, ‘Wisdom is founded on memory; happiness on forgetfulness.’ We tend to think of remembering and forgetting as opposites, and remembering as the better, but really we need them both and they are complimentary.  Today’s scriptures and our church tradition seems to double down on the importance of both remembering and forgetting,… The post Wisdom Needs to Remember-Happiness Need...

The difference between good and bad pride is in its object, what it points to.  Pride is so dangerous and so often bad because-irresistibly the object of pride is ourselves, our ego.  It’s like the story of the young school boy who was so meek and modest, that he was awarded the ‘most humble badge.’… The post Superbia first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

God planted us and he hopes that we will choose to grow in his garden in a certain way.  The prophet Isaiah perfectly captures how we are to grow in words right after our assigned OT, “Take root downward, bear fruit upward.” The post Take Root Downward, Bear Fruit Upward first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

Every Sunday in church we say thank you in literally one hundred different ways, in ritual, chants and prayers, it’s not too much of a stretch to say all we do is practice saying thank you in church. A wise monk said, ‘If the only prayer we ever say in our entire lives is thank… The post Your Only Prayer first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

We all have this tendency to make ourselves greater than we are, and make others smaller, and the consequences are division and destruction.  Jesus knows this sinful tendency, and knows we are blind to it, so he puts up a mirror for us to see.  As the disciples fight, he takes a small child and… The post The Greatness of Smallness first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

In our Armenian Orthodox tradition, we understand sacraments as visible signs of God’s invisible grace. And what is music, if not a sacramental echo of heaven? Strings, keys, and voices—physical things—become effective signs of divine movement. When we sing we don’t just say things-we experience them-emotionally and physically in our heart. So if the words… The post Soli Deo Gloria first app...

Taken on its face, Jesus’s words today seem to be a rejection of the deepest held value we have on earth, the family. Yes as so often the case with Our Lord, what at first glance seems to be a rejection, is really just a redirection allowing us to honor our earthly families and see… The post All in the Family first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

Galatians tells us: “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  So I am not just being poetic and symbolic when I say we wear costumes and uniforms, it’s in the first reading you heard, the first time you entered church at your baptism. This means, me, name, name—everyone… The post The Costume That Never Comes Off first appeared on St. Hagop Armen...

Jesus wants us to pay close attention to what we are building in our lives, because it matters more than anything.  Most all of us work very hard to build a career, which helps us build a home and family, and secure our way in the world. This is necessary, and not at all easy,… The post Building Wealth first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

As Chesterton famously said, Christianity has not been tried and found lacking, but it’s never been seriously tried. The Bible, from cover to cover, agrees, demonstrating that the root of our problem is that we are born forgetful. We are children of God, but we forget who we are.  We are born with a great… The post Get Off The Forgetfulness Curve first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

There was a time when someone who had something of great value would often bury their treasure so that no one could find it and take it away. Of course, there was always the risk that one might forget where their treasure was buried, so to make sure that they would remember where it was,… The post X Marks the Spot first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus heals a deaf and mute man.  But as all things with God’s word, what happened once to this one man, is a life lesson for all people and all times. The clue to discover this, is in one magical word Ephphatha (say it). Its Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, it means… The post Ephphatha! first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

We are deep into hurricane season here in Florida. Back one hundred and fifty years or so, hurricane season was just three months-July, August & September. Then in 1935, it expanded to 5 months. Now we are at 6 months, and with the ocean staying warmer for longer, meteorologists want to expand it more. Pretty… The post It’s Always Hurricane Season first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Chu...

Mary is not given the first and last word in our Spiritual lives merely for being a great woman, though she was, but because of what she reveals to us of her Son Jesus Christ, such that the closer we are to her the closer we are to him. Taking our Holy Scriptures as one… The post Mary’s Memoirs first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Jn 15:5 When the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, is asked what his best game was of his long career, he says it was the… The post Teamwork Makes the Dream Work first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

God has always preferred to do great things through the humble and the meek, we read of this attribute of God’s heart nearly every Sunday. It’s the entire story of Jesus and the New Testament. It’s the entire story of the Jews and the Old Testament.  It’s also the story of the Oldest Testament, nature,… The post Go to the Ant first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .

The Apostles were teaching a crowd of followers well into the evening, such that they hadn’t eaten all day.  When they finally thought of food, it was evening and there were only five loaves of bread and two fish available to feed 5000 people.  Jesus says to them, well go ahead and feed them.  The… The post You Have What You Need first appeared on St. Hagop Armenian Church .